Chapter nine
We strike a blow for Hamal“By Havil! I don’t intend to sit here mewed up like a blind bird!”
“I agree. And I’ll tell you something else, Tyfar. If we’re not back at the camp before very soon, the Pachaks will come in after us. Or even, Krun forfend, Hunch might—”
“What!” And Tyfar lay back on the pallet and roared.
Horter Nath Rathon joined in the laughter, although he wasn’t at all sure what the jest might be. He was like that. He was a jolly, fat, smiling, hand-washing little man, clad in a long green and red gown with a silver chain around his neck and depending from it a bunch of keys reposing on the proud jut of his belly. He had sent one of his servants out to spy the land.
This fellow, Ornol — a massive Gon whose shaven head gleamed brilliantly from the application
