Allies of Antares

Chapter nine

Chapter nine

I mention the Emperor of PandahemThe Freak Merchants and the magicians and the conjurers had returned to their usual haunts in Ruathytu. Under the strict laws of Hamal they found life harder than in most of the exotic cities of Kregen; but in the eternal strength of their kind they survived.

In the brawling sprawling smoking open-air souk the man next to the fellow whose trick was pouring boiling water over various parts of his anatomy without apparent effect caught up his ungainly reptiles and hung them about him, tails curling and fangs clashing. Copper obs rattled in the earthenware bowls. The noise and stink and confusion racketed to the bright sky where the twin suns shone down serenely. The uproar was truly prodigious.

Strings of laden calsanys trotted past. Slaves sc