up, he hesitated by the bodies of his comrades. He bent down over one of them, and Sorak saw him retrieve a purse.
“Leave it,” Sorak said. “Your own should be sufficient to your needs.”
“If I am to make inquiries on your behalf, I shall have to frequent taverns,” Digon said. “That will take money. And I shall be poorer for the purchase of new weapons, without which I would be a fool to undertake your errand.”
What the man said made sense, thought Sorak. “Did they all carry purses?” he said, indicating the corpses.
“In expectation of a visit to the city, we all brought silver, yes,” Digon said sourly. “We six did not expect to be chosen for this lousy duty.”
“Take half, then, and leave the rest to me,” said Sorak.
Digon nodded and proceeded to relieve the bodies of their purses. He brought three to Sorak and kept the rest himself. “All right?” he said.
Sorak weighed the purses. They were full of jingling coins. “Very well,” he said. “You may go. But take care that you do not betray me. If it should occur to you, remember I have touched your mind. That will make it easier for me to find you.”
“Believe me, I shall give you no cause to look,” said the marauder. “If my path never crosses yours again, I shall count myself well blessed.”
He untied one of the crodlu, climbed up on the lizard’s back and spurred it to a gallop down the trail leading to the valley. Sorak watched him go, then called Tigra to dig holes for burying the corpses. He couldn’t care less whether they were decently buried, but he did not wish to tempt any of the tribe. Halflings ate human flesh.
Chapter Six
Seen from the ridge overlooking the valley, the walled city of Tyr resembled the body of a legless spider. The main portion of the city made up the spider’s abdomen, while the head contained the king’s palace and the templars’ quarter. Roughly in the center of the main part of the city, overlooking the stadium and the arena, stood Kalak’s ziggurat, a huge, square-stepped tower constructed of massive blocks of mortared stone. The Wanderer wrote that it had taken thousands of slaves laboring from dawn to dusk for over twenty years to construct the massive edifice. It rose high over the city, dominating the slums and marketplaces all around it, and was visible for miles beyond the city’s outer walls.
At the opposite end of the stadium, separated from the main part of the city by a thick, high wall, stood the Golden Tower, the palace where the sorcerer-king, Kalak, had resided. Surrounded by lush gardens and colonnaded walkways, the Golden Tower was ringed by the templars’ quarter, where the servants of the king had dwelt in luxury, isolated from the people under their authority.
There were three large gates that gave entrance to the well-fortified city. The Grand Gate faced the mountains and gave access to the sprawling palace compound. The Stadium Gate, located between the templars’ quarter and the tradesmen’s district, led to the stadium and the arena. The Caravan Gate, at the opposite end of the city from the palace, was the main entrance to the city. It opened onto the largest and busiest street in Tyr, Caravan Way, which led through the merchant district to the central market square, near the foot of Kalak’s ziggurat.
The Grand Gate was the closest to the trail coming down out of the foothills, but Sorak did not expect to be admitted through the palace gate. He chose to ride around the city’s outer wall, past the outlying farms and fields, to the Caravan Gate. He rode one of the crodlu belonging to the slain marauders and led the others in a string behind him. He had not needed to rope them all together, for they would easily have followed Screech, but Sorak saw no purpose to be served in drawing attention to his unique psionic powers. At least, not yet. And he prudently kept his blade concealed beneath his cloak.
The guards at the gate questioned him briefly before passing him through. He told them he was a simple herdsman who raised and trained crodlu out in the tablelands, and that he had brought in this string to sell in the marketplace.
The guards were primarily interested in Tigra, having never seen a tame tigone before. Tigra was not exactly tame, but Sorak did not tell them that. He explained that he had raised Tigra from