"I question your authority not at all, Commander of the Square," Pagonel said humbly.
The commander held up his hand, motioning for his soldiers to hold calm. ?Yet you have committed a crime against the God-Voice," he said.
Pagonel bit back the obvious response. He just sat calmly and listened.
"You are not to touch me, and I will treat you as I deem appropriate. Do vou understand?"
Pasonel's expression remained impassive. He suppressed his instincts then as the commander reached out toward his face again. The man took paeonel's chin in his hand, a tight and strong grip, and forced the mystic to look at him directly.
Paaonel considered the thirty or so ways he could cripple the fool, but he only entertained those thoughts to distract him from his current revulsion.
"I will have all of your coins as a fine for your insolence," the commander declared, and he pushed Pagonel's face aside.
"I am Jhesta Tu, and without many funds," the mystic replied.
The commander reached over and pulled the small purse from Pagonel's belt, then dumped the silver coins into his open palm. ?It is not enough to pay for your crimes," he said. ?But I will forgive your transgressions, this one time."
As he finished, he turned and started back toward his soldiers, who were all chuckling and nodding approvingly.
Pagonel let him go. For the price of a few easily replaced coins, he had defused the situation. That was his duty as a brother of Jhesta Tu. They were not a warlike order.
But, if pressed...
Pagonel took a long look at the Commander of the Square, imprinting the man's image in his mind.
The soldiers, predictably, began to taunt the mystic then, with a couple tossing small items Pagonel's way, and one even spitting at him.
"He's a bully, that one," the To-gai-ru innkeeper said quietly, bending low so that only Pagonel could hear.
"Don't pay him no heed." As he fin-ished, the innkeeper put a second glass of water before the mystic.
"I have no money," Pagonel started to explain, but the innkeeper shook his head and held out his hand, showing that he wouldn't have accepted any money even if it had been offered.
"Perhaps someday you'll tell me tales of your order in payment."
"That I cannot do," said Pagonel.
The innkeeper shrugged and smiled, as if it did not matter.
Pagonel left the common room a short while later, to the jeers and spit of the Behrenese soldiers.
He accepted it.
He filed it away in a place in his mind where he would not forget.
Outside, the mystic brushed himself off and spent a moment in quiet meditation, finding his center.
"You gave him free drink!" he heard the commander shout, bacjt within the common room.
The mystic turned a bit, craning his ear toward the door.
"And so free drinks will be the way of the night," the commander de\; "It was only water," the innkeeper protested.
"And he was only a Jhesta Tu dog," the commander shouted back. ?If he is worth water, then my soldiers are worth all of the drink that you have and all of the money as well!"
The innkeeper's protest was cut short by a sharp slap.
The cries of the soldiers, calling for drink, and of the commander, de-manding an apology and all the money within the common room were cut short, abruptly, as the door banged open.
All eyes turned to see the Jhesta Tu mystic standing in the open portal, expression calm and arms down by his side, seeming vulnerable.
Deceptively so, the first soldier to attack him realized. The Behrenese charged straight in, spear leading. He hardly saw Pagonel move, and so he was completely off-balance as he somehow missed with the thrust, sliding past, leaning forward.
A hand came up fast in front of his face, barely hitting, but perfectly aimed to snap the man's nose straight up. Pagonel's other hand grabbed at the back of his belt as he stumbled past, heaving him along to tumble out into the street.
Two more soldiers charged in, side by side, the one on Pagonel's right coming with another straight spear thrust, the other slashing a sword hori-zontally before him. A twitch of his toned muscles and a tight tuck had the mystic somersaulting over the swinging sword. He reversed his momentum immediately as he landed, half-turning and snapping a kick to the side of the soldier's knee, caving in the leg.
Pagonel leaped and shoulder-rolled right over the soldier's shoulders as the man slumped. He landed lightly on his feet next to the dropping man's companion, within