frog-like mouth in his round apish face. Though his apparel appeared more luxurious than that of his mates, they were all dressed the same: tunic and trousers secured with a sash, under an open robe, with curious-shaped boots and bulbous turbans. However, she understood that the attire was a disguise, to hide the fact that they were not human, but more akin to the satyr of Greek mythology, complete with cloven-hoofed feet and goat horns and ears.
"Ach, what do make of that?" she asked her companions.
Conaed wriggled his nose tendrils. "It would appear that he hopes to fleece a few suckers. That is the right word, is it not?"
She flashed a smirk. "No, I meant why do you suppose they came to this inn?"
Creme flicked his ears. "If the Leng Men were involved in taking the idol, they could be here to stop you."
"How would they know we are trying to find it?"
He looked up at her with a half-lidded expression. "Anyone watching us will have noted that we have been here a fairly long time, yet you have not engaged in any business other than sightseeing and enjoying yourself. They may not be able to discount the possibility you are simply on vacation, but neither can they take the chance you are not."
"His reasoning is sound, Lady," Conaed said.
She nodded. "I agree. Even so, there is only one way to find out. If you are correct, they will wait for an opportunity to abduct me. So, I shall give them one. Teehar."
The bird eyed her in an eager fashion. By mutual agreement, he did not speak in the common room, so as not to give anyone the suspicion that he was intelligent.
"If they take the chance I offer, I will not resist. You follow, and find out where they take me, then return and inform Runt and Creme. Understand?"
He flicked his crest to indicate that he did.
"Good. Now, let us see what develops."
She watched as over the next three hours the captain defeated six opponents and claimed their stakes for his winnings. At first she wondered if Conaed might have been right after all, and he had no nefarious motive beyond relieving overconfident seamen of their hard-earned pay, but by the end she realized that he was cheating, and she discerned how he accomplished it.
When after the sixth player no one else seemed willing to challenge the captain, and he made to close the board and put it away, she stood up and approached their table, removing her purse from her belt.
One of the mates elbowed him in the ribs and he looked up at her. "Care to try your luck, my bountiful slut?"
With her free hand she whipped out her dirk and slammed the point of the long, thick, double-edged blade into the tabletop with one fluid move too fast for the eye to follow. Though she kept her expression neutral and she sat down to show she accepted his invitation, the startled and astonished look on his face assured her that her implied threat had sunk in.
She called out to the innkeeper for a fresh goblet of mead and a bowl. One of his daughters brought both in short order, then departed even faster.
She opened her purse. "I will wager part or all of this." And she poured its contents--two dozen gold crowns from Celephais--into the bowl.
His grin widened. "Done. We roll to see who goes first." He threw his crooked dice, getting a double six.
"I concede; make your move." She pulled the dirk loose and resheathed it.
He chortled as he tossed the dice, and received another double six.
The game did not last long, given the circumstances, and the captain won easily. "One hundred and fifty tahlers, please."
She dug three crowns out of the bowl and gave them to him.
"Another game?"
She flashed a half-smile. "Why not? I have time before supper. Present stakes?" That would make the wager 300 tahlers.
"Of course."
"Shall we double it?"
The captain glanced at his mates, and they all chuckled. "By all means," he replied, spreading his arms.
"What if you loose?"
"I can make good any bet out of our cargo of rubies."
"Very well; let us proceed."
He made to roll to determine which of them started, but she forestalled him with a raised hand before he could even shake the dice. "I concede; please begin."
The game lasted a little longer that time; she suspected he was toying with her. Nonetheless, he still won, and she handed over twelve crowns.
"Another game?"
"Naturally, and double the previous stake."
"You do not have enough coins; what if you lose?"
She returned a grin of her own. "Then I offer myself; I shall return with you to your galley and service the entire crew."
He threw her an amused and malevolent leer. "All of us?"
She returned a wicked mirthful leer of her own. "Of course."
The mates laughed boisterously as the captain shouted, "Agreed!"
She took a moment to drain her goblet as the captain made his first role, and turned in her chair to call for more.
"Why not try some of ours?" a mate asked.
She turned back, and saw him holding up their bottle.
About time, she thought. She had speculated that their primary plan would be to get her drunk on a powerful alcoholic beverage, though she assumed they had contingency plans in case she failed to take their bait. That they offered her the same beverage they had been drinking all afternoon did not surprise her, being as many cultures made powerful moonshines that barely affected them, but could make the uninitiated intoxicated very quickly.
Except her; she could consume enough of any liquor to get ten full-grown men inebriated, and feel little.
"Ach, yes, thank you." She accepted their bottle, which she saw had indeed been carved from a single ruby. She pulled the stopper and sniffed; it smelled of herbal extracts and tannins. She poured a generous libation and passed it back, then took a deep draught. It tasted sharp, foul, and heady with alcohol, but she expected that, and she sipped at it as she played. Sure enough, she could feel the liquor's effects creep over her body almost immediately, and she pretended to become inebriated. She deliberately made mistakes in judgment as she fumbled her coordination, and she knew she had them fooled when the captain stopped cheating. Two-thirds of the way through the game she pretended to collapse unconscious on the tabletop, spilling her goblet and scattering the pieces on the board. She heard the Leng Men laugh in an evil fashion as they packed up their game and collected her money along with their winnings. Finally she felt them pick her up by her limbs and carry her out of the inn. No one tried to stop them, and she imagined the innkeeper family and the other patrons watched helplessly as she was bourn away.
Once outside, however, she realized immediately that they were not taking her to their galley as she expected. Instead they headed further upslope into the city. From her previous explorations she discerned that their intended destination was the nearby warehouse district. They took her inside a building and unceremoniously threw her facedown onto a bare, filth-covered floor, but left her there and moved away.
Still feigning a drunken stupor, she opened one eye to examine her surroundings. She found herself inside a tiny dismal shack that looked as if it had been abandoned for years. There was only one door, and the interior was illuminated by sunlight from a single small dust-coated window. The Leng Men had gathered together off to one side as they discussed her fate.
She lay still, listening to their conversation, hoping to learn something important. Though they spoke in their own vile, guttural tongue, she understood almost every word, having learned their language in Celephais. Through bits and pieces they revealed that they had been hired to kidnap a massive woman traveling with a cat, a bird, and a Zoog. They had recognized who she was from that meager description and were eager to get revenge on her for their past defeats at her hands. They had been told to dispose of her in whatever manner they saw fit, and they debated what to do with her. One of the mates wanted to simply cut her throat, but the captain wanted to beat and rape her first. Another mate suggested
taking her back to the galley as a reward for the crew, while a third thought of giving her to the rowers for their amusement, a fifth wanted to sell her as a slave, and the last demanded she be handed over to their "masters". As their argument grew more heated, it quickly became obvious that they would reveal no further vital information, and she decided it was time to ask more direct questions.
She stood up slowly, keeping her eye on them. For their part, they were so engrossed in their heated debate that they didn't notice her. One fatal error on their part was that they failed to disarm her, and she took advantage of their distraction to draw her dirk. Even then, it wasn't until she tapped one of them on his shoulder that they finally noticed her.
They stared at her in utter surprise for a few moments, but in short order their overconfidence took over, and they drew their own wicked, heavy-bladed knives as they grinned in anticipation. They moved to surround her, but she flashed a derisive smile as she untied her belt and tossed it aside. She then pulled on the lacings that held her gown closed at the shoulders, letting it slip off her body and collapse at her feet. She was nude, except for the shoes on her feet, a necklace of heavy, twisted gold around her neck, and a white metal headband on her brow. If anything, the Leng-men grinned all the wider and gave each other lewd glances, but she winked at them to indicate that she was completely unconcerned.
The fight was as quick and one-sided as the Leng-men expected it to be, but not in their favor. They rushed at her all at once, but