The boy was the son of a friend. I hope you weren't too badly hurt."

"Failure hurt more."

Aaron did not know what else to say. He glanced around. There were eddies in the human river as people paused to watch what might be a confrontation.

Uneasy, he looked at Mish, who was watching the Dartar boy in a kind of heatedwonder. "How soon will your mother be home? Are you supposed to have somethingready when they get here?"

"Oh! I forgot!" She ran for the door.

Arif said, "Yoseh, tell my dad about the time your father and Fa'tad

"He wouldn't be interested, Arif."

"My dad was a soldier. Weren't you, Dad?"

"In those days everybody was a soldier, Arif. It isn't anything to brag about."

Stafa was playing peekaboo with the other Dartar, looking round front of Aaron, then behind, while the man pretended to hide behind his face cloth.

Stafa giggled.

Aaron wondered if he was losing his grasp on reality. That man had five prisoners at his feet and a spear in his other hand and he would stick themwithout compunction if they moved, but he was playing peekaboo with Stafa.

Yoseh did not know what to do or say. He was very uncomfortable. He wished theveydeen would go away. He wished he had snarled at the boy when he had comeout. But then he would have had no chance to talk to the girl ...

It did not occur to him that the man did not know how to break awaygracefully.

The man said, "I suppose barracks food is pretty bad. It was when I ..."

"It is bad," Yoseh admitted, surprised by the turn of conversation.

"Maybe Mish can bring something out. By way of thanks for what you tried todo. If she hasn't destroyed whatever she was trying to make."

Yoseh smiled, but the veydeen could not see that. He could think of nothingmore to say. He was spared the need to reply.

Mahdah and Kosuth came out carrying a corpse. It was not fresh enough to beone they had made. Its face had been obliterated by a beating. Entrails hungout through tatters that served as clothing. They dropped it amongst theprisoners.

The veydeen man-Aaron?-grabbed his older son's shoulder and said, "Come on, Arif." He moved out fast.

Mahdah and Kosuth watched him go. Mahdah asked, "What was that?"

Medjhah said, "Too complicated to explain. What's this?" Kosuth was not in agood temper. "What the hell does it look like?"

Mahdah was less upset. "Came out of the same nest as these beauties. They musthave been having some fun in there last night."

Medjhah dropped his lancehead toward the one prisoner who had a little spirit, who might have been the leader of the group. He slipped the tip under theman's nose and lifted, forcing him to look up or be cut. "You'll find us moreimaginative but no less certain. Unless you care to help us?" The man spat atMedjhah.

Medjhah drew the razor-sharp edge of his lancehead along the man's cheek.

Yoseh turned away from that casual cruelty-and let out a bark of astonishment.

"Medjhah! That man! The one who took the boy ... Hell! He's gone now."

Medjhah said something to Mahdah and Kosuth, came over. "The one Fa'tadwants?"

"Yes. I saw him up the street. But he disappeared in the crowd."

"Let's take a walk. See what we can see." He gave Yoseh a gentle push. "You goup the far side of the street."

They climbed halfway to the acropolis, saw nothing, gave it up. It was time, anyway. There were other things to do. The masons had arrived with their mud bricks and tools and somebody had to show them where Nogah wanted two mazepassages sealed.

Too, Joab was working his way up the hill, stopping to give instructions tothe watchers outside the alleys.

Tamisa's mother and sister returned from marketing. Yoseh watched, wonderingif Tamisa would age as they had. He barely overheard Joab tell Medjhah to tellNogah that he should leave three men in the alley overnight. Fa'tad had beenrunning units in and out the Gate of Autumn all morning. The ferrenghi couldnot have kept track of how many were inside and how many were out.

Yoseh wondered if even Joab knew what Fa'tad had in mind.

Yoseh was amused when he heard Medjhah take his earlier notion and turn itinto a suggestion that some men be clad as veydeen if they were going to beleft in the city. Joab looked like that was about the craziest idea he'd everheard.

Sadat Agmed had been stalking his quarry for six days, with no luck, and hewas out of patience. It was not that the child was abnormally inaccessible. Nomore so than any daughter of a well-to-do family of the Astan. But she wasinaccessible enough. He'd seen her only three times since he'd received thecommission from the Witch.

He hated collecting girls. They were much more difficult.

He had spent too much time on this one already. People would remember seeinghim around. He ought to report in, say he could not do the job, let her giveit to somebody who could. But he had not failed a commission yet. There waspride at stake here.

A woman-the mother?-came out of the house, leading the little girl. Theyfollowed the same routine they had before, taking the uncrowded street uphill.

Meaning they would walk about two hundred yards and be admitted to the home ofanother well-to-do family. They would stay three hours, then would return.

Possibly it was something they were not supposed to do. Near as Sadat couldtell, the woman and child left home only when no one else was there and theywere certain no one would be aware that they had stepped out.

In this area women did not go out into public without a male companion. Aconceit of the prosperous.

There was only one way to do it under the circumstances. And as far as Sadatcould see, there was no opportunity to create more favorable circumstances.

He slouched after them, trying to look disinterested and innocuous, justsomebody headed in the same direction and walking a little faster.

He had worked it out a dozen times. His timing was exact. He overtook them asthey reached the mouth of the only alley and escape route leading off thatpart of the street. The woman glanced back just as he moved.

Her eyes widened and she tried to duck, but his blow put her down. He grabbedthe girl.

The child screamed. Someone yelled. The woman wailed. Sadat charged into the alley carrying the girl. She was not heavy. As he went he fumbled out a wad ofwet cotton. He forced that into her face.

A few blocks away he would be just some fellow carrying his sleeping daughter.

The blow to the mother had not fallen solidly. She staggered down the alleyafter him, wailing. Damn! And now a couple of men were with her, asking whatha'd happened.

Sadat Agmed ran. But the child slowed him. He distanced the woman but not themen who took up the chase. Each time he glanced back there were more of them, shouting louder and looking meaner.

He became frightened. Frightened, he did not think ahead carefully enough.

When he realized there would be no escape while he was burdened with thechild, he abandoned her and took off toward the Hahr. But he misremembered ashortcut by one turn and ended up darting into a dead-end alleyway. Dead endin more ways than one.

The mob pulled him off the wall he was trying to climb. Many were men who hadsmall children, men who had become intimate with fear of child-stealersrecently. They had no mercy in them, and no thought to ask questions. Theywere not armed, but that did not matter.

Sadat used two packs of flash and after each almost broke free. He flailedaway with his knife till someone knocked it out of his hand. The slashes onlyenraged the men more. They punched and kicked and stomped him till he had beendead for several minutes.

Then, horrified by what the animal in them had made them do, they ran away anddid not talk much about the affair.

A Dartar patrol reached the scene only after it was too late for anything buta cleanup.