Devourer female.
'Master,' Jai said, 'follow the street until it enters a large square. Turn to the right and you will see a building on the corner of the next street with a sign showing a picture of an eating bowl and a bed. Take lodgings there.'
Duwan walked in the center of the street, eyes looking past and through those that he met. He noted Jai and Tambol slinking along abreast of him, sometimes being pushed into the gutter by laden slaves.
The stone-paved street opened into a square of impressive dimensions. It, too, was crowded. Across the square, rising stern and stark, was a stone building that reached higher into the sky than its neighbors. He noted that Enemy males in long, white robes stood in conversation on the steps, and went in and out of the high, wide entrance to the building. Elsewhere, blank-walled stone buildings lined the square. He turned to the right, looked back to see Jai and Tambol keeping pace with him, and soon saw the sign of the eating bowl and bed. Tambol came scurrying up to him, bowing, with Jai just behind him.
Before Duwan could speak to Tambol, he heard the sound of rhythmic, marching feet, turned to see a group of about thirty Enemy males dressed in identical, tight, smart uniforms, come striding into the square. Each man was armed with a longsword and a curved dagger at his belt. They marched in perfect coordination. A voice rang out and the unit halted, slapping the hilts of their swords.
'Who are these?' Duwan asked.
'Members of the High Master's guard,' Jai whispered. Duwan watched with interest. Orders were bawled and swords flew from their sheaths, gleaming in the sun. The guards, spacing themselves smartly and in perfect unison, went through an impressive exercise, swords whirling overhead, lunging, slashing. Duwan's eyes narrowed. He had killed Enemy, true, but he had not encountered any Enemy as skilled with a sword as these.
'How many like these?' he asked.
'I cannot say,' Jai said. 'At times there are more in this daily ceremony.'
Duwan watched with great interest. The weapons were well kept, gleaming, obviously well sharpened and well constructed. The guards were of a size, strong and young. He could tell by the exhibition exercises that the guards knew the capabilities of their weapons. When the ceremony was over and the guards had marched smartly away, he turned. Apparently the daily ceremony was old stuff to the residents of the city, for it had not attracted more than passing attention.
'That building across the square,' Duwan said.
'The temple of the dus,' Jai said. 'The dus dwell within, high up, and they are fed and served by the priests.'
'Those in white robes?'
'Yes,' she said. She made a face. 'Never cross the priests, master. They have the ear of Farko, and they are powerful. And the screams one can hear coming from the temple tell that they are not of kindly disposition toward those who dispute their power, or the sacrifices.'
'Do they, too, kill the young ones?'
'The dus feed on pongs,' Jai said. 'Occasionally, for a meal of more quality, a Devourer is sacrificed, but he or she is always taken from the prisons.'
'Let us see more of this place,' Duwan said.
'Take lodgings first,' Jai said, 'before the rooms are all filled. Tambol, go to the Devourer behind the desk and tell him you want lodgings, lodgings of quality and cleanliness, for your master. He will ask you for five farks. You must, very respectfully, tell him that five farks is too much, and that your master will pay three.'
Tambol approached an aging Devourer male, not without some nervousness, and it happened as Jai had said, a room was assigned, and Duwan walked imperiously up the stairs, Tambol and Jai cringing behind. The room was small, the bed smelled strongly of unwashed bodies.
'Tambol will sleep on the floor, guarding the door with his body,' Jai said. 'It is acceptable to have a female slave to warm the bed for a master, but I, too, can sleep on the floor.'
'We can sleep when we have returned to the earth,' Duwan said. 'We will now see more of this city.'
There was a sameness about the streets. Away from the main avenues and the square they were narrow, always shaded from the blessed rays of Du by the overhanging balconies of the crowding stone buildings. More than once Duwan had to move quickly to avoid being splashed as house pongs emptied slop pails from the balconies.
'It is a bed of ground insects,' he told himself, as he walked through the streets, having to step aside quite often to avoid colliding with an Enemy male. 'Are all Devourers so rude?' he asked Jai, who was walking a step behind him.
'I have hesitated to mention it, master,' Jai said, 'but it is the custom for Devourers to play a game of
