Unclean

immediately thereafter, it was all he could do to keep from weeping, but he couldn't allow the gnolls to think him a weakling.

He ended on a note of bitter anger akin to their own: 'So you see how it's been for me. I undertook what should have been a simple task, especially considering that I was willing, nay, eager, to reward anyone able to help me, but I met contempt, betrayal, and bared blades every step of the way. Now I'm done with the mild and reasonable approach. I'm going to recover Tammith by force, and I want you lads to help me.'

The gnolls stared at him for another moment, and then one, with a ruddy tinge to his fur and longer ears than the rest, laughed his piercing, crazy-sounding cackle. 'Sorry, human. It can't be done.'

'Why not?' Bareris demanded.

'Because the slaves go to Delhumide.'

For a moment, Bareris didn't understand. They were all in Delhumide, and what of it? Then he realized the gnoll wasn't speaking of the tharch but of the abandoned city of the same name.

Twenty-three centuries before, when Thay had been a Mulhorandi colony, Delhumide had been one of its greatest cities and bastions of power, and when the Red Wizards rebelled, they'd deemed it necessary to destroy the place. They'd evidently used the darkest sort of sorcery to accomplish their purpose, for by all accounts, the ground was still unclean today. Demons walked there, and a man could contract madness or leprosy just by venturing down the wrong street. No one visited Delhumide except the most reckless sort of treasure hunter, and few of those ever returned.

'Are you sure?' Bareris asked. It was, of course, a stupid question, born of surprise, and he didn't wait for an answer. 'Why?'

'We don't know,' said the gnoll. 'We have better sense than to go into Delhumide ourselves.'

'Even if we could,' said Wesk. After listening to his broken Mulhorandi, Bareris found it odd to hear him speak fluently, but he naturally had no difficulty conversing in his own racial language. 'Soldiers guard the place by day, and at night, the things come out. I don't know if they're the fiends that have always haunted the place or pets of the Red Wizards- maybe some of both-and it doesn't matter anyway. They're there, and they're nasty.'

'I understand,' Bareris said, 'but you fellows are experts at going unseen. You told me so yourself, and I witnessed your skill firsthand when you hid the both of us. I'll wager your legion used you as expert scouts and skirmishers.'

'Sometimes,' said Wesk.

'Well, I'm a fair hand at creeping and skulking myself, so long as I'm not crippled. With luck, we could sneak in and out of Delhumide without having to fight every warrior or lurking horror in the ruins.'

'To steal back your mate,' said the gnoll who'd jeered at him before.

'Yes. I've never seen Delhumide, but you've scouted it from the outside anyway. You can figure out the safest path in. Together, we can rescue Tammith, and in gratitude for your help, I'll make you rich enough to live in luxury in Eltabbar or Bezantur until the end of your days. Just give me back my pouch and sword belt.'

The gnolls exchanged looks, then one of them fetched the articles he'd requested from the shade beneath one of the lean-tos. As he'd expected, the gnoll removed his sword from its scabbard first, and when he looked inside the pigskin bag, the coins were gone.

But the gnolls hadn't discovered the secret pocket in the bottom of the purse. He lifted the bag to his mouth and exhaled into it. His breath activated a petty enchantment, and the hidden seam separated. He removed the sheets of parchment, unfolded them, and held them up for the gnolls to see. 'Letters of credit from the merchant houses of Turmish and Impiltur. A little the worse for wear, but still valid.'

Wesk snorted. 'None of us can read, singer, nor has any idea how such papers are supposed to look. Maybe you guessed that and decided to try and fool us.'

'No, but I can offer you a different form of wealth if that's what you prefer.' He started opening the concealed pockets in the sword belt and was relieved to find that the gnolls hadn't found those either.

He brought out rubies, sapphires, and clear, smooth tapered king's tears. It was an absurd amount of wealth to purchase the services of half a dozen gnolls, yet for this moment anyway, he felt a sudden, unexpected spasm of loathing for the stones. If he'd never departed Bezantur to win them, he could have prevented Tammith from selling herself into slavery, and what good had they done him since? He had to resist a wild impulse to empty the belt entirely.

He spread the jewels on the ground with a flourish, like a juggler performing a trick. 'Here. Take them if you're willing to help me.'

The gnoll with the prominent ears laughed. 'What's to stop us from taking them without helping you, then cutting up that pouch and belt and all your belongings to see if anything else is stashed inside? Wesk liked seeing you lop a Red Wizard's fingers off. It made him curious enough to haul you back here and find out who you are, but we're not your friends, or friends to any human. We rob and eat hairless runts like you.'

Bareris wondered if Wesk would take exception to his clan brother's assertion. He didn't, though, and perhaps it wasn't surprising. Bareris had claimed he was capable of leading the gnolls in a dangerous enterprise. If so, he should be competent to stand up for himself when a member of the band sought to intimidate him.

Or maybe the whim that had moved Wesk to rescue him originally had simply been a transient aberration, and now the towering creature was all gnoll again, feral and murderous as the foulest of his kin.

Either way, it scarcely mattered. Bareris had known that displaying the jewels was likely to provoke a crisis, and now he had to cope as best he could. 'Take the stones and give nothing in return?' he sneered. 'Strange, that's just what the Red Wizards and blood orcs tried to do, and I thought you deemed yourselves better than they are.'

The gnoll with the long ears bared his fangs. 'We are better. They couldn't kill you and take your treasure, but we can.'

'No,' said Bareris, 'you can't. It doesn't matter that you withheld my sword or that you outnumber me.' In reality, it almost certainly would, but he did his best to project utter self-confidence. 'I'm a bard, a spellcaster, and my powers are what will enable us to make jackasses of the Red Wizards. I'll show you.'

He picked up one of the king's tears and sang words of power. Tiny sparks flared and died within the crystal, and a sweet smell like incense suffused the air. Alarmed, some of the gnolls jumped up and snatched for their weapons or else lunged and grabbed for Bareris with their empty hands.

None of them acted in time, and light burned from within the jewel. It had no power to injure the gnolls. That would inevitably have resulted in a genuine battle, which was the last thing he wanted, but the hyenafolk were essentially nocturnal by nature, and the sudden flare dazzled and balked them. Coupled with the charms of influence Bareris had already spun, it might, with luck, even impress them more than it actually deserved to.

At once, while they were still recoiling, the bard sprang to his feet and punched as hard as ever in his life. The uppercut caught the gnoll with the long ears under the jaw. His teeth clicked together, and he stumbled backward.

'That,' Bareris rapped, 'was for impudence. Threaten me again and I'll tear you apart.'

He then brandished the luminous king's tear as if it were a talisman of extraordinary power, and as he spoke on, he infused his words with additional magic-not a spell of coercion, precisely, but an enchantment to bolster the courage and confidence of all who heard it.

'It comes down to this,' he said. 'Even if you could kill me and steal the gems, it wouldn't matter. You'd still be a legion's castoffs, worthless in everyone's eyes including your own, but I'm offering you a chance to take revenge on the sort of folk who shamed you, and more than that, to regain your honor. Don't you see, if you join me in this venture, then you're not mere contemptible scavengers anymore. You're