Part 15 (1/2)

”She would be,” said Uske. ”So, the enemy has infiltrated and gotten my silly brother.”

”Well,” said the voice, ”they can't be sure. But what with the planes this morning, they thought it was best.”

”Oh, well,” said the King. There were footsteps. Then silence.

Coming round the corner, Jon saw the coat closet was ajar. He opened the door, took out a great cape and hood, and wrapped it around him, pulling the hood close over his head. He stepped into the foyer and went out past the doorman.

At the edge of the Devil's Pot, the woman with the birthmark on the left side of her face was tapping a cane and holding out a tin cup. She had put on a pair of dark gla.s.ses and wandered up one street and down another. ”Money for a poor blind woman,” she said in a whiny voice.

”Money for the blind.” As a coin clinked into her cup, she nodded, smiled, and said, ”Welcome to the New World. Good luck in the Island of Opportunity.”

The man who had given her the coin walked a step, and then turned back.

”Hey,” he said to Rara. ”If you're blind, how do you know I'm new here?”

”Strangers are generous,” Rara explained, ”while those who live here are too frozen to give.”

”Look,” said the man, ”I was told to watch out for blind beggars who weren't blind. My cousin, he warned me ...”

”Not blind!” cried Rara. ”Not blind? Why my license is right here. It permits me to beg in specified areas because of loss of sight. If you keep this up, I'll be obliged to show it to you.” She turned away with a huff and began in another direction. The man scratched his head, then hurried off.

A few moments later, a man completely swathed in a gray cloak and hood came around the corner and stopped in front of the woman.

”Money for the blind?”

”Can you use this?” the man said. From his cloak he held out a brocade jacket, covered with fine metal work.

”Of course,” said Rara softly. Then she coughed. ”Er ... what is it?”

”It's a jacket,” Jon said. ”It's made pretty well. Maybe you can sell it?”

”Oh, thank you. Thank you, sir.”

A few blocks later, a ragged boy, who looked completely amazed, was handed a white silk s.h.i.+rt by the man in the gray cloak. In front of a doorway two blocks on, a pair of open-toed black boots with gold disks were left--and stolen from that doorway exactly forty seconds later by a hairdresser who was returning to her home in Devil's Pot. She was missing the little finger of her left hand. Once the gray cloaked figure paused in an alley beneath a clothes line. Suddenly he flung up a ball of gray cloth, which caught on the line, unrolled, and became identifiable as a pair of dark gray trousers. A block later the last minor articles of clothing were hurled unceremoniously through an open window. As Jon turned another corner, he glimpsed a figure ducking into a doorway down the dim street. The man was apparently following him.

Jon walked very slowly down the next block, ambling along in the shadow.

The hoodlum crept up behind him, then grabbed his cloak, ripped it away, and leaped forward.

Only there wasn't anything there. The mugger stood for a moment, the cape dangling from his hand, blinking at the place a man should have been. Then something hit him in the jaw. He staggered back. Something else hit him in the stomach. As he stumbled forward now, beneath the street lamp, a transparent human figure suddenly formed in front of him.

Then it planted its quite substantial fist into his jaw again, and he went back, down, and out.

Jon dragged the man back to the side of the alley, fading out completely as he did so. Then he took the hoodlum's clothes, which were ragged, smelly, and painfully nondescript. The shoes, which were too small for him, he had to leave off. Then he flung the cape back around his shoulders and pulled the hood over his head.

For the next six blocks he was lost because there were no street signs.

When he did find the next one, he realized he was only a block away from the inn.

As he reached the stone building, he heard a thud in the tiny alleyway beside it. A moment later a girl's voice called softly, ”There. Just like that. Only you better do exactly as I say or you'll break your arms or legs, or back.”