For a second, I almost thought I understood it all. Arnulf had not dared to go to Xantium himself. Therefore he had sent Joachim in his place, knowing that his agents here would mistake the chaplain for him, at least at first, and lead him to Kaz-alrhun’s magic horse. Even though the chaplain had refused to conduct any business deals for his brother’s firm, Arnulf assumed that once here Joachim would bargain honestly, buying the horse for his brother-the only person, in fact, whom he could trust not to keep the ebony horse for himself. And Joachim would have the price with him. Claudia had not been successful in wheedling him into agreeing to conduct the transaction, which made it more risky. But he was still supposed to have the “gift” which Claudia had given him on parting, since he would accept something from her with far less suspicion than from Arnulf himself.
But here my reasoning broke down. Arnulf certainly had no ring from Yurt to send to Xantium-or if so, I couldn’t imagine where he had gotten it. Dominic stood only a short distance from the booth, his father’s ruby ring winking on his finger, the magic ring which I would have thought the mage really wanted, except that he seemed to show no interest in it.
“Tell me about this ring you claim I was supposed to bring you,” I said casually, as though negotiating myself.
“You know well this ring and its properties,” the mage said, holding me with his eyes. “You have received a free ride, but do not anticipate any more until you can deliver it.”
“Perhaps I could obtain this ring for you,” I suggested, “if I knew what powers it was supposed to have.”
“If you are from Yurt,” said Kaz-alrhun, abruptly not smiling at all, “you already know. And you already know its relation to the Wadi Harhammi.” He watched me closely for my reaction to his mention of the Wadi; I did my best not to show how surprised I was. “You have amused me mightily, Daimbert,” the mage continued, “not least because I see so few western wizards, but I do not like dissimulation.”
Neither did I, and Arnulf had lied to us thoroughly. “Maybe I’ll be back tomorrow,” I said lightly. “Perhaps by then you’ll have decided you’d be willing to take something other than this ring.”
“Or perhaps by then you will have decided to produce it,” growled Kaz-alrhun.
I turned without any sort of farewell. This would be a dangerous mage to have angry with me, and at the moment I had no way to placate him. My companions were still waiting a short distance away, but Arnulf’s agents were gone.
Joachim gripped me by the arm before I could speak. “Are you all right? Does that horse move with the supernatural power of evil?”
“Come on,” I said to all of them with a jerk of my head. “It moves by magic alone, but let’s get back to the inn while we’re still alive.”
It took us ten minutes to find our way to the edge of the Market, and another ten to find the street on which we had come in, but then Ascelin was able to locate our position on the map and we retraced our steps hastily.
But we had only gone a quarter mile when I saw a boy’s ragged form waiting for us ahead. Maffi stood with a fist on one cocked hip, looking pleased with himself. “So did you do your business in the Thieves’ Market, my masters?”
The king objected as Ascelin started to yank him off the ground by the front of his shirt. The prince set him down but shifted his grip at once to the boy’s arm. “Were you hired to bring us there?”
“Of course!” he said saucily. “In the sight of all-knowing God, you hired me yourself! Now, you promised to pay me what my guidance was worth. Did I not bring you there safely, just as I promised?”
“Those men in turbans didn’t hire you?” Ascelin persisted.
“Of course not,” said Maffi agreeably. “And I was very pleased to see that they had not harmed you.”
Ascelin let him go, disgusted. “I’m not going to get any clear story out of him, that’s certain.”
But King Haimeric took a coin from his belt. “You did bring us safely to the Thieves’ Market, just as you promised, and you deserve your fee.” Maffi took the coin and examined it with interest.
Ascelin started to speak and instead turned away. But I stepped forward quickly.
“Maffi, maybe you can help us some more.”
He smiled broadly up at me. His face was streaked with dirt, but his eyes were bright. For a second, I wondered if he had any home or any family to take care of him, or if he had to live on Xantium’s streets by his wits. If so, I would pay him even if he was lying to us. But he might also be very useful.
“As you guessed, we are indeed looking for something, something stolen from us earlier. It’s a ring.”
Dominic started to say something and thought better of it.
“Westerners like us would become hopelessly lost and cheated in the Thieves’ Market. That’s why I need you to look for it for us. Meet me-” I hesitated, not wanting to tell him the address of our inn if he didn’t already know it. “Meet me tomorrow at noon on the steps of the Church of Holy Wisdom. Then you can tell me if you’ve located it, and if so we’ll go together to buy it.”
“Will any ring do?”
This was a problem, because I wasn’t sure what I was looking for myself. “No, this is a special one.” I wasn’t about to tell him I’d never seen it. “It’s had a magic spell put on it, and it’s clearly identifiable as being from Yurt. Don’t ask for a magic ring specifically, because then they may try to cheat you with a plain one, but-”
Maffi interrupted with a laugh. “You need not teach me how to bargain. I was born in the Thieves’ Market! Same payment schedule as today?”
“Same as today,” I said, and he raced away back toward the Market.
Ascelin frowned deeply. “Would you like to tell us, Wizard, what you’re doing?”
“Of course. But let’s get back to the inn and have dinner. The magic flying horse made me hungry.”
The inn served us fried eggplant for dinner. King Haimeric had never had eggplant before; even in the City, it was uncommon outside a few eastern restaurants. He ate his slowly, telling us one minute that he liked it tremendously and the next that he didn’t, trying to decide if the queen would like it or if the royal cook could find a better way to prepare it.
“What’s this ring you’re trying to find?” asked Ascelin as the waiter brought us pastries sticky with honey and cups of spiced tea.
“I think it’s what the chaplain’s sister-in-law gave him, what the bandits stole from us,” I said slowly. I went on to explain my theory that Joachim’s brother had intended using him as his representative in buying the ebony horse from the mage, while concealing from him that that was what he was doing.
The chaplain shook his head. “I cannot believe in such a deception. Claudia gave me a present, I presume in memory of our old friendship, but it wasn’t anything important or valuable. She told me so herself when I apologized for losing it.”
But no one paid attention to this. “Why do you think the ring will have traveled from the mountains across the eastern kingdoms to Xantium?” asked Hugo.
“It shouldn’t have,” I agreed. “But I think it’s worth looking for. After all, if Arnulf had heard there was a flying horse for sale here, with the price a magic ring, Warin may have heard it too. Kaz-alrhun seems fairly determined to have it. The real flaw in my theory,” I added, “is that Kaz-alrhun was expecting something from Yurt. He’d heard of the kingdom and thought it important, even if he’d only heard of it from Evrard-by the way, did you hear him saying he’d met Evrard?”
“We already knew Sir Hugo’s party passed through Xantium,” said the king. “Since everyone here wants to guide us to the Thieves’ Market, the same thing must have happened to them.”