" He gestured angrily at
Stark. "See if he is armed."

One of the soldiers stepped forward, but Stark was quicker. He slipped
the thong and let the cloak fall, baring his upper body.

"The clansmen have already taken everything I owned," he said. "But they
gave me something, in return."

The crowd stared at the half healed stripes that scarred him, and there
was a drawing in of breath.

The soldier picked up the cloak and laid it over the Earthman's
shoulders. And Lugh said sullenly, "Come, then."

Stark's fingers tightened on Thanis' shoulder. "Come with me, little
one," he whispered. "Otherwise, I must crawl."

She smiled at him and came. The crowd followed.

The captain of the guards was a fleshy man with a smell of wine about
him and a face already crumbling apart though his hair was not yet grey.
He sat in a squat tower above the square, and he observed Stark with no
particular interest.

"You had something to tell," said Lugh. "Tell it."

* * * * *

Stark told them, leaving out all mention of Camar and the talisman. This
was neither the time nor the man to hear that story. The captain
listened to all he had to say about the gathering of the clans of Mekh,
and then sat studying him with a bleary shrewdness.

"You have proof of all this?"

"These stripes. Their leader Ciaran ordered them laid on himself."

The captain sighed, and leaned back.

"Any wandering band of hunters could have scourged you," he said. "A
nameless vagabond from the gods know where, and a lawless one at that,
if I'm any judge of men--you probably deserved it."

He reached for wine, and smiled. "Look you, stranger. In the Norlands,
no one makes war in the winter. And no one ever heard of Ciaran. If you
hoped for a reward from the city, you overshot badly."

"The Lord Ciaran," said Stark, grimly controlling his anger, "will be
battering at your gates within two days. And you will hear of him then."

"Perhaps. You can wait for him--in a cell. And you can leave Kushat with
the first caravan after the thaw. We have enough rabble here without
taking in more."

Thanis caught Stark by the cloak and held him back.

"_Sir_," she said, as though it were an unclean word. "I will vouch for
the stranger."

The captain glanced at her. "You?"

"Sir, I am a free citizen of Kushat. According to law, I may vouch for
him."

"If you scum of the Thieves' Quarter would practice the law as well as
you prate i