I said to my friends: “Wait here and do not cause mischief.”
“But—”
“Wait!”
I took the Deldar aside confidentially. I showed him the gold. He started to shake his head in the shadow of the marble column and I put a dagger into the small of his back, twisted it so he could feel the point, and said gently: “It’s the gold or the steel, dom. The alternatives are open to you, the choice yours alone.”
He made the sensible man’s choice.
When we went back I said to Turko and the others: “Do you go back to the main square. I shall not return this way.” I spoke forcefully. “If you do not leave now you will be taken up.”
Such was the evil nature of my face that they went, albeit grumbling.
Past the next courtyard I found myself in a portion of the palace I knew slightly, and so could duck thro
