CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The company paused on the threshold of the gate and turned. A single slightly hunched man stood beside where the table had stood. He wore short pants worn ragged at the hem and brown sandals that had seen better days. His shirt was clean but slightly wrinkled and was also frayed at the end of the long sleeves. His short brown hair was combed into place in a plain bowled hairstyle that suited his thin face. The man carried a slim square hard-leather pack on his back and a short rectangular box hung on the front of his waist with the aid of two strings, one wrapped around his neck and another around his waist. The rectangular box had a slim lid held shut by a flimsy golden clasp on the front. A decoration of a thick green plant growing from a black seed covered t
