GUILLAM BROUSSEUI: Am I dead?

  INTERROGATOR: Not that I can see. Do you feel dead?

  G: I mean: Am I going to be dead?

  INT: Eventually.

  G: Are you going to kill me?

  INT: No. I have people for that. And in any event, Monsieur Broussuei, your death would be of little use to me at the moment. I need information, and your corpse cannot give it.

  G: Who are you?

  INT: I’m in charge here. If you answer my questions, perhaps I will answer yours.

  G: Can I have a little water?

  INT: You may. Would you like coffee?

  G: Oh yes, I would very much like coffee.

  INT: Guard; coffee. No, just one. I don’t drink it.

  G: Thank you, Madame.

  INT: Now my questions, Monsieur.

  G: What do you want?

  INT: Where and when did you last see Sir Richard of Enderly?

  G: Why do you want to know about Sir Richard?

  INT: We have a deal, Monsieur; you answer my questions, and then I’ll answer yours if I want to. When did you last see Sir Richard?

  G: In Hog Hurst. I think it was late summer.

  INT: You think? Did you not know the date, or have you forgotten it?

  G: When we were underground I lost track of the days. And the Giant-men don’t keep the Imperial calendar.

  INT: The who?

  G: Giant-men. Like men, but very large. Giant.

  INT: Just men?

  G: They have women too.

  INT: Was Sir Richard with you when you met these very large men who don’t keep the Imperial calendar and have women?

  G: Yes, the first time.

  INT: Tell me how you came to meet them, and how you parted from Sir Richard.

  G: It’s a long story.

  INT: Give me the abridged pocket edition.

  G: Are you in a hurry?

  INT: Time is precious, Monsieur, as you will appreciate when yours is at an end.

  G: We left Uellodon in July of III Leeland:13. There were twenty of us then, and Sir Richard as our Captain made twenty-one. He picked us out at the Sword Sale. Took old men, instead of the young bucks. He told me later he wanted a company with “experience,” but I reckon he meant codgers who didn’t have much to go back to. He put our pensions on deposit at Lafleur’s Bank, and made us write down who they’d go to if we didn’t come back in three years. Made me the sergeant. It was plain enough I was the only man for it.

  There was a bit of trouble in the city before we left; some of the new priests stirring up bread riots. I went to the Merchants’ Post and wrote out a letter to my Fenet back in Pour Vaille. Told her where to claim the pension money, and that I loved her. Then I gave it to the man at the desk and went out whoring and drinking for the rest of the night to celebrate.

  INT: Your loyalty to your wife is stirring.

  G: There’s a good reason I’ve been travelling the Neighbor Kingdoms to sell my blood and bone for thirty years, Madame, and I’m married to it.

  INT: By what route did you leave the settled lands?

  G: We took the Eldenway north to Green Bridge, and then on through the King’s Wood to Hog Hurst. We meant to cross the Verud there.

  INT: Up here we call it the Green River. And it’s the Queen’s Wood now.

  G: The Queen doesn’t have wood.

  INT: How do you know? Go on. What happened after you crossed the river?

  G: Right on the other side there was a mess of little people with gray skin. The locals called them ‘goblins,’ and apparently there was a bit of trade happening. I heard of goblins when I was a wee little one, but always took it for my ma’s bedtime stories. But they’re real, Madame, I swear it. Those big men outside the door can bend me into a pretzel, and I won’t take back one word. Little gray people with funny squat heads and lots of teeth.

  The Captain talked to them through one of the local people, and tried to learn about where they were living, to avoid it. They talked about some new chief that had brought together the local tribes, too. Called him ‘Simon.’ Funny name for a savage chief, but that’s what they called him. Captain had a worried look to him as we left, but we didn’t see goblins again. Not until I came back, and I was alone. Then I got to be better acquainted with them than ever I wanted to.

  INT: Don’t get ahead of yourself. We’ll come to your return trip. What route did you take to reach the Giant-men?

  G: You have to understand, Madame, we didn’t know where we were going. Captain had a bit of a map, and made out to us like he had a plan. But I got a look at the map, and it was nothing but imagination once you got north of Uelland. There was some vague nonsense in the corner that said “These are the lands of the Giant-men,” but no details. We were just heading out into nowhere, so I thought; to the kind of places where old-timey maps say “here there be monsters.”

  The Captain filled in the route as he went, though, in his diary. He was near-religious about that diary. He’d even brought extra volumes to write in. They weighed down one of the mules something fierce. But the blank volumes were ruined by the weather in Shelter Valley, while I was away rescuing the company when they were captured. So, in the end there was just the one.

  INT: Where is Shelter Valley?

  G: Here—about. If you’ll give me some paper, I can draw a better map than this. I read through his diary real careful, cover to cover, after he gave it to me. I can draw his maps.

  INT: I’ll have some brought to you after we’re finished today.

  G: Much obliged to you, Madame. We were looking for a place to winter after we got caught by an early snowstorm in December. The company was split up for a bit, as the Captain had sent Wuggins and Molenose off to scout a better path for our mules.

  INT: What happened between August and December? That’s four months.

  G: An awful lot of trees, mostly. And bickering. The old men got to have their friends and feuds, same as any bunch of teenagers if you put them in one room long enough. There were cards and dice to argue about, and salt rations, and who could piss fastest.

  INT: Don’t you mean farthest?

  G: Once you’re over fifty, Madame, the real measure of a man is how fast he can start, not how far he can reach. And a good thing it is, too, as my old bladder ended up saving our company.

  As I said, Molenose and Wuggins had been sent on ahead, and were overdue. The Captain took a couple men—Harold the Horse and Dan Bottle, I think it was—to follow their path, and left the rest of us to shelter in a shallow valley. It weren’t much shelter, let me tell you. We built walls out of the snow and huddled together just to keep a little warmth. Near two weeks the Captain was gone, with us eating little nibbles of food and drinking snow and trying to keep the fire burning. And we’d begun to think we’d seen the last of him. The men’s spirits were low, let me tell you. We’d all come to trust in the Captain to take care of us, more than anyone else. The loss of him hurt our hopes something vicious.

  But then he showed up one evening with Harold, saying he’d found the missing scouts and left Dan Bottle to take care of them. Wuggins fell into some pit and broke his leg, he told us. We broke our camp and moved out with him, and sure enough he led us to a deep, sheltered valley. Only we didn’t find Wuggins or Molenose or Dan Bottle—just the remains of their campfire, half-buried in the snow at the bottom of a pit, with a cave entrance on one side.

  That night we camped at the bottom of the pit, meaning to explore the cave next day. Only lucky for all of us, I had to go out and take a piss in the wee hours, if you follow me, and had some trouble getting started. So I missed what happened next.

  I’d climbed out of the pit—the Captain always says don’t wee where you live—and was just waiting patiently to start my business when I heard a commotion and racket from back at the camp. I tucked myself away as quick as I could, ‘cause it wouldn’t do to go charging into battle with little Guillam flopping around out there. But by the time I stomped back through the snow, it was all over. There was a foul smoke coming from the fire that made my head spin, and the snow was all stirred up like there’d been a fight, but no sign of our fellows.

  I thought a bit, then gathered up the men who were out on watch just then: Gilward and Howie Fishhead, Frosty Fred and Wognut, Hralph the Tiny and Gerald the Puce. We agreed that Gilward and Howie Fishhead should stay behind to watch the mules and the chests, and I took the others in to see what we could find of our Captain and our companions.

  It was real dark inside, and we risked a hooded lantern. I figured some terrible thing would jump out and eat us at any moment. But the snowy tracks on the ground made it plain enough that the attackers walked around on two legs, at least. We followed the trail of wet for a long as we could, lighting our way with just the one lantern. The cave was well made, crafted proper-like, and didn’t branch. Plain as the day, it was made by men. Or by something like a man; something that could bore through solid rock just as straight as the King of Brasse’s arrow shaft.

  It went deeper than ever we thought it could. It was more like a highway underground, as we found out later, than a cave. And we five who were following went slow, as we didn’t know the place, and an ambush could be waiting anywhere. But there was no ambush, and after a few hours we took a breather, and decided we’d better go back for supplies. That done, we went back in at dawn, and trudged along through the dark.

  We found them after more time than I could count. Must have been a day, at least, because we had to stop and take a rest in the tunnel. Eventually we started seeing openings in the passage, left and right; but these were empty, save for some pits in the floor that just invited a man to fall in. We kept to the main passage, and then saw ahead the most amazing sight.

  It was a vast open space underground, and there was light coming down from far above. And these three trees—bigger than any trees I ever seen—were growing right there underground, with their branches reaching up toward the light above. There were piles of snow at the base of the trees, so it was plain enough there were openings to the sky far above. But their roots were worked right down into the rock, getting food and water, I suppose, from deep in the cracks they’d made. How they came to be there I couldn’t tell, but they made a perfect triangle in the center of the space.

  We saw Giant-men for the first time, then, and we were afraid. They were in the middle, around a fire. We dared not go in. They were twelve feet tall, or fourteen, and hulking great brutes with perfectly shaped bodies; like those statues you seen in palaces taking a piss into a fountain. We got a look at them, and pulled back.

  But we could see from their torches, as they moved around, that they’d got the men of our company tied up around great dark shapes further away from the trees. We found out later these were heaps of iron, fashioned as if they were some mad machines, but rusting and rotten. Near the three trees, we could see a pair of great pillars faintly in the darkness. A witchy sight it was.

  The men and I, who were free, didn’t dare to go in. We knew well enough what would happen if those great hulking Giant-men got ahold of us. So we pulled back, and hid down in one of the pits in the side chambers, and made our plans. Not for a minute, not one second, Madame, did we think of abandoning the Captain and our fellows to their fate. Maybe we would be too late to help them, when we came up with a plan—but we would make the effort, and die in some cunning and desperate way if we had to.

  At first, our only concern was to avoid capture ourselves, while remaining close by. We watched and listened from inside our pit, learning how they went about their business. It was rare for them to come into the long passage, and rarer for them to come in the side rooms. The spaces were too low and narrow for their huge bodies. They did make several journeys back down the long road that we had followed, but after a few days, these stopped. And so we were left alone to watch. We huddled in the dark, eating little, drinking less, to conserve what we had and wait for an opportunity. At last, we were forced to send two men back for more supplies. When they returned, after what felt like weeks, we began to believe God smiled on us.

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  At last we worked up the courage to come out of our pit and set watchers on the large chamber. We spied on them for many weeks, judging by the lighting and darkening of the distant sky through the holes above the trees. One, especially large and strong, with hair like straw and eyes of blue, was plainly the leader. They went hunting in other tunnels and brought back enormous, shaggy, hairy beasts to roast. As we were living on crumbs, we found the smell of the roasting meat nearly more than we could bear. What their purpose was in lingering there, we could not guess; but every day, we saw them working closely with the great heaps of ancient machinery, sometimes crawling up on them, sometimes going inside them. Sometimes they even seemed to speak to the hulks.

  And then finally, one day, they broke up and began to move away. Eight, including the female but not the tall leader, gathered up their prisoners and chained them together, foot to foot. The others, with the especially tall one, dispersed into the darkness. We never saw that group again. But we could not let our friends be led away, and so we followed the first group and prepared to fight if we should have to. And once again, God smiled on us.

  We hurried after the group that took our captive companions. As we crossed the great chamber, we got a look at the trees up close. The floor was scattered with oak leaves and acorns, and the trunks were so wide that all of us could have linked hand to hand, and still we could not have encircled them. Two of the trunks were strong and healthy, but one looked half rotten and twisted; parts of the trunk were still alive, but other parts had died.

  INT: Our time together is short, monsieur. Do not dwell on irrelevant details.

  G: As you wish. We tailed after the group of eight Giant-men, not daring to follow too close in case they should turn back suddenly. The light of their lamps remained steady ahead of us, and they did not leave the main tunnel.

  From time to time, we saw side chambers and passages branch away now from the route they followed. Once I had figured the pace of the Giant-men ahead, and knew that we could keep up at a steady trot, I sent the men with me out in twos to explore the side passages and catch up later. You see, Madame, I knew that the Giant-men were stronger and faster than us, and we could never beat them in a fair fight—but no good mercenary ever fights fair if he can help it. I wanted to know what was behind me, in case we needed to use it. And we did.

  Once we had studied their rest habits, I snuck forward in the darkness and put an arrow-shaft through the eye of one of their sentries from thirty paces. It’s a larger target than a man’s eye, but their brains are in the same place. He went down, and I slipped to a safe distance to hear their shouts. Then we fell back to one of the smaller side passages, where they would have a hard time following us.

  At their next rest, we watched, but did not strike. We knew they would be more alert. But I could feel time was against us; I did not know where they were going to, or when they would get there. So on the following rest, I snuck forward again in the dark and found a sentry. I tried to hit the eye again, but missed, gouging his face instead. So I put two arrows in his chest, and two more in his throat.

  Now our confidence grew. The Giant-men were mortal, and what’s more we could slay them if we were careful. But they are also cunning, and they grew wary. They sent a party of three back toward us in the darkness, and we had to flee. With our friends being taken farther and farther away, running made my blood boil like a kettle. But I couldn’t risk our lives in some stupid fight with three creatures that could crush our skulls or chests with one hand.

  We knew the tunnels, now. We made a show of noise and confusion, luring them into a larger side chamber, where narrow ledges could hold a man while he loosed a bow. Hralf the Tiny had found it two marches back, and we’d mapped it out together. I sent the men to scramble up to their perches by the light of their hooded lanterns, and I myself led the Giant-men into the trap, staying just ahead of them.

  Even shooting from above in an ambush, they went down hard. I myself doubled back when the arrows began to fall among them, as close as I dared, and shot into their eyes and throats at close range. It’s one thing to put an arrow in the eye of a Giant-man who’s standing still, not expecting anything, but quite another to try to hit a target that’s flailing at you with six-foot arms. But I can see, Madame, that you are not in the mood for a lengthy description of my battles. We slew them by the light of their own lamps, and recovered what arrows we could. We knew we would need them again.

  INT: No casualties?

  G: Not yet. They would come. We ran hard through the dark tunnels, trying to catch up with the remaining Giant-men, who had a considerable head start. After what I think was four days of hard jogging, with very few rests, wondering if perhaps they had taken some unseen side passage in the dark, we began to lose hope. But then, without warning, we stumbled directly into them.

  There was no time to prepare, or to sneak, in our final fight. We simply had to react. I got off a lucky shot, and put an arrow through the throat of one, but then we had to scrap with them hand to hand for the first time, and it was bad. Gerald the Puce took an ugly hit on the head, and went down immediately. We thought he was gone, though he wore an iron cap. The rest of us did what we could to evade the swings of their great swords and spears. To make contact with one of their weapons, even to block it, would be death.

  But then the Captain was there, and all the rest of the men. They’d got free somehow, and they picked up whatever weapons they could find and came forward at a run. They attacked the two remaining Giant-men from behind. You should see the Captain fight, Madame! He’s as fearsome as a Giant-man, and faster on his feet. He stabbed one in the kidneys as they came on from behind. And he danced toe to toe with the last one, who was a giantess. But I couldn’t let my Captain fight her alone, so I used my last arrows too, and managed to land a few in her legs and rear. At last she could fight no more, and yielded. Though, as I will tell you, this was not the last we saw of that one.

  Our companions were glad to see us, and we were glad to see them. I will not waste your time, Madame, describing that happy reunion. But if you should ever read the Captain’s diary, he did have some very kind things to say about us men who had followed them. He called me dotty, and I think he meant it to be a compliment. I don’t read Uellish so well, but I made it through all the pages of the diary.

  We led them back through the caves to Shelter Valley, where we found Gilward and Howie Fishhead waiting for us. They hadn’t even eaten any of the mules.

  We stayed there in Shelter for the rest of the winter, until we reckoned it was April and the snows began to break up enough to travel. There was game to hunt and eat, and a little stream where we could get water. We found some herbs that we old soldiers know can drive off the scurvy. And when April came, the Captain gathered us all together, and said he meant to go on to the North, but any man who wanted to could go on back home. And not a one of us, Madame, not one, raised his hand and asked to go home.

  INT: Inspiring, I’m sure. But I need to know how, when, and where you parted with Sir Richard, monsieur.

  G: I have to get to that, Madame. It won’t make any sense if I just skip right to it.

  We traveled about two weeks after we left Shelter. It was hard going, but we didn’t see Giant-men while we travelled. The land got to be quite steep, as we drew closer to the big mountain range that the Captain called the “Heights of Folly.” I think it’s meant to be funny in Uellish, because the other men all rolled their eyes whenever he said it. We made our way up, and as we did we began to see signs of old buildings. I mean really old, like the stone ruins with the writing on them that you see here in Uelland.

  At the top of the highland there was a wide plateau, and we journeyed north and west on it for many days. We began to see lights in the distance, and we hid from them as best we could. But the Captain insisted we had to go forward, and we followed him. He’s the sort of man you just have to follow, Madame. I think you know a bit about that yourself, eh? You’ve got that look to you.

  INT: People do what I say because I reward them, or punish them if they don’t.

  G: You are mistaken, madame. Payment and punishment have very little to do with it. They follow you because you draw them with your actions and your self.

  INT: When did you last see Sir Richard?

  G: Patience, madame! First, we came upon a farmhouse, and working the fields were two Giant-men; a man and a woman. They were surprised to see us, but hospitable and polite. That surprised us as much as we surprised them. They gave us soup, but we could not talk to them. We did not speak their language, and they did not understand ours. We slept that night in the field near their farm, and carried on the next day, following a broad road, which to them was probably a little farm track.

  We began to see more farms in the distance, but before we could visit them, we were stopped by a large company of armed Giant-men. They wore suits of the most enormous steel plate I have ever seen, and great, fearsome helmets, and they carried two-handed swords that could cut clean through a Broobian war elephant. And imagine my surprise, madame, when I saw that their leader was just the same female we’d fought, and left, in the tunnels that winter! She must have recovered from her wounds and escaped here, to her home. I learned later that her name is Fiond. But you will scold me for getting ahead of myself.

  Ah, that is good coffee. And look at this! The mug even has an ‘S’ on it. You people put that on everything, but it’s a good-looking ‘S’. It has style.

  Sir Richard told us not to resist, and so we gave up our weapons. They took us through the countryside, and there began to be more farms, and villages, and towns. And finally there was a city, situated in a deep, broad valley. It is a city of Giant-men, madame, and so of course it is giant. And on the far wall of the valley there are carvings in the rock. Statues of Giant-men you see, and pillars, and other creatures that I cannot name or describe, except to say that they are awful. A flight of steps leads up to the single entrance to the rock. It is their Temple, and that is where we were taken.

  But first we were separated from the Captain.

  INT: Is that when you last saw him?

  G: No. He came for us, later. But we thought it would be the last we’d see of him. Our belongings were taken from us, and we were led deep into the temple. They put blindfolds on us, so we couldn’t see what was inside. When they took them off, we were shoved into tiny cells, each man in his own.

  And that is where we spent the next seven weeks.

  INT: That is a surprisingly precise measure of time.

  G: I read the count of days later, in his diary. He marked the days off very precisely. It was the twenty-fourth of June when he came for us. But we thought we would stay in prison forever. We could not see the light, and could not mark the time. We were brought food and water, and buckets for piss and shit, which they took away to be emptied from time to time. But in all other respects, we were forgotten. What they meant to do with us in that place, I cannot tell you, or imagine. I saw the jailors only rarely, when they came with the food or the piss bucket. They wore white robes, and had the look of priests, or perhaps scribes.

  We could speak among ourselves, some of us. We talked between the cells to try to keep up our spirits. But you must understand, madame, that we had no hope. We were sure the Captain was dead, and that we would eventually follow him. It was a matter of waiting in the dark to die.

  But he was not dead, as I found out. One day a Giant-man came and hauled me out of my cell, and brought me back out into the light. He took me down into the city, slung over one shoulder like a sack. I could not see well where we went, but we passed under some great archway in a thick wall. And then he set me down in a kind of arena, with great rows of seats, all arranged in a circle, facing an open spot. It was just like the grand old stories of gladiators in the Empire; except I was the man who was to die.

  There was a crowd of Giant-men in the stands, all dressed up gaily in wild colors. My eyes hurt from the light. It was too much to take in. But in one stand, at the end of the arena, there was a specially grand-looking Giant-man, who I took to be their king. At one side of was the giantess, Fiond, and on the other was the blond-haired leader of the group who had captured us. But I was even more surprised to see my own Captain sitting nearby as well—dressed up as nice as could be, and looking as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

  I read later about his adventures in the court of King Vekelm. But understand, madame, that at this time I knew nothing at all. I thought perhaps he had betrayed us.

  The Captain’s armor and sword were piled up in the center of the arena, but I ignored them and started toward the stand with the King. But then the crowd made a big noise, and I saw the other gladiator—a great hulking brute of a Giant-man, wearing his own armor and carrying a spear that was thicker than my neck.

  I saw how it was. Even in this distant place, they wanted me to fight and die so they could have a chuckle. I vowed to give them the best chuckle I could, and started trying to get into the knight’s armor—since it was there, and plainly they meant for me to wear it. But it’s a mess of trouble, trying to put on full body armor by yourself. I usually help the Captain into his.

  Then he was there with me, and all my doubts went away. He’d hopped into the ring and run over, and he stood between me and the King’s box. And he said words in their language! This was the biggest surprise yet. But he talked to them in words they understood. And he said something else to the big one that had come in the ring, and he stopped too.

  He whispered to me as I was led away again, and I’ll never forget those words, for they were nearly the last I ever heard from him. “Have faith, Guillam,” he said. “I will not forget you.”

  I didn’t see the fight. I was taken away. I could only read about it later, in the diary. But I expect the Captain played down his own part. He’s like that, you know, madame. All through that diary, whenever there’s some time he needs to talk about his own deeds, he leaves out all the best parts, so it looks like he’s just doing what anyone else could do if he put his mind to it. A right proper Crown Knight, that one.

  INT: When was the last time you saw him?

  G: In Nipol Grotsvor, it was some five weeks later, according to the entries in the diary. Though, as I said, I saw him one more time just west of Hog Hurst. But when I saw him next in the city of the Giant-men, he’d learned more of their language, and made a friend of one of the priests, named Kuerlo; and also made a friend of Fiond. The diary gets funny toward the end. The Captain started using a cipher, thinking the Giant-men were reading it. How could they do that, I wonder, if they couldn’t speak Uellish. But I figured out the cipher. It’s the misspelled words, you see. They make a message. He’d planned to break in with Fiond and rescue us, and then one night he did it. Wrote down his last message to King Leeland, and figured he’d never succeed. But he was going to try, because that’s the kind of man he is. The best Crown Knight.

  INT: I take it he did succeed.

  G: He did. He and Fiond showed up in the jails, and she just goes and rips the doors right off the hinges. She’s as strong as an ox, just like the rest of them.

  INT: How could they have possibly gotten into the temple without being noticed? You said there was only one entrance, and you were deep inside it.

  G: Do you have the diary?

  INT: No.

  G: Well, you know, he’s a sly one, our Captain. As sly as he is brave. Fiond went in dressed as one of the priests, with the Captain chained up as if he were a prisoner.

  INT: That’s the oldest, soggiest trick in the book of old, soggy tricks. It works alright in operas, but never in real life. There’s always paperwork, and checks, and chain of custody.

  G: Well, those Giant-men haven’t seen many good operas, I reckon. Maybe they don’t have your book of old, soggy tricks neither.

  INT: What happened to Sir Richard?

  G: He left us behind. Told us to escape, and said he was going in deeper, to make a ruckus and draw the Giant-men away from us. Gave us his diary and sword, and made us promise to take them back to King Leeland.

  INT: Did you?

  G: Not exactly. We did make it out of the temple, and escaped the city. And I did aim to keep our promise, so I sent the sword and diary with Harold the Horse, Gilward, and Wognut. Told them to make their way back to Uelland as best they could. But me and the rest of the men, we were going to go back in and try to rescue the Captain.

  INT: But you said you read the diary.

  G: Aye, I did. Cover to cover, and studied it real well.

  INT: Is there anything else in the diary?

  G: Just his entries, and maps.

  INT: Nothing else?

  G: No. But I can draw the maps for you. I’ve got a good eye for remembering pictures.

  INT: Please do. I may be able to expedite your release if you can help us with those maps. I have to go now, and I’ll return later. But Monsieur Broussuei, before I leave: What happened when you tried to get back in and rescue Sir Richard?

  G: We were caught again, of course. And that’s when I got to know Fiond, and found out about the Kapleswed, and what the Captain had turned into. That’s how I ended up coming south with her, and trying to follow him, and eventually got caught by those goblins in the forests over the frontier.

  INT: I can see there’s more we need to discuss, Monsieur. For now, draw out your maps, and I’ll have a meal sent in. The bed is small, but I think you’ll find it more comfortable than the cells in the temple of the Giant-men. The man outside the door will bring you anything you need.

  G: Thank you, madame. Will he let me leave?

  INT: You don’t need that right now—so no, he will not. And Monsieur Broussuei: Don’t lie to me. I don’t care for it. We have certain herbs that will help me confirm your story, if I should suspect you of omitting any essential details.

  G: I wouldn’t dream of it, madame, on my honor as a mercenary and a Brassen.

  INT: Neither group is known for its honor, monsieur. Good day.

  G: Wait. We had a deal. Who are you?

  INT: My name is Veridia Snipe.