I thought little of these events the next day, being occupied rather with my futile attempts to find a person of interest to me. I happened to stop by Elerias’s shop late in the day, only to find him pacing back and forth in front of the entrance in a near-frenzy. When he saw me he began waving a wax tablet in front of my face. “What is this? What happened?” he demanded of me.

Since I was less able to answer these questions than he was at the moment, and I suspected I was dealing with a madman, possessed no doubt by Anu after his incautious invocation, I said some calming things and took him inside. There, after a little while, he regained control of himself and said more softly, “I have been cheated by a magician.”

“Whatever do you mean? Metsinaram cheated you, then?”

He waved the tablet in front of my face again. “Can you tell me what this is?”

“It looks like a tiny wax tablet with a symbol carved into it,” I said. I am generally quite perceptive, though my friends dispute that fact whenever I mention it. Jealousy, no doubt.

“I can tell that!” Elerias seemed frustrated. “This morning I was so worried about the gold that I had to check on it, and in its place what do you think I found? This tablet, and that was all. The rings were gone!” He snapped his fingers to demonstrate the suddenness of their disappearance, though it occurred to me that perhaps it had taken them some time to vanish. My readers may recall that this was not my first encounter with vanishing magic, and on the previous occasion it had worked instantly, but who knows the arts of the magicians? Besides other magicians, I suppose.

“I have never seen anything like this symbol before,” I said. Its basic shape was triangular, but there were various curls and flourishes around it. In the upper left corner a number of flourishes combined to form something like a diamond. “If you want my advice, you should ask Aguthāso at the library. He can read the scripts of every people from here to Lordant.”

“I would be obliged if you would introduce me to this Aguthāso,” said Elerias.

So I brought Elerias to the great library of Edazzo, which was and is under the patronage of Lord Agamnu. It is a plain building in itself, but the pools of clear water and the exuberantly colored flowers lend it a certain brightness that makes it a favored place for both lovers and scholars, which, come to think of it, are much the same thing. A scholar is, after all, a lover of the truth, one who takes her in his embrace and kisses her fondly. (This analogy occurred to me just now, and I am quite proud of it, though I worry it suggests either that I spend too much time with scholars or not enough with lovely women.)

I was delighted to find Aguthāso just inside the entrance, sitting in the square courtyard reading something or other. I made the appropriate introductions between the two, and Elerias was quick to thrust his wax tablet in Aguthāso’s face. “Can you tell me what this is?”

“It is a tiny wax tablet with a symbol carved on it,” Aguthāso said.

“I can see that you two are friends. No, no, no! What does the symbol mean?”

“It is an Uste insignia. I am not sure of the exact significance, but this mark in the corner is homologous to the mark we use to indicate the name of a god. Fortunately, I believe I do know where to find an index of Uste gods. It has come to this library through a long and complicated trail, since the Uste priests keep their gods to themselves. There is an entire series of rituals and precautions that we would normally have to follow before studying these matters, to prevent the Uste gods’ wrath from plaguing us, but happily there are enough loopholes in their sacred law that these charms hanging from the ceiling should probably protect us.”

“Should probably?” asked Elerias with a trader’s eye for these details.

“Should probably,” Aguthāso repeated. Elerias was hesitant, but I was not especially frightened of the wrath of Metsinaram’s gods, which I strongly suspected he had made up on the spot. Boldly I followed Aguthāso to the room where the critical tablet was kept. When I had heard Aguthāso’s mention of charms hanging from the ceiling, I had not precisely imagined hundreds of colorful threads tied to a series of stone bars suspended between the two high windows, but that is what filled the room and caused me to momentarily doubt my eyes. Aguthāso pushed through the threads to the pedestal on the other side of the room and there he stood for some time reading. Elerias hung back at the entrance, unwilling to cross the threshold into the space beyond, filled with charms and wrath as it was.

“It is the symbol of Kolodrinam,” Aguthāso said. “Kolodrinam is a god with two primary functions. The first is to govern headwear.”

“That doesn’t seem relevant,” Elerias said. I agreed, though I couldn’t help touching my own hat self-consciously.

“The second is to create and dispel illusions.”

“That is it! That is much better! That man cheated me with the help of his barbaric gods! How can I get my gold back?”

“No doubt, but it may not be possible. The secret gods of the Uste will not help those who have been born outside the Uste cities.”

“It is too late to change that, I fear. You know I am a pious man, but there are certain gods that make one long to be a materialist. I will have to be more careful in my future dealings with gods of whom I have never heard.”

I could tell that despite his philosophical words, Elerias was consumed with inward bitterness over his loss. It was obvious in the way he smiled at his customers and in the way he gnawed at his bread as if it were Metsinaram’s heart. He remarked to me the next day, “It doesn’t matter. My gods are stronger than his. Horos sees them, Adai speaks against them, and the hands of Teleks and Sattas reach out to bind them.” I cautioned him against any foolhardy action and he seemed to heed my advice.

Or so I thought at first. I did not see Elerias again for about a month. During that time, one of my other friends had brought me news of a man he had seen in a neighboring allied city, whose name was Nārintho. That was the city’s name, not the man’s. Due to certain events in my past I am always seeking word of men who seem to live under hills or take children as changelings. I doubted very much that this trail would be a fruitful one, but when one is deprived of fruit, one must search for it on whatever trails one can find.

I am no sailor; salt water does not fill my veins; I would be puzzled to explain the difference between a leech and a clew. I have not enjoyed the few sea voyages I have taken, generally feeling during their duration as if my stomach had been used as the ball in a hard-fought game between two teams of elephants. Happily this voyage from Edazzo to Nārintho was somewhat more pleasant: perhaps I am growing used to the waves. Perhaps I will end up half fish, though I hope not.

I made sufficient inquiries to convince myself that the man my friend had seen was not one of the fair folk, but only an innocent stranger maligned by the suspicions of various fools in Nārintho. This was a bitter, though not unexpected, disappointment to me. As I was retracing my path to the docks, I heard a high voice calling for help. It is one of my virtues that I am both quick and bold to come to the aid of those who need it, and so I turned on my heel and ran to the place where I thought the voice was coming from. As it happened, the place I thought the voice was coming from was not actually the place the voice was coming from, so I lost some time trying to find my way to the proper place.

“Oh,” the woman said. “It’s you.”

This was not an encouraging response, especially as I recognized the woman with her striking blond hair. I didn’t immediately see what help she was in such desperate need of, and since she was a magician of some sort, I didn’t see how I could help her in any useful fashion.

I am afraid I looked at her rather stupidly for a few minutes, and it was she who broke the silence by adding, “I am surprised to see you again, but we don’t have time to talk about it. There’s someone looking for me and I don’t want to be found.”

My gaze was drawn by the array of rings she now wore on both her hands. “Disappearing shouldn’t be a problem for you. Unless you’ve lost some skill since we last met.”

“I have been a fool,” she replied. I denied the statement politely. “No, I have. I lent one of my rings to a friend, but she lent it to a friend of hers. Now it is out of my hands and being used for Heaven only knows what.”

“Another disappearing ring?”

“It certainly disappeared from my sight,” she said. I acknowledged her feeble joke with a nod of my head. “But this one makes things appear. Illusions, not real physical things.”

“Phantasms,” I said.

“Mirages.”

“Fantasies.”

We were getting along pleasantly, but I had concerns of my own and couldn’t dedicate much of my attention to her disappearing or appearing ring. And yet, she was beautiful in her own way, and the mysteries around her only added to the attraction that I admit I couldn’t help feeling for her. I decided to ask her where she learned magic, as this seemed both a pleasant topic of conversation, not to mention a way of delving into the aforementioned mysteries. She only smiled and shook her head. “It is a city and a country of which you will not have heard. I’m afraid the opportunity for you to learn has passed, since I am a mediocre magician and a worse teacher.”

I did not, in fact, desire to learn magic on my own account. It would be easy for me to blame magic for nearly all the misfortunes that have come upon me in the past several years, yet when it is practiced by the charming it cannot help but acquire their charm. Even the most charming fair folk, well, that is another story.

There was a brief silence between us, which I broke with the first thing that came into my mouth to say. “If I happen to come across your appearing ring, I certainly will bring word of it to you.”

“Thank you. It bears an amethyst and the image of a hand with a star. I will be in this quarter of Nārintho for a few months yet.” She gave a quick glance behind her like a startled songbird. I have never been good with birds, and I am not at all sure that the birds in this section of the world are the same as the birds that my tutor tried in vain to identify for me when I was a child. There is, of course, the Bird that sits on my head, but that is only a name I give it out of some vague similarity in its physical shape and the sound of its voice. “Oh!” the woman exclaimed. “I had nearly forgotten! I am sorry, but I really must go now. If I am late for this dinner party, I will never be able to show my face in Nārintho again.”

She gave me a courteous nod of her head and scurried off. That is the best word for it, I think, but it is a remarkable fact that even while scurrying she was quite pretty. I shouted my own farewell after her and returned to the docks. It took me some time to realize that there was a possible connection between the woman’s disappearing ring and the illusions of Metsinaram. It took me some time also to realize that I had forgotten to ask the woman’s name.

Upon returning to Edazzo, I sought out Elerias immediately. The voyage had been a tiring one, but I am always willing to exert myself on behalf of my friends. He was not where I expected to find him in his shop, but a helpful urchin, after the usual abuse directed my way, told me where he had gone.

This destination of Elerias’s was a doorway nestled, nearly hidden, between two more prominent entrances. Written over the lintel of the door were two words that I decided could only be read KELET and ATTAS, whatever that meant. I went in, and was not especially surprised (for he was a pious man) to see Elerias kneeling before a statue of two young gods hand-in-hand.

“We will see now,” Elerias said to me, and there was something in his voice that reminded me of a dog that had scented its prey and was about to run it down. I am not sure why so many animal metaphors were occurring to me at that time. Perhaps I had been in the cities so long that I missed the hunts of my youth.

“What do you mean? See about what?”

“About that Metsinaram and his theft. I have gone to every temple of every god in Edazzo to ask for their help. We’ll see if the Uste gods can beat the gods of Edazzo in their own land, in their own city!”

He sounded triumphant, but I myself do not put much more stock in the gods of the Parako than the gods of the Uste. Nevertheless I attended the events that followed with some interest. Elerias’s mood fluctuated from day to day, as he was always sure either that his gods were about to bring Metsinaram cringing back to repay what he owed, or that the Uste gods were about to bring some calamity on him for challenging them. But neither of these happened, and Elerias’s moods began to settle into a general gloom.

“If one or the other thing had happened,” I remarked in an attempt to lighten his thoughts, “it would at least be an answer. But to leave a question hanging without an answer is a torture I do not believe even the most inventive tormentor has yet devised.”

Elerias did not seem amused. “Very well,” he said, I think half to himself and half to me. “I’ll go to Aguthāso again and learn everything I can about What’s-His-Name and Whoever-She-Is and all the gods of the Uste. There has to be some way I can gain an advantage over that mountebank!”

So we went to the library again and found Aguthāso again. He did not seem especially surprised to see us. “I suppose you have more questions for me, or rather, for the tablet.”

“I want to know everything you can tell me about the Uste gods, from the first to the last.”

“It may take some time.”

“My apprentice can look after the shop. I have as much time as I need.”

As I had no pressing engagements that day, I accompanied them to the room of charms, where shielded by their presence we studied the tablet. I was fully prepared to remain there for the rest of the day listening to the arcane names and tangled properties of a whole array of deities, something like the row of gods I had seen carried through the streets by their respective priests on the occasion of the brief theomachy that had entangled Edazzo not long ago. But I wander from my narrative.

The very first god that Aguthāso spoke of was Arraliturom, whom Metsinaram had invoked earlier. “Arraliturom is a god of vows, but he has a special fondness for broken vows.”

“That explains some things,” said Elerias. “It would be only justice if I could use Arraliturom against him somehow.”

Aguthāso hummed to himself as he read the tablet. I peered over his shoulder in optimistic hopes that I would be able to help, but he moved his shoulders to block my vision. Well, if he wanted to read on his own, that was a burden he would have to bear. I occupied myself by studying the charms that hung down around me. They bore symbols, but I understood none of them.

Around the time that I finished the last of the charms trailing over my shoulders, Aguthāso looked up at us both and shook his head. “Are you sure you want me to go through them all? It is a long and tedious list.”

“By Horoso!” Elerias exclaimed. “In the time it took to read them to yourself, I’m sure you could have explained every single one of their names, genealogy, and powers.”

“There are many arcane terms,” said an unperturbed Aguthāso. “I want to make sure I can read them all properly, so that I do not mislead you or worse, blaspheme.”

I will not weary my readers with an account of every Uste god, most of which I had forgotten by the time Aguthāso reached the end of his recitation. Elerias paid more attention, and when Aguthāso had finished, he stood and paced for a while. “Wuluham,” he said. “There is a shrine for a god named Wuluham at the fringe of the guest quarter. I know because I asked if I could make an offering and was refused on the petty grounds that Wuluham did not accept offerings from foreigners. But I have a plan, and I will set Lurtias against Arraliturom.

“Do either one of you know how to fake an injury?” he asked. Aguthāso scratched his head and said nothing. I rubbed my chin and said nothing. With a sigh, Elerias said, “I suppose I’ll have to figure this out on my own.” We left the library, and as Elerias stepped into the street he was struck by a falling tile.

Aguthāso and I brought him some water, but he insisted loudly that we bring him to the shrine of Wuluham. At first we were inclined to regard this as the ravings of a man injured in the head, but as he kept repeating the phrase, “part of my plan,” we decided to do as he said.

I do not recall precisely I imagined the shrine of Wuluham to be, but vague memories of the charms in the library came to my mind. In fact, the shrine was a rather large space overshadowed by a red-painted portico. Although their shapes were hidden by the shadows, there seemed to be representations of dragons running left and right across the threshold. We were met at the entrance by a pair of priests or attendants or some such officers. Both had their hair cut after the fashion of Metsinaram, and indeed one of them was Metsinaram.

While Aguthāso explained Elerias’s accident, I wandered into the shrine to look around. Or that is what I tried to do, but the other priest, the one I’d never seen before, put out his arm to block my path. “You are not Uste,” he said.

My Bird speaks in many different languages, and although it is not entirely under my control which it uses at any given time, I like to think I have some influence. I tried very hard to think about Uste names when I said, “Am I not?”

“You know the hieratic tongue?” He seemed almost as surprised as I was.

“I do,” I replied despite the Bird’s protests.

“Then you may enter and behold the god.”

As much as I would like to describe a temple full of wonders, the actual shrine was, I am afraid, somewhat on the shabby side. Its only features of interest were the image of the god, which was a slab with a vaguely defined face and a series of identical symbols, and a bowl full of what I assumed to be holy water. Metsinaram came into the shrine, gave me an odd look, and poured some of the water into a cup. He left, and I followed him in time to see him sprinkle the water over Elerias’s face. (Aguthāso was gone by this point, no doubt having returned to the library.) As Elerias sputtered, Metsinaram recited the names of several gods, but it was Wuluham’s name that he repeated multiple times.

I am assuming that it was the names of gods he was reciting, and not the names of his closest relatives, though I have no way of knowing for sure. It was difficult for me to catch everything Metsinaram said, and I am not familiar with his family, which I presume to be living today in some Uste city, memorizing divine names and learning the secret hieratic language. These things are, I believe, peculiar to the priestly families of Uste, as I encountered nothing of the sort during my brief sojourn in their territory.

“I am delighted to see you awake,” Metsinaram said to Elerias.

“I wish I wasn’t,” Elerias replied. His lack of courtesy is understandable, I think, though my readers may disagree. “How did I offend the Bountiful Lord to be sent down next to you in the underworld?”

“You smoothly should recover,” Metsinaram said without any reaction.

“So this is Wuluham’s shrine and you are his priest.”

“It is Wuluham’s grace that we have again run into one another.”

“I know about your magic tricks. You cheated me, and I do not take kindly to cheats.”

“Try to avoid becoming agitated. You should rest and sit out of the sun. This shrine is a hospitable place and you will be allowed to stay until Wuluham fully has healed you. Food and drink will be provided for you at a nominal price.”

“I have a business to run, as you may remember, and I would like to return to it as soon as possible. I have no intention of staying here.”

“Certainly you may leave whenever you wish. Do you wish before you go to have a cup of wine?”

Elerias mopped the holy water from his hair with his sleeve. I wondered if his sleeve was holy now, or if any tear in it would be miraculously mended, but I knew better than to ask these questions, especially after the theomachy. “No, I do not wish before I go to have a cup of wine.”

“Then there is one minor matter only that we must discuss,” said Metsinaram, ignoring Elerias’s mockery.

“Your dishonesty? But no, that is not minor.”

Metsinaram clicked his tongue, looking very pious suddenly. “The money you owe me.”

“The money I owe you? It is the other way around, Metsinaram.”

“Understand that myself, I would be happy to take voluntary donations only. But Wuluham is a stern god and does require repayment.”

“You intend to cheat me again?”

“It would be unfortunate if Wuluham took back his gift of healing. Who knows what would become of you after that? It would be very unfortunate.”

“Nonsense. I was not hurt that badly.”

“Have you forgotten the eidolon of golden rings I made for you? Do you doubt the power of my gods?” And Metsinaram raised one hand. “I invoke thee, great Wuluham of the many faces, and implore thee!”

“No, no, no. How much money do I owe Wuluham?”

“Let me count. Ten, thirteen, twenty of your small weights of gold.”

Elerias turned his head down and to the side, but I, with my keen perception, saw the smile that was briefly on his face. “Give me a day, and I will bring you the money here. And after that I don’t want to see you again, in this or any other part of the world.”

“I will do my best to have it be so,” said Metsinaram, and splashed some more holy water on Elerias’s head. He moved as if to splash me, but I saw him coming and dodged out of his way.

When we had returned to his shop, Elerias dismissed his assistant with a wave of his hand. The boy seemed worried about the bandages he wore on his head, but Elerias ignored him and said to me, “I am sorely tempted to break my vows by cursing in the names of various and sundry gods. Do you think if I say them in my mind, without moving my lips, it would count as breaking my vow?”

“I’m sure the gods would understand. Metsinaram has cheated you left and right.”

“No, no! Metsinaram has done exactly what I hoped he would do.”

I scratched my chin. “You wanted to be cheated?”

“Yes! No! But what am I thinking, explaining it to you?” I was not entirely sure what he meant by this, but I suspected it was not complimentary. “You know that oaths sworn by Lurtias cannot be broken.”

“I have heard that, yes,” I said, though I had never put Lurtias to the test myself. I doubted it was true, but I tend to be overcautious and anyway, it would be silly to go around trying every single thing forbidden by some god or another, many of which are immoral anyway.

“I am tempted to curse because I am worried that this may not work. We’ll see tomorrow, won’t we?”

At this point I had no idea what Elerias was thinking, so I agreed with a certain uncertainty. I returned to my own home, where I believe I dreamed about children playing with a wide variety of toys taken from a basket. They set them up in rows and came up with elaborate stories about their battles with one another, and as they played they became more and more wrapped up in the stories they told. I have heard that the gods often come to visit mortals in their dreams to bring messages and guidance for the future, but it is beyond my capabilities to tell what god would have sent such a dream or what it could be telling me. More often my dreams are the result of too much or too little in my stomach.

Much of the dream has faded from my memory by the time I write. I only recall the bizarre way it ended and the way in which the vast faces stared down at me just before I woke up.

I was eager the next morning to see what Elerias had planned, though my eagerness was not unmixed with a certain amount of trepidation for the consequences if he failed. I met Elerias at his shop and we went together to the shrine of Wuluham. On the way I asked him again what he was thinking, since I observed (worthy of the Hawk of White Mountain, I hope) that he was not carrying any money. Despite my pleas, he refused to say anything apart from terse statements to the effect that I would soon learn what I wanted to know.

“By Teretfaram!” Metsinaram exclaimed as he met us at the entrance to the shrine. This time he was wearing a strange translucent headpiece that shifted back and forth as he moved his head. I have made more study of the Uste and their customs since these events, and I am now convinced that Metsinaram simply made up half of the strange things he said and did. No real order of priests could possibly live by such incomprehensible rules. “My debtor returns. Have you brought the money?”

“No, I have not,” said Elerias. “Not yet. First I would like to clarify our agreement slightly. We did not sanctify it by invoking any god, and I tremble to fulfill any such impious bargain.”

“I began to invoke my gods, but you interrupted rudely me.”

“And I regret it now. Come, for the sake of your gods and mine, let us invite them to be witnesses. I shall swear by your healing god. What was his name again? Luluham?”

“Wuluham,” said Metsinaram. I observed by the twitch of his eye that he was irritated by Elerias’s flippancy. Elerias was, as I have written in several places above, a pious man, but I doubt whether he extended that piety to the innumerable mysterious gods that Metsinaram claimed to worship. Every man has his limit.

“Then I shall swear by your Wuluham, and you shall swear by my Lurtias.”

“The god of the forge?” Metsinaram asked. I observed by the tightening of his lips that he was disgusted. Certain orders of priests, I know, regard Lurtias and his clients as unclean. “I will not. You swear by your gods and I swear by mine.”

“Very well, if you think it is best to do things that way around. You may swear by Wuluham that if I do not keep my oath, I will be overtaken by whatever disaster you wish.”

With a smug smile, Metsinaram raised his hands towards the roof of the shrine behind him. “I call Wuluham as witness that if this man’s oath is not kept, the blessing upon him shall be taken away and his injuries shall return.”

“I swear by Lurtias that I will repay everything I owe this man before the end of the next day.”

I observed by the way Elerias and Metsinaram held each other’s gaze that there was a test of wills between them. “I am satisfied,” Metsinaram said at last, his gaze falling. “I will tomorrow see you.”

“Of that you can be sure,” said Elerias. He turned and walked away, leaving me alone with Metsinaram. He smiled pleasantly at me. I did my best to give him a pleasant smile in return, but I was sufficiently confused and worried that it must have been a fairly unpleasant sight.

I followed Elerias and again pestered him with questions, until again he dismissed them and promised that they would all be answered tomorrow. “And tomorrow they will be answered tomorrow, and then they will be answered the next day.”

“No, no! Tomorrow, by Lurtias.” I groaned at this invocation, but Elerias was adamant that I should be patient. I am normally patient to an extraordinary degree, but I admit that this is easier on some occasions than others. Then, in a flash of insight that came to me like lightning, I realized what his hidden plan had to be.

“I figured it out,” I told him confidently.

“Very clever of you, my friend. If Lurtias sends it so, I hope that Metsinaram will be impressed by our cleverness.”

It seemed simple enough to me. All Elerias had to do was trick Metsinaram into invalidating his vow by doing something or other. With that accomplished, Elerias’s vow to pay would no longer be binding, and with a visit to a shrine of Lurtias, all his troubles would be over. It was all very neat and simple, and I went to sleep that night confident that the matter was at an end.

I was not quite so confident when I woke up. I remembered then the magician’s ring, how I had promised to bring it to her, and the curious ring that Metsinaram had been wearing. I realized, and my readers will be surprised to learn this, that I was something of a fool.

In order to avoid forgetting again, I made sure to keep these things in my mind, going over them repeatedly even as Elerias’s shop was in sight. I didn’t even spare a few moments to greet him, but immediately told him about my encounter with the beautiful magician.

“All the better,” said Elerias. “By Horos, I look forward to exposing this juggler, this charlatan, once and for all. He should tremble when we come to his door!”

Metsinaram showed no particular signs of trembling. On the contrary, he ran to meet us when we were still some distance from Wuluham’s shrine. “Now, where is my money?” he asked, his eyes darting around, greedy for his money like the fish in that story I heard someplace that I can’t recall right now. Not that the fish was greedy for money. It was greedy for food, or possibly the sun.

“What money?” Elerias asked.

“I believe you swore an oath just yesterday. You can’t have already forgotten it?”

“I promised only to repay everything I owed you for the services of Wuluham, if you will remember. But you never paid me for the oil you took. The one debt will balance the other. Neither Wuluham or Lurtias can do anything to harm me, and I will be free of any obligation to you or your gods. All is settled between us.”

“That is absurd.”

“Your thing of wax is absurd. This whole situation is absurd. But you did not swear by your unfaithful Arraliturom this time, and you are bound by your vow!”

An objection occurred to me, but I knew better than to say it.

“You think the oil you gave me equals the great gift you received from Wuluham?” Metsinaram demanded, his lips curled to reveal his teeth in a gesture that was aggressive enough to remind me of a wild dog.

“I consulted the priests of Lurtias yesterday. They agree with my valuation, and, if you will remember the words of our vows, it is Lurtias’s judgment that counts.”

Another objection occurred to me, but I knew better than to say this one either.

“Your records and mine show that I paid you in gold for the oil,” said Metsinaram, recovering his composure with what appeared to be an impressive display of self-mastery. “What may have become of the gold, or also what you may have done with it, it is not my concern.”

“I suppose we could bring the matter before the judges, if you like. The judges of Edazzo are, I fear, greedy men, and therefore they suspect everyone else of being greedy. They know what they themselves would do if, say, they came into possession of a ring that could create perfect illusions, and they judge everyone else by their own standards, unfair though this may be.”

“A ring that can create perfect illusions?” Metsinaram asked, but his eyes and voice were duller than they had been. The life had gone out of him.

“That one, for instance. I am sure the judges would like to know about it.”

Here was my opportunity, and I was not slow to seize it. “Give the ring to me,” I said, “and I will return it to its owner. Nothing more will be said to the judges or to anyone of the matter.”

He agreed readily, more readily than I had expected, and gave me the ring with the amethyst. As Elerias and I left the shrine in triumph, Elerias asked me whether I could do any tricks with the ring.

“Perhaps I should have asked him how to use it.”

“Somehow, my friend, I doubt that he would have answered.”

It was some time later that I found occasion to return to Nārintho, and it was some time later yet that I managed through persistent questioning to find the woman I was seeking, just before she was about to leave on a ship to some southern island or other, I believe. I offered her the ring and she accepted it with delight. “I didn’t really expect you would bring this to me!” I was not quite sure how to take this, but from the way she was smiling at me I took it to be a compliment.

“Well, it is a long story. It began with a friend of mine who sells oil in Edazzo.”

She laughed suddenly. “But this is not the right ring!”

“It is the only ring with an amethyst he wore.”

“Don’t you see? He disguised the ring as something else, and as for this,” she said, and rubbed it between her fingers. Suddenly it became a flat thing of dull metal.

“Oh,” I remarked.

“Oh indeed. But do let me know if you ever track down the real thing. Farewell for now!”

When I had returned to Edazzo, I realized that yet again I had neglected to ask her name. I went to find Metsinaram, but he had left the city with no word of where he had gone. So that was the end of that. At least Elerias seemed happy about the way things had turned out.