Chapter 6: Eyes of Bashevgo
Garamon Goodman, the mayor of Smilodon Bay, slept fitfully the night of Tull’s return. He kept tossing in his blankets so that they wound around him and pulled off of his wife.
At four in the morning someone knocked at his door, softly, three times. Then he heard a faint scratching. Eyes of Bashevgo, he realized—a member of the secret arm of the Blade Kin, who worked here in the Rough.
He hurried to open the door. “What do you want?”
At the door stood Kelvin Bywater a local glass maker. Garamon had known Kelvin for thirty years, but had never known him to be a member of the Secret Eye.
“I thought you should know,” Kelvin said. “Chaa and some of your local boys have just sworn to overthrow Bashevgo.”
Garamon stood in the doorway, confused. “Bashevgo? They can’t be serious!”
Kelvin whispered, “They’re serious, friend.”
“The Pwi aren’t that naïve!”
“The mute that Tull brought back today has managed to be quite an agitator. Your Pwi would march tonight, if Chaa asked them to.”
“Well then,” Garamon whispered. He wrung his hands in the darkness. “We can’t have that, can we? We must keep the merchandise pacified. So we shall have to agitate the agitator.”
***