"Jayn didn't act as if she would mind my seeing something of it," he jabbed the Raydower.
The latter grunted.
"I heard her whispering to you last night, after the singing, thank you," he growled. "She can be nice when she likes. Oh, all right! But don't let one of my riders catch you on the trail to the pass!"
Yorgh grinned and parted from the group to stroll through the narrow paths between the stone houses and their small gardens. After half an hour, by which time the heat of The Star was beginning to lend the alleys the least touch of fragrance, he had the outline of the village well in mind.
He strolled on casually, until he succeeded in coming up behind the shrubbery bordering the space in back of Jayn's big house. There he loitered for some time, until he saw a trio of kitchen maids carry out wooden buckets of dirty water. One of them wore a soiled and bedraggled blue dress.
Yorgh rustled the bushes hiding him. Vaneen looked sharply about, and he parted the branches an instant.
The girl said something to the other wenches, and they went inside, leaving her to empty the buckets. She carried one pair over toward Yorgh as if to water the shrubbery.
When these were empty, she brought the next pair closer, and stepped around the bush behind which he stood.
"How are you?" asked Yorgh, thinking that she looked like a fish-cleaning woman among the Sea People.
She stared hard at his fine new clothes, and scowled.