"Jotan."
"Of course. A fine young man too—as I remember him. You're sure he's dead?"
"If not, he soon will be."
"But he is not in Ammad, I understand. Didn't he make a trip to Sephar, Vokal?"
"He is due back within half a moon at the earliest."
"How will you handle the matter when he arrives at Ammad's gates?"
Vokal smiled his dreamy smile. "He will not arrive at Ammad's gates, O Heglar! The day you attempt Jaltor's assassination a party of my most trusted guards will leave Ammad to intercept Jotan and his men. Their orders will be to leave not one of them alive."
"It is clear that you have thought of everything!" The old man gulped down his wine and stood up. "It is late, and at my age I need a great deal of sleep—especially if I am to be tortured by Jaltor's experts in that line! So, if you will pay me my thousand tals, noble Vokal, I shall leave you."
"Of course." Vokal rose smoothly to his feet, went to the door and summoned a guard outside. "Arouse Yodak and instruct him to bring a thousand tals to me here."
"At once, Most-High." The guard saluted and went quickly down the hall.