"So you say, Habrunt," scoffed the bowed and weary-looking old Bassdag.
"Royal Scribe to the Emperor, eh? Well, where is the illiterate snob?"
Quickly, Si'Wren knelt down on both knees and dipped her head in a perfunctory bow before the ancient, as she smiled with a merry look to a proudly grinning Habrunt.
As she bowed low before old Bassdag, sensing her presence, he peered up at her.
"Your face is awfully girlish, young man," said Bassdag. His speech was very slow and deeply pitched. "No beard yet?"
"That is because she is no man at all," laughed Habrunt, "but a woman!"
At this astonishing revelation, Bassdag said nothing at first, but only lifted up his great old white-bearded countenance to stare at her disbelievingly.
A smiling Si'Wren peered narrowly back at Bassdag, whose eyes surveyed her critically from under snow-white bushy eyebrows, and she felt the power of his keen mind, especially in the sharpness and incisiveness of his voice.
"A girl?" said Bassdag.
Si'Wren kept smiling, but held her peace.
"Why do you mock her," said Habrunt soberly, "seeing she has taken a vow to the Invisible God never to speak, on her life?"