Damn the woman and her companion for riding horses into the desert. They should have stabled them and taken camels for a caravan. Horses were meant for speed, and if they could not use them for speed then they were merely camels who carried less and drank more water and caught the eye of that spineless imperialist clerk.

Saul didn't want this job. He had made enough money from the last run to be comfortable for months - longer, if he'd stretched it. He'd even considered going home to see if he was any more suited to mining or farming than he had been when he'd left. Now because of the damned horse he had no choice. No explanation he could have provided for how he'd come to possess one of the courier's mounts would have held that Brindian clerk from reporting him to his superior, and while Saul had no great love for the Brindians he knew the quality of the trackers they would set on him. It would be better to be paid to get the box back for them then to risk a bounty on his head.

At least the woman was cooperating. They could leave tomorrow night and be in Lahkis within six weeks of the caravan if they hurried, and if the woman was right it would take time for the caravan leader to find a buyer for the box and its contents, whatever they were. Once they found the caravan leader they would have to track down who he'd sold the box to and retrieve it, and once they had it and the woman had verified that it was indeed the box she had carried Saul would bring it back. If it wasn't too much trouble then maybe he'd even let her deliver it first as they had discussed.

He arrived, dismounted and tied his horse off and then took the stairs two at a time into Fel's office. He got to the doorway and stopped short.

It had started nearly three months before, when Oloshan first saw the stone. It was brought to him by a small band of desert clansmen who claimed to have found it in the dirt. A chunk of atacre that large should have been worth a fortune, but of course it was too large to move in one piece, so the barbarians sought out Oloshan the mage to break it down for them. The stupid clansmen, deaf as they were to the lifesong, did not understand the significance of the stone's strange silence. Oloshan did. He bought it from them for more wealth than they had ever seen in one place, though still criminally less than it was worth. And he wrote immediately to Brindia, advising them of his find, without mentioning it to Theolus at all.

In the time it took for word to reach and return from the homeland, Oloshan lost his treasure. The mage had been vague about the details, but Theolus' sources told him that Oloshan had not been as tight-lipped as would have been prudent. He took home a woman who had shown him great interest in a bar, and woke the next morning with a hangover and an empty safe.

But still Oloshan did not come to Theolus, did not tell him his troubles and ask for his help. Instead, he came here, to Panaki's office, to hire mercenaries to get back his stone. First he rented a couple of heavies to accompany him as made rounds, seeking information about the stolen box. That was the first Theolus heard of it. He asked Oloshan, then, if the Guildsport garrison could assist him in recovering his stolen property. But Oloshan had insisted that it was beneath the attention of the garrison, and that Theolus needn't worry about it. Then Oloshan hired a mercenary band to cross the in pursuit of a caravan he suspected of carrying the box. Theolus kept an eye on things, but did not interfere.

It was not until the day before, when Oloshan received the box brought back by the mercenaries hired, that the idiot mage finally came to Theolus and told him of the dead atacre sample. Oloshan had been so intent on avoiding embarrassment that he had come dangerously close to letting this invaluable object escape. If it was Theolus' decision the mage would stand trial once this matter was closed. His report to Lord Kaishos would say as much.

But now the matter was in Theolus' hands, and he would not let the sample escape them. Tonight he would lead a detatchment of soldiers through the Desert Gate, to track down the stolen box. And he would take the mercenary with him, for the man had apparently met the couriers carrying the box if Oloshan's information was correct. So Theolus waited, arms crossed and face closed.

Saul looked back to Fel questioningly. Was the man here for him, then?

"An officer from the garrison has come regarding the box," Fel said in his usual impassive tone. "He has hired you to assist him."

Saul reviewed the past tense of the word hired in his head and said nothing more to Fel, and directed his query to the officer instead.

The descriptions given matched two of the passengers on Alaran Cale's caravan as described by his agent, Doren. Somehow the couriers had hooked up with a pair of Suna fugitives fleeing the city, and had attached themselves by means of generous bribes to the outgoing caravan. The mercenary had brought back two women with him according to Panaki, and not the right two if Theolus' informants were right. One fit Malorik's description, and so Theolus had a man attend the auction earlier that morning so that they could arrange an interview with her owner. Interestingly enough, that owner turned out to be none other than Saul, the mercenary who had brought her in.

Whether the mercenary was attempting some kind of scam or not, Theolus was not sure. But it was a sure thing that if he had the box already, he would not have returned to Guildsport. Wherever the box was, Saul could lead them to it.