Alec saw with some irritation that Seregil was suppressing silent laughter as he filled a plate with cold meat and bread from the larder. He added the remains of an apple tart and handed it to the boy. Kepi grabbed it and began wolfing down the food as if someone was going to take it away from him. In his daily life, that was most likely a common occurrence. Alec leaned on the mantelpiece, smiling as he watched Kepi cram a handful of tart into his mouth.

“Do you have something for us, or are you just looking for a dry place out of the rain?” asked Seregil, pulling up a stool.

“ ’Course I do, my lord! You said to look for anything odd or out of place. You heard of the raven folk?”

“No.” Seregil took a few pennies from his purse and placed them on the floor in front of Kepi. “Suppose you enlighten us.”

“Nothing special about ’em, except they’re touched in the head,” the boy replied, quickly grabbing up the coins. “They’re queer folk, even for the Ring.”

“Why are they called raven folk?” asked Alec.

“Why, because they barter up for any damn thing you can think of! I know one boy who got a sack of sweets for a glass bead. Another one give Easy Lia a half sester for a lock of her stringy hair, and didn’t even want a tumble to go with it. Now she’s gone missing.”

Seregil exchanged a look with Alec at the mention of hair. “How many of them do you think there are?” The boy shrugged and bit one of the coins, as if doubting its make. Seregil flipped him another. “So? How many have you seen?”

“Just the one—a lame old man with a patch over his left eye. He offered me a yellow stone for my head rag, if you can believe it.” He glanced possessively at the greasy silk kerchief drying on the hearth. “I’da told him to go to Bilairy, but figured you might want to pay—I mean, see it, and so I give him a hank of my hair for it in the end.” He held up a short lock of his wet hair where it had been cut.

“Let me see the stone.”

Kepi gave him a chagrined look. “It got lifted.”

“Someone picked your pocket?” asked Alec.

“Folk are hard in the Ring!” Kepi exclaimed. “Some older boys seen me trade and went after me. It was give it over or get knifed.”

“It can’t be helped, but it would have been useful. Do you know of any other raven folk?”

“Three or four I heard of from some of the others about the neighborhood. One of ’em’s a young fella on a crutch, and there’s a couple of women.”

“What do they look like?” asked Alec.