A burly man with a nice tough face appeared. The tapster said, “She brought this, wanted to see you.”

The inn-master took it reverently and smiled at me. “Thank you. We were sure it was lost forever, it was nowhere to be found. It seemed too much to hope that one of us had got hold of it, but here we are after all. This is marvellous. I see you’ve a bad leg. We’ll boil some new bandages for it while you feed.” “Is the priest here?”

“Which, love?”

“The old one—the one with a face like—”

He smiled at my inability to describe him and went away. Later he came back. “He’s in the cellar. Jeel, light her down.” Jeel the tapster’s candle threw huge descending shadows. The walls were dripping with slime when we’d gone down three twisting flights. I waited, desperately weary, while Jeel moved a chest and levered up the trapdoor it’d stood on. The perpendicular rusty iron ladder which led down inside the trapdoor was nasty work what with my leg, and Jeel unable to help much because of the candle, which wasn’t very happy anyway in the damp, musty air, not that we loved it. Also the ladder swung a bit, it wasn’t fixed at the bottom; I suppose this was so if anyone unwelcome climbed down it they could be given a violent series of swings from the top till they fell off.

At the bottom. Now we walked along a slimy stone passage, opened a well-oiled door and suddenly the air was better and it was warmer. My priest was sitting at a table with a good meal. There was a fire and ventilation from a revolving wall-screw, obviously the end of an air-well.

The priest didn’t say anything, just grinned at me and that meant welcome and recognition of all that had previously passed between us.

“When you and the young lady’s finished, the Boss says he thinks it a good idea if you come up,” said Jeel. “It wouldn’t be very gay if you was stuck down here if any earthquakes started. And there’s such confusion up top, you’re as likely to be killed without any malice at all, they’ve no time to recognize you if you’re in disguise, which you are.”

“Earthquakes!” I said. “It’s only an eruption.”

“Well, I don’t know about the city,” said Jeel, “But earthquakes on the plains are giving the armies bother, that’s the latest. You can’t very well fight a battle when the battlefield’s splitting up under your feet and besides, dividing all the companies.” He left.

“Feed, child,” said the priest. I watched him as I obeyed. He was making a hearty meal, using both hands, and was wearing black and grey rags like any layman. “I have to thank you for many things,” he said.