I nodded.

"Also how to use your sword, from what your friend says."

I said that I did not know whether I knew or not, but it seemed plain how such a sword must be used.

"Just so. May I look at it?"

I drew my sword and offered it to him hilt-first.

"There is a word written here," he said, "but it is not in the true Thoth-inspired writing. I cannot read it. Can you?"

"Falcata," I said. "It's the name of my sword."

"How do you know that?"

I said I had read it on the blade this morning, which was a lie.

"If he were in the grip of a xu, he would not have handed me his sword," the first healer told Muslak. (I think this word must mean daemon in their tongue.) "Also, he speaks sensibly, and those who are in the grip of a xu never speak sensibly for long. Has he anything to gain by shamming?"

"Nothing," Muslak declared, "and he couldn't have deceived me for more than a day. Besides, he pretends to remember sometimes. He wouldn't do that if he were faking."

The first healer smiled. "So, Lewqys, you lie to us, do you?"

I said, "I suppose I do. All men lie at times, it seems to me."

"Oh, really? I would have said not. Who has lied to you recently?"

"I don't know."

While we spoke, the second healer entered. He greeted the first politely and took a stool.

"This foreign man forgets everything," the first healer explained. "His friend the ship-master has brought him to me. The disorder is of long standing."

Ra'hotep nodded, not looking at the first healer but very intently at me. He is shorter than Muslak, and perhaps twenty years older.

Muslak said, "Lewqys is a mercenary. He owns a farm in his own country. His relatives work it for him while he is away."

Ra'hotep nodded again in the manner of one who had reached a decision. "Was he like this when you met him for the first time?"