'The Sailfish will be leaving port in three days. I've arranged for passage onher and also to be hidden aboard her if her departure is delayed. I've been verybusy all morning.'
'Including taking a bath,' she said.
'You don't smell too good yourself,' he said. 'But you can bathe when we get tothe river. Put these on.'
She went into her room, removed her clothes, and donned the priest's garb. Whenshe came out, Smhee was fully dressed. The bag attached to his belt bulgedbeneath his cloak.
'Give me your old clothes,' he said. 'We'll cache them outside the city, thoughI don't think we'll be needing them.'
She did so, and he stuffed them into the belt-bag.
'Let's go,' he said.
She didn't follow him to the door. He turned and said, 'What's the matter? Yourliver getting cold?'
'No,' she said. 'Only ... mother's very short-sighted. I'm afraid she'll becheated when she buys the food.'
He laughed and said something in a foreign tongue.
'For the sake of Igil! When we return, we'll have enough to buy out the farmers'market a thousand times over!'
'If we get back...' she murmured. She wanted to go to Looza's room and kiss thechildren goodbye. But that was not wise. Besides, she might lose herdetermination if she saw them now.
They walked out while old Shmurt stared. He was the weakest point in theiralibi, but they hoped they wouldn't need any. At the moment, he was toodumbfounded at seeing them to say anything. And he would be afraid to go to thesoldiers about this. He probably was thinking that two priests had magicallyentered the house, and it would be indiscreet to interfere in their business.
Thirty minutes later, they mounted the two horses which Smhee had arranged to betied to a tree outside city limits.