Tentinok dropped to one knee instead. "Sakkim," he pleaded, giving the tyrant his Irrune-language title. "I ask-I beg-She has done it again-"

"Kadasah?"

Tentinok nodded. "There was much damage. Many complaints. They want money."

Cauvin was too close. He could hear the conversation he was not meant to hear.

Money was a sore subject between the Irrune warriors and the city they ruled. Bluntly, they froggin' refused to use it, said it broke their honor, and they'd have risen up against Arizak perMizhur if he'd been fool enough to argue with them. The tyrant was not a fool. He let his warriors keep their honor intact and quietly paid their bills from the palace. Shite for sure, since he could scarcely leave his cushioned chair, paying those bills-especially the bills run up by his own sons-was the joy of Arizak's life. Tentinok's problem was that he didn't have a wild son; he had a wild daughter who drank and fought from one end of Sanctuary to the other and back again.

Cauvin slid one foot back, prepared to get out of earshot-but retreat would only prove that he'd been listening, so he stayed put.

"I said, last time was the last time. You said there'd be a marriage."

Tentinok hung his head like a bullied child. "I have tried, Sak-kim."

Cauvin had seen-not met, merely seen across the common room at the Vulgar Unicorn-the lady in question. She was attractive enough, even had a few dogged admirers-the timid sort of men who needed a froggm' strong arm to back them in their brawls- none of them Irrune or worth marrying.

Anzak understood. He laid a hand on Tentinok's arm and promised that he'd have his Wngglies-Cauvin and his neighbors, the native blood of Sanctuary, had been called Wngglies so long that they no longer considered it an insult and used it among themselves-settle Tentinok's debts… again.