The rows of bunks, each piled with bedding, lay dustily under the dusty beams. Of men at arms to serve the palace there were but twenty-four. Two dozen fighting men to guard the kovneva, and of these some were not fit to be called paktuns.The cadade, the captain of the guard, turned out to be a Fristle with patches of fur missing from both cheeks. At least, he saw to a proper burial for Ridzi the Rangora.For this I thanked him, and gave him a donation in thanks.“Kov Pando took most of the guards with him when he went to Pomdermam,” said Framco the Tranzer, pulling his whiskers, a little unsure at this arrival of a bunch of harum-scarum sea dogs. He took his duties as cadade seriously. “He could not know how things were going to turn out.”“And,” said Pompino, “how have things turned out?”We spoke on the steps outside the mess hall, with the archway to the next courtyard and the more splendid buildings of the palace beyond. The night had passed uneventfully and I for one was anxious to speak to Tilda.
