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"Certainly, freeman vez Menk." Radnal mounted a donkey, dismounted, got on again. The donkey gave
him a jaundiced stare, as if asking him to make up his mind. He dismounted once more, and took the
snort that followed as the asinine equivalent of a resigned shrug. To Peggol, he said, "Now you try,
freeman."
Unlike Evillia or Lofosa, the Eye and Ear managed to imitate Radnal's movements without requiring the
tour guide to take him by the waist (just as well, Radnal thought Peggol wasn't smooth and supple like
the Highhead girls). He said, "When back in Tarteshem, freeman vez Krobir, I shall stick exclusively to
motors."
"When I'm in Tarteshem, freeman vez Menk, I do the same," Radnal answered.
The party set out a daytenth after sunrise: not as early as Radnal would have liked but, given the
previous day's distractions, the best he could expect. He led them south, toward the lowlands at the core
of Trench Park. Under his straw hat, Moblay Sopsirk's son was already sweating hard.
Something skittered into hiding under the fleshy leaves of a desert spurge. "What did we just nearly see
there, freeman?" Golobol asked.
Radnal smiled at the physician's phrasing. "That was a fat sand rat. It's a member of the gerbil family, one
specially adapted to feed off succulent plants that concentrate salt in their foliage. Fat sand rats are
common throughout the Bottomlands. They're pests in areas where there's enough water for irrigated
agriculture."
Moblay said, "You sound like you know a lot about them, Radnal."
"Not as much as I'd like to, freeman vez Sopsirk," Radnal answered, still trying to persuade the
Lissonese to stop being so uncouthly familiar. "I study them when I'm not being a tour guide."
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"I hate all kinds of rats," Nocso zev Martois said flatly.
"Oh, I don't know," Eltsac said. "Some rats are kind of cute." The two Martoisi began to argue.
Everyone else ignored them.
Moblay said, "Hmp. Fancy spending all your time studying rats."
"And how do you makeyour livelihood, freeman?" Radnal snapped.
"Me?" Flat-nosed, dark, and smooth, Moblay's face was different from Radnal's in every way. But the
tour guide recognized the blank mask that appeared on it for a heartbeat: the expression of a man with
something to hide. Moblay said, "As I told you, I am aide to my prince, may his years be many." He had
said that, Radnal remembered. It might even be true, but he was suddenly convinced it wasn't the whole
truth.
Benter vez Maprab couldn't have cared less about the fat sand rat. The spiny spurge under which it hid,
however, interested him. He said, "Freeman vez Krobir, perhaps you will explain the relationship
between the plants here and the cactuses in the deserts of the Double Continent."
"There is no relationship to speak of." Radnal gave the old Strongbrow an unfriendly look.Try to make
me look bad in front of everyone, will you? he thought. He went on, "The resemblances come from
adapting to similar environments. That's called convergent evolution. As soon as you cut them open,
you'll see they're unrelated: spurges have a thick white milky sap, while that of cactuses is clear and
watery. Whales and fish look very much alike, too, but that's because they both live in the sea, not
because they're kin."
Benter hunched low over his donkey's back. Radnal felt like preening, as if he'd overcome a squadron of
Morgaffo marine commandos rather than one querulous old Tarteshan.
Some of the spines of the desert spurge held a jerboa, a couple of grasshoppers, a shoveler skink, and
other small, dead creatures. "Who hung them out to dry?" Peggol vez Menk asked.
"A koprit bird," Radnal answered. "Most butcherbirds make a larder of things they've caught but haven't
got round to eating yet."
"Oh." Peggol sounded disappointed. Maybe he'd hoped someone in Trench Park enjoyed tormenting
animals, so he could hunt down the miscreant.
Toglo zev Pamdal pointed to the impaled lizard, which looked to have spent a while in the sun. "Do they
eat things as dried up as that, Radnal vez?"
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