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As you enter the stables, you are overpowered by the smell of the douggas. You grit your teeth and cover your nose with your robe. A small boy sniggers at your reaction and says, ‘You’re not Ikareshi—I can tell.’ He mimics your grimace, exposing a line of broken teeth.
‘Do you know where Tipasa the Wanderer lives?’ asks Banedon, holding up a silver ring. The boy’s eyes nearly pop out of his head at the sight of the gleaming silver.
‘Oh yes, yes, yes, I do indeed,’ he stammers in his excitement. ‘Walk up the street and take the first passage on your left. The old wanderer lives at the house with the blue door.’
Banedon flicks the ring into the air and the urchin catches it in his grubby hands. You hurry away from the stables and begin to search for the passageway. Just as you find it, you hear the young boy shriek with disappointment; the ring has just dissolved on his finger. At the end of the rubbish-strewn alley you find the house with the blue door.
