Free Swords From the West by Harold Lamb

slowly.
    "Granting that, it is still thieves' work. You must find another for your mask and your token."
    "Par Dex! Can I find one to trust twice-first not to betray me, and then not to make off with the Green Lion? I trust you, Messer Nial, and you will do this thing."
    He stood over the younger man, tense with anxiety.
    "I have aided you-aye, sheltered and brought you hither."
    "And have I not done my part?"
    "Nay, by God's head, you have not! For you swore to aid me in my venture."
    Nial shook his head wearily.
    "Not in such a venture."
    "Will you deny that, when by your folly with that girl you lost my stock of jewels, you did swear to make good the loss if you could?"
    Nial was silent, staring at the brazier. Tron's eyes fastened upon his troubled face.
    "Will you recant your word? Then must I seek out another, and risk my life in doing so. For I will not draw back."
    "What was the worth of the lost jewels?"
    "What?" Tron shrugged indifferently. "Perhaps five thousand byzants, perhaps more."
    "Then," Nial responded suddenly, his eyes blazing, "will I set my hand to this thing and do it. Upon one condition."
    "How, then?"
    "That my share in the theft will go to repay you for the loss of that cursed sack. Five thousand will pay you, and we will then be quitted of each other."
    Tron nodded, closing his eyes to hide the triumph in them. The Green Lion would be his. For if Nial should fail, he knew of a way to get into the House of Gold himself. And, whether Nial brought the emerald to him, or he himself laid hand upon it, he need pay the boy nothing. The jewels he had lost in the serai had been almost worthless, merely carried for display, at need.
    "Agreed!" he cried.
    The Genoese had made his preparations shrewdly and had bought, piece by piece, a Tatar's attire at Tana. From one of his packs he produced a pile of garments that he made Nial try on at once. Skillfully he aided the young swordsman to fit on tunic and breeches and horsehide boots, tying the girdle himself and hanging upon it a metal seal-box and horn paper case. Over Nial's wide shoulders he flung a long blue coat with wide sleeves and embroidered collar. Then over this he placed something like a kaftan-a stiff black covering that projected beyond the arms, with twin letterings in cloth of gold over both sides of the chest. Finally he added a kalpak of white felt, a hat with a leather drop behind that covered Nial's hair, and a long eagle feather. So attired, Nial looked inches taller, and Tron surveyed him complacently.
    "Eh, he who wore it formerly was larger in the waist. The shoulders are right-aye, it will do."
    Nial's dark skin and high cheekbones needed no artificial touch. And Tron knew that many of the Horde had gray or blue eyes. He was more concerned with the details of the uniform, explaining that it was the dress of a gur-khan, or commander of a thousand. He showed Nial a baton, or short staff of white bone.
    "Is that your talisman?"
    "Nay." Tron grinned until his beard bristled. "More than this is needed. But this is the baton of your rank. Wear it in the girdle, so."
    "What is the talisman?"
    Paolo Tron shrugged.
    "When the time comes, you shall have it. With it, you could ride from here to Kambalu, with the best horses led forward for you, and every wish granted."
    "Where is the sword?"
    "You need none. Agur-khan-"
    "Messer Paolo, say what you will. I will not set foot in this treasure house without a good blade at my side."
    Tron's thin lips curled in a sneer.
    "'Twill serve you less than that baton. But I can get one in the bazaar. Then, too, you will need a new horse. It should be white, bearing a Tatar saddle. You have seen them. Good! I will give you thirty byzants, and five for the saddle."
    And Nial reflected that the merchant had taken care not to have his own hand seen in this undertaking.
    Making his way through the Moslem quarter the next day in search of a horse, Nial came face to face with the unexpected. Entering an arched street,