"Oh, hello, Assistant Verkan. Want me to call Subchief Ranthar?"

"Is he sleeping? Then for mercy's sake don't. What's the present
status of the investigation?"

"Well, we were dropping boomerang balls yesterday, while we had sun to
mask the return-flashes. Nothing. The Croutha have taken the city of
Sohram, just below the big bend of the river. Tomorrow, when we have
sunlight, we're going to start boomerang-balling the central square.
We may get something."

"The Wizard Traders'll be moving in near there, about now," Vall said.
"The Croutha ought to have plenty of merchandise for them. Have you
gotten anything more done on narrowing down the possible area?"

The deputy bit back a yawn and reached for his coffee mug.

"The experts have just about pumped these slaves empty," he said. "The
local religion is a mess. Seems to have started out as a Great Mother
cult; then it picked up a lot of gods borrowed from other peoples;
then it turned into a dualistic monotheism; then it picked up a lot of
minor gods and devils--new devils usually gods of the older pantheon.
And we got a lot of gossip about the feudal wars and faction-fights
among the nobility, and so on, all garbled, because these people are
peasants who only knew what went on on the estate of their own lord."

"What did go on there?" Vall asked. "Ask them about recent
improvements, new buildings, new fields cleared, new paddies flooded,
that sort of thing. And pick out a few of the highest IQ's from both
time lines, and have them locate this estate on a large-scale map, and