In an abandoned warehouse in Darkside, Brishen, in disguise, meets with the Wooden Shekel. At Brishen's request, Bambridge dismisses his two thugs – Wart and Otto – to speak with the Ambassador privately. Brishen relates to Bambridge her problems with the "masked vixen in the cemetary" and with her intolerable cousin, Bryanna Kara. Bambridge offers to help Brishen find out more about Bryanna, and to provide a gold piece in payment, in return for the eight Savanite slaves at the Embassy – as one of them is Pathfinder, a member of the Dusty Tear tribe, and the rest are her seven children. Bambridge plans, rather than to take all the cheetahs at once, to find volunteers in the City of Hands to take their places … and then, over time, to be relieved of duty or replaced, so as not to draw too much attention with a single incident, and so as not to break up Pathfinder's family.