Taxman Part 3

Gaansukh was pleased to hear about Bo-Jing’s success in disrupting the bandit’s activities. He called for two yurts to be erected for use by Bo-Jing and his men. Bo-Jing was pleased by the way his men had conducted themselves in their fight with the bandits, and made an opportunity to train them in more advanced maneuvers. Gan Yul, a memebr of the Nergui horde, asked to join Bo-Jing's company and was accepted. Beatriss used this opportunity to return to the bandit’s tower. Having lived the first half of her life in the underground city of Cynadicea, she was most comfortable in the darkness. Plus she owned a magical sword that let her become invisible. She left her horse below the camp and traveled the rest of the way on foot. She found many fewer tents in the camp and no men in the tower. Going from room to room, she concluded that most of the valuable had already been taken by the other bandits. She claimed a staff, likely magical, that they had missed, and returned to Kazhu Kala.

Despite his prowess and reputation, Bo-Jing was discouraged, that unlike Betriss, Bangqiu, and Hyamsam, he had no method for becoming invisible. Together with Beatriss, he found an old woman named Tolai who lived in fine yurt all by herself, made her living brewing potions purported to have magical powers. Bo-Jing showed her a potion he had found in his adventures and asked her to analyze it for him. She collected her fee and conducted various tests, finally pronouncing that it would make the imbiber vanish. “Turn invisible?” Well . . . depending on what you mean by invisible. Their body would turn in a cloud of mist, which is indeed very difficult to see. Bo-Jing was grateful for this information but what he wanted was to be invisible, to be able to sneak up on his enemies and attack them with surprise.

Tolai shook her head and laughed to herself before asking Bo-Jing if he knew the legend of the Four Coins. Tngri had made them for his four sons, the Kings of the North, the East, the South, and West.  A fox had stolen them and hidden him and they would never be found.  "But if anything could make a powerful warrior invisible, it would be one of those four coins."