[UNEDITED]

As it turned out, having his second dinner in the Ice Hole, Ridgie not only listened to the rumors but also spread them. So, as a result of his efforts, on the way through the Cave of Sophisticatedly Damned and the Cave of the Stone Stumps, the brave Anlimorian and his retinue had not met even ten creatures who were unaware of where they were going. They wished Ridgie luck, asked Fargon to look after his back, expressed their condolences to Talia, and, as always, looked at Enaor warily. A flock of eye-ears was wandering over the heads of the four friends.

The venerable merchant Sivbav resided in the Lily Cave, half of which was occupied by a fiery lake, studded with massive glass columns which do not reach the ceiling and, when viewed from above, resembled the leaves of water lily. If the Larsha (the magical fire substance that filled the lakes of Lennes) did not possess a miraculous feature to exhale only a small part of its sizzling heat in the surrounding area, the Lily Cave would become uninhabitable. But it possessed, so the Sivbav's neighbors suffered only from the lack of living space.

The merchant Sivbav himself had gobbled down a real tidbit—a dozen transparent islands of different sizes. His mansion stood in splendor at the largest one. It looked like that four giant armadillos had gnawed holes in a huge hive, put their heads inside, were stung all over and died on the spot. Alas, Talia could not see the bone plates that covered them properly: Ridgie turned to the glass bridge, passed the island, built up with triangular houses, and had led his companions to a small arena.

The long-muzzled guards in the roundish natural armor who were watching the assembled crowd had quickly noticed the arrivals and then helped them to make their way into the first rows of seats. Ridgie went off somewhere with one of them, carelessly refusing Fargon's company. So the Alae and the ador had nothing to do but sit down on the proposed seats.

"A full house!" Enaor stated.

"Thanks to Ridgie! I think, he would have turned out to be a good advertisingman, if he only wanted to," Talia smiled slightly.

"And you—a remodeler of the brains," Enaor mentally said to her.

Naturally, he observed that many of the onlookers who at first were giving her the dirty looks, now are sitting with the embarrassed faces—Talia had used her Alaian charm to surround herself with an aura of significance, integrity, and strength.

"I was told to strangle the gossips, so I am strangling the best way I knew how," she replied coquettishly, jerking her ear.

The pause became too long.

A dim, ambient light oozed from the ceiling. Apparently, the lighting spell in this part of the cave has not been refreshed for a long time. The Sivbav's servants had to bring in magic torches, similar to scarlet caterpillars, stuck on the sharpened ends of the oven forks.

Finally, Mr. Sivbav and his influential uncle kindly appeared. They both were middle-aged, obese and their gem-encrusted shells were creaking softly when they walked. The notorious red-haired person obediently followed them. The gapers immediately started turning their heads, comparing the copy with the original. Talia felt uncomfortable: the similarity was striking.

"I guess that he isn't going to fight himself?" She turned to Fargon, just to ask something.

"Of course, he isn't. Sometimes the ways of high honor are so fancy!" Talia pulled a lace handkerchief from behind her cuff and waved it at Ridgie, who just went to the site with a light, confident footsteps.

Having nodded carelessly to the hosts, he politely greeted the crowd with his best bow. Ridgie had neglected to wear the armor. His snow-white shirt contrasted spectacularly with a black sand of the arena. And his long gathered in a ponytail hair was silkily gleaming in the torchlight.

"Such a best-hoper!" Enaor rumbled, scraping the platform with his hind paw.

"A bed-hopper!" someone behind the Eale corrected him.

The appearance of Ridgie's came out not so impressive. Sivbav decided not to put up one of his ponderous tribesmen against the dexterous, agile Anlimorian. He had appointed his representative a nose-less, pale-skinned humanoid of about the same stature as the Ridgie, who was armed with the saber too. Unfortunately, Ridgie's example was not contagious—the stranger was in armor (and this had seriously worried the female half of the audience).

Talia and Enaor looked at each other sarcastically having noticed several elegant figures in inconspicuous cloaks with lowered hoods, nervously rubbing their hands in expensive gloves. A stub-nosed blonde dressed in superbly enchanted mantle was openly staring at Ridgie from the first row of the opposite stand husking sunflower seeds under the watchful eye of a blue jade Golem. And a brawny lady of a middle age covered in a kind of armor from the skin of the Harnian stone-destroyer, in her turn, was frowning at her.

The enemy warrior gave Ridgie an appraising look, nodded to him, and froze, awaiting his next move. The Anlimorian also got into a fighting position. Sivbav rose from his seat and suddenly bent twice, almost turning into a ribbed scaly ball. Then, abruptly straightening, he made a loud crack, apparently marking the beginning of the fight. The opponents exchanged a series of quick, short strikes. The crowd roared excitedly.

"Go ahead, show him, Ridgie!" Fargon deafened his neighbors by the bawl.

"Cut off his nose!" Enaor lazily supported the Ador.