chatting and folk shifting and coughing and crying in despair. A guard slapped a kneeling woman until she struggled to her feet. From off over in another quarter of the city, dogs started barking, and an outcry rose into the night like so many wildings on a howl, as it said in the tales. Soldiers tensed. A man trotted out of the inn and cast his gaze toward the sky, but not — thank the Herald! — toward the rations-warehouse roof.
After an intense shower of noise, the storm of distant trouble quieted, the soldiers relaxed, and the man shook his head and strode back inside as the people in line extended hands toward him like beggars hoping for a handout. His soldiers used the hafts of spears to push them back.
The tale! He murmured the chant under his breath. Wind breathed over the square, marred by a tincture of smoke.
'The brigands raged in,
they confronted the peaceful company seated at their dinner,
they demanded that the girl be handed over to them.
All feared them. All looked away.
Except foolish Jothinin, light-minded Jothinin,
he was the only one who stood up to face them,
he was the only one who said, 'No.''
It was one of his favorite episodes, even if it took place in the city of Nessumara, which claimed to be most important of cities in the Hundred when everyone knew Toskala was the holy crossroads of the land, keeper of Law Rock itself. All those
apprenticed to Ilu loved the tale, since Jothinin had been an envoy of Ilu, although not a very good one. His hands twitched, wanting to sketch the tale as the words flowed, but he dared not move, not even at the dramatic conclusion when Jothinin's brave stand was all that prevented the innocent girl from being slain as, with his lengthy speech, the envoy roused the populace into the revolt that would overthrow the rule of brigands and restore the law. His final silence, the gaps in the chant where his words would have gone were he not dying from stab wounds, always made Nekkar's eyes mist over.
The wind turned. He licked his lips, feeling the greasy taste of scorched oil on the air. What was he thinking, to put the apprentices and envoys at risk? How could this self-confessed 'assassin' possibly get him back to the temple with the city under curfew?
Screams burst as fire blazed up in the upper story of the closed emporium on the opposite side of the square. He stared in awe and horror as the people in the square cried out, as soldiers grabbed buckets stored in the fire station. Stone Quarter could burn down! Everyone was running, most for the fire station, setting up lines at the wells, while others dashed away into the darkness of back streets, escaping while they had the chance. The fire bell atop Law Rock clanged in the distance.
Obviously this was a diversion! Time to go.
He scraped palms as he scrabbled for purchase on the tiles, jamming his right leg as he barely caught the gutter instead of tumbling over the drop. Pain stabbed through his left ankle, blinding him. Then he breathed out of it and found the strength to heave himself onto the lower roof and roll to lie precariously along the edge.
'Holy One?' Her voice drifted up from the alley below him.
His anger blazed. 'It could burn down the entire quarter. What of the poor folk who own that shop, whose entire livelihood is going up in flames?'
'Their goods had already been looted.' The assassin's voice was staggering in its calm intensity. 'Anyway, that fire is nothing to what I've seen this army do, and what worse things they'll do if they're not stopped. Now is the time to go, if you mean to come with me, Holy One.'
She was right.
When he threw his legs over and eased himself down, bruised
arms and shoulders screaming at the effort, she caught him. He showed her the way, and she supported him through the empty night streets as the fire drew the attention of the army. Past Lele Square, they reached the temple gate, locked and barred, but the dogs whined to alert the night guard and the small gate was cracked open to allow him in.
She waved him on.
'You're not coming in?'
'Neh. I must retrieve my comrade. We'll return tomorrow night or the next. Watch for us, Holy One.'
Then she was gone into the night, and the gate was closed and barred behind him. As he limped into the dark courtyard, all the envoys and every apprentice flooded out of the sleeping house, crowding him, touching him, weeping with relief, until he thought he would faint for needing to sit down. He was bereft of speech. The fire bell had ceased ringing. Smoke scented the air. One of the night guards called down from the sentry post: 'Looks like it's stopped spreading!'
Vassa pushed her way through the acolytes with sharper words than he had ever heard from one who was always gentle. When she shone lamplight in his face, everyone gasped.
'Gather a few things and sit out here in the courtyard until we know the danger is passed,' she said to the envoys and apprentices. 'Kellas, haul out the litter in case we must carry the ostiary.'
'I can walk-' Nekkar croaked, and put his weight on his twisted ankle. The light hazed. The world spun. Many arms took hold of him and lifted him.
'You'll take a wash and some poultices for your injuries, some food and tea, and then you'll lie down.'
'I must talk to you-'
'Yes,' Vassa agreed, and he realized in a distant way that she was trying not to cry. 'Here, you lads, carry him.'
He was too weary and too much in pain to struggle. Tomorrow or the next night, the assassin had said. Tomorrow would be soon enough to see what trouble he had called down on the temple. They had to be ready for anything.
4
Don't open the gate.
That was the last thing Zubaidit had said to Shai before leaving on her spying expedition yesterday. Now it was dawn, Bai hadn't returned, and someone was rapping hard on the nailed-together planks set against a gap in the abandoned storeroom in which he had slept.
'Open up!'
'The whole compound looks abandoned to me.'
'The dog thinks otherwise.'
A dog snuffled along the exterior of the planks. Shai tucked his sword along his torso and slid a hiltless knife into a sheath cut into the leather of his boots just as the soldiers kicked down the planks. Shards Splintered.
He pretended he was just waking up. He'd successfully played stupid before. 'Eh, ver. Eh. You frightened me.'
Burly soldiers prodded spears in his direction. 'Heya, Sergeant! Got an outlander here. Whew! He stinks.'
'That's because we're in an old tanning yard, you imbecile,' came the reply. 'Bring him out.'
'Out!' They treated him as they might a dog whose temperament was chancy.
'Eh, ver, Mistress told me to wait here for her. She'll whip me if I leave.'
'Our orders are to kill anyone who disobeys.'
'Maybe he can't understand you,' said the second man.
Shai had already cut a hiding place for his sword into the foundation. He rolled over the sword, shoved it into the gap, and covered it as he kept talking. 'Please don't hurt me, ver. My mistress, she said she would whip me. Please don't.'
He crawled on hands and knees, feeling the points of the spears like stinging scorpions along his back, but once he got outside into the colorless dawn, the soldiers drew a step back and let him stand. He shook out his loose trousers, flicked dust from the sleeveless leather vest that covered his chest, and wiped a smear of dust from his
