“Looks like it. You need to get out.”
“It’s a trick,” Grendt said.
Another man stepped forward. He was short and thickly built, wearing a long woolen coat and black boots. “How do we know he didn’t lead them here?”
Caim pointed upstairs with his knife. “Any moment a company of troops is going to burst through the front door. Are you going to let me help you, or are you going to stand around asking stupid questions?”
Keegan surprised him, and perhaps them all, by speaking out. “We can trust him.”
“Ell’s balls,” Grendt said. “He’s working for Eviskine. This is a trap.”
“I’m leaving!” another man shouted as he went over to the wall. He flipped back a sheet of canvas nailed to the brickwork. Behind it was a stout door that looked like it led out into the alley beside the shop.
“Open that,” Caim said, “and you’ll get us all caught. There are lookouts on the street.”
The man froze with his hand on the latch.
“Fine,” Grendt said. “Then we’ll barricade the doors.”
“Then they’ll just burn you out.”
“You say we can’t stay,” Grendt said. “And we can’t leave. So what do you expect us to do?”
“Disappear,” Caim replied.
A few men muttered in the back of the group.
“We have to vanish,” Caim said. “And the faster we do, the better it will be for Keegan’s uncle.”
“What about my uncle?” Keegan asked.
Caim looked him in the eye. “What? You thought you could involve him and not make trouble for him down the road? Are you coming or not?”
Keegan frowned, but Liana nodded. “Yes, we are.”
Caim sheathed his suete. “Then come with me. The rest of you can do whatever you want.”
He went back up the stairs without waiting to see who followed him.
Caim pulled aside the window shade and looked down at the street in front of the store. He didn’t like the idea of going back out tonight, which struck him as the oddest thought he’d had since he came to this winter- cloaked land. The night was his time, his home, but the darkness outside held no love for him. But he didn’t have a choice.
That was a lie, and he knew it. He had a choice. He could slip away like a wraith. All he had to do was leave these people to their fates. This wasn’t his fight. He thought about the pendant around his neck. I said the same thing about Josey. And where did that get me?
As soon as his mind touched that sore spot, he threw himself in another direction. The room in which he stood was the bedroom of the owner, Corgan, Keegan and Liana’s uncle. It was small and cramped as befitted a carpenter, with only an old bed and a chest of drawers with a hazy vanity mirror, and a stand holding a vase of dried flowers. They might have been carnations, but now they were caked with dust. Was he married? No, the walls are bare. Nothing on top of the chest except dust and a few coins. Maybe widowed, but long ago.
Caim looked across the room. Liana and Keegan stood at the bedroom’s other window overlooking the alley. The rest of the outlaws were spread throughout the shop’s second story. There wasn’t time for a plan, so he’d been forced to improvise, and the odds weren’t in their favor. Privately, he thought they’d be lucky if one in five made it out alive. He clenched his right hand into a fist. The forearm throbbed in response.
He studied Keegan. “What was your plan?”
Liana glanced over. “What?”
Caim kept his gaze on Keegan, but the young man did not look up from the alley.
“After you assembled your men here in the city, what was the next step?”
“I don’t know. Ramon was supposed to be here.”
“What if he’s dead? Who’s next in line?”
Keegan blew out a puff of air. “If we lose Ramon, there’s nothing left. We might as well run to the hills and never come back.”
Caim turned back to the street. The front of the shop still looked clear, but he knew better. There was movement in the window across the street.
“Someone’s out there!” Liana whispered
But Caim didn’t need her warning-he heard the commotion below-but it was good to know the girl was on her toes. He’d pulled no punches when he briefed them on the situation. Tonight might be their last in this world.
Caim lifted the strung bow in his hands. An arrow lay across the shaft, its steel point gleaming in the wan starlight. He pulled back the string until the fletching tickled his cheek. He exhaled. The windows were almost at a level. No wind to speak of. Sixteen paces. An itch prickled the back of his neck as the shadows announced their presence. Despite his misgivings about his phantom allies, he didn’t push them away. He would likely need them before the night was through.
There. Another hint of movement within the window across the street. Caim made out the dim silhouette of a shoulder. The tip of the arrow drifted down half an inch and a touch to the left.
He fired, and couldn’t tell if he hit anything.
Heavy pounding echoed up from the floorboards. But no sign of movement in the far window. Then something moved in the alley across the street. Caim nocked another arrow as six men converged on the shop, carrying a short wooden ram. Caim took a shot at them, but he rushed it. The missile ricocheted off the cobblestones behind the soldiers. As he reloaded, a second squad took up position around the storefront while the first group applied the beam to the door. Loud booms resounded up and down the street.
“Be ready,” Caim said.
The crash of shattering wood was the signal. Keegan shoved open the window, and Liana clambered through. Brother lowered sister with a knotted bedsheet. Then Caim set his bow aside to lower Keegan. As he swung a leg over the sill, Caim heard others dropping to the street from other windows. His instructions from this point had been clear: everyone scatter and meet at the rendezvous point, which was another safe house outside the city. Caim wished Kit was here. Dammit, where is she?
He didn’t want any more surprises. And yet it seemed as if life was determined to keep serving them up. Hanging by his hands, he took a breath and let go. As he fell, Caim realized he had left his bow behind.
He bit down on his tongue as a stabbing pain tore up his injured leg. Limping, he ran as best he could, following the rabbit-fur fringe of Liana’s hood down the alley. The next street was empty. All the doors and windows were shut up tight, lending the feel of a ghost town. Caim passed a heavyset outlaw in a bright green vest- not the best choice of colors -and almost tripped over a mongrel dog nosing around in the gutter. After he leapt over the pup, he looked ahead and stumbled to a halt. Two blocks away, a line of soldiers was advancing down the street. Caim made out the slender outlines of long spears. The night was overcast; none of the outlaws would see the trap until it was too late. With a curse, he sprinted after the siblings.
He caught up to Liana first.
“Stop!” he whispered as loud as he dared.
Liana heard him and slowed. Caim accelerated past her to grab the tail of Keegan’s cloak. The youth spun around and slashed with his sword. Caim caught the boy’s wrist.
“Hold, damn you!”
The youth wrenched his arm free. “What?”
Liana caught up to them with her uncle in tow. There was no sign of the others.
“Soldiers ahead,” Caim said. “I’m guessing they’ve cordoned off the neighborhood.”
“What do we do?” Corgan asked. The older man was panting heavily, but he stood upright, a stout cudgel in his hand.
“We have to tell the others,” Liana said.
Caim picked out distant shouts and sounds of fighting. “They’re already finding out. We need to get off the street.”
He took them down the first narrow alley they found. If the soldiers weren’t searching every nook and side street, they might miss this one. He just hoped he hadn’t picked a dead end.
Caim went as fast as he could, but they didn’t have his keen night vision. After the second time Keegan tripped over something, Caim wanted to bash the youth upside his head. Just as he made the next turn, a bright
