'You find… reserves when your life's at stake. He pulled the knife and we struggled. It was more luck than anything else that he ended up with the blade in him.'
'Then what?' Stryke asked.
'What do you mean?'
'What did you do after you'd stabbed him?'
'I called for help.'
'Not until then? Not when you were actually fighting him?'
'It all happened so quickly, I — '
'Right. What was he doing when you came in?'
'Doing? Nothing that I could see.'
'What do you think he might be doing?'
'How the hell should I know? He was an intruder; maybe a spy for all I know. I would have thought I'd be congratulated for stopping him.'
'Is there anything to identify him?' Brelan wanted to know.
'No, we looked,' one of the rebels said.
'How did he get in?' Coilla wondered.
'That wouldn't have been too hard,' Brelan admitted.
'What?'
'We're fighting humans, not fellow orcs. You must have noticed we have all sorts through here: citizens who might not be actual resistance members but secretly support us. Offering information, donating supplies, bringing messages…'
'Could that be what he was? A messenger?'
'We tend to know them by sight.'
'So by and large,' Stryke summed up, 'you let anybody in except humans. Which is fine if you think all orcs support your cause, and can keep their mouths shut.'
'We're not that sloppy,' Brelan protested. 'We take measures. And yes, I do believe the orcs of Acurial support us, at heart.'
'Hope you're right. But you need to beef up security.'
'We're off the point,' Brelan came back defensively. 'All I know is that a human's killed an orc, right here in a safe house. And if there wasn't doubt about why' — he jabbed a finger at Standeven — ' he'd be dead now.'
'Why don't you make sure the intruder wasn't known to anybody here?' Stryke suggested.
'You bet I will. What do we do with him?' He glared at Standeven again.
'I want to talk to him. Privately.'
There was a hint of suspicion in Brelan's eyes. 'Why?'
'He's attached to my band. It's my charge. Just like you discipline your group. You've my word that if there's more to come out about this, you'll know.'
'And if it turns out to be murder, plain and simple?'
'Why should I?' Standeven protested heatedly. 'What could I possibly gain by — '
' Shut it,' Stryke ordered. 'If that's what happened, Brelan, he'll pay for it. Dearly.'
'He'd better.' He gestured at the rebels holding Standeven to let him go. 'We'll take the body out when you've finished here.' Then, grim-faced, he led his comrades from the room. The door slammed behind them.
Stryke turned to Dallog and Wheam. 'You too. Out.'
'Aaaahh,' Wheam complained, disappointed.
A look from Stryke silenced him. 'But stay close, Dallog. I might be needing you.'
They went out, leaving Stryke, Coilla and Pepperdyne with Standeven.
'Right,' Stryke said, confronting him, 'what really happened here?'
'I told you. But — '
Stryke grabbed him by the scruff and wrenched him close. 'You're saying that was the whole story?'
'I'm trying to explain! There was… something I didn't mention.'
'I knew it!' Pepperdyne snarled.
'No, wait, wait!' Standeven pleaded. 'I couldn't say it in front of the others.'
'What?'
'Let go, Stryke, and I'll show you.'
Stryke hung on to him for a moment, eyes locked on his. Then he let go and pushed him away. 'This better be good.'
'It is,' Standeven said. 'Least I reckon you'll think so.'
'Get on with it.'
'After that happened' — he waved a hand at the dead orc — 'I didn't call for help right away. I searched the body.'
'Why?'
'I like to know who's trying to kill me. I was just curious.'
'Looking for valuables, more like,' Pepperdyne remarked.
'Oh, I found something valuable all right.' Standeven thrust a hand into his pocket. What he brought out filled the palm of his hand. It was a green sphere with five projecting spikes of varying length, made of a material no one had been able to identify.
' The star,' Coilla gasped.
Stryke snatched it and began scrutinising it. 'It's the one stolen from you, Coilla,' he decided at last. He looked to Standeven. 'And this was on the body?'
The human nodded. He was still flushed and had a lustre of perspiration.
'You say you found it on the corpse,' Pepperdyne speculated, 'but how do we know that's true?'
'Where else would I have got it? And if I had anything to hide, why would I give it to you?'
'To save your skin?' Coilla put in. 'It's a good bet we might go easier on you after getting a prize like this.'
'For all we know you could have been walking around with it ever since it disappeared,' Pepperdyne added.
'Why would I do that?' Standeven asked. 'I know you all think I stole it. But if I had, how come I've still got it? Wouldn't I have sold it or — '
'Or given it to Jennesta,' Coilla said.
Standeven made no comment.
Stryke sighed. It was a sigh partly of exasperation, partly of bafflement. 'Let's get this straight. You're set upon by an orc you've not seen before. You kill him.' He hefted the instrumentality. 'And you find this on his body.'
'Yes.'
Coilla spoke for all of them. 'It makes no sense.'
Stryke put the star into his belt pouch. 'Sense or not, least we've got it back.'
'But it doesn't add up, Stryke. Who was he?' She pointed at the body. 'What was he doing here? Why did he have — '
'Yeah, I know. But unless you two have any bright ideas, I can't figure it.'
'Assuming what we've been told is true,' Pepperdyne said, staring pointedly at Standeven.
'I meant what I said to Brelan. If something deeper's going on here, there'll be a price to pay. Otherwise…'
'We accept his story,' Coilla finished, eyeing Standeven.
'Could be out of our hands.'
'Meaning?'
'We're strangers here. If it turns out this dead one was connected to the resistance, or they decide they don't believe what happened, it'll be their call.'
'So where does that leave me?' Standeven asked.
'You're not a member of my band.'
'Thank the gods,' Coilla mumbled.
