Shadowmage

enforcers on the streets, the contacts that form their network of spies, the highest earning merchants in their protection rackets, Loredo and Jewel themselves.'

'You have already tried to take down Jewel,' Adrianna interjected. 'That did not go so well.'

'We'll be prepared this time, and she won't have so many allies to call upon when we make the move. I'll do it myself, if I have to.'

'Have a care. She is as dangerous as her reputation suggests.'

'Your concern is touching,' Lucius said, but when he saw Adrianna about to react to that, he waved her fury away. 'By the time I reach Jewel, she will have a great many things to occupy her thoughts.'

'Such as?'

'This all happens tomorrow evening. The Hands will leave their guildhouse and kill everyone connected with Loredo that can be found.' He was acutely conscious that if Adrianna did not do as he expected, he had just doomed every member of the Hands.

'How can you be sure you will be able to find all the targets you seek? You know Loredo has moved the location of his guildhouse, specifically to avoid any reprisal like this?'

He did not know that, and Lucius hesitated before offering up the final part of the plan hatched by the Hands. 'We have the beggars on side. They are watching the movements of the Guild, tracking down everyone we have deemed important to Loredo's operations. They'll find their new base of power.'

'The beggars? Clever.' Her compliment was muted, and he could see her mind was ticking away, gauging the threat he and the Hands posed, and how it affected her position with her employer.

'It was Magnus, not me, that brought the beggars into the fold. And he paid for the alliance with his life.'

'And what, exactly, is your part in all of this, Lucius?' Adrianna asked.

'I'll be there every step of the way, Aidy. I'll lead the attack.'

'You realise, of course, that this will likely bring you into direct conflict with another Shadowmage.'

'I have no quarrel with you, Aidy. I am not looking to fight you.'

'If you are leading the assault, it becomes damn well near impossible to avoid, doesn't it?' she said, her anger finally boiling over. 'Do you understand what you risk, Lucius? Not the dangers in fighting the Guild, but in taking a stand against us?'

'I'm not taking a stand against you or the other Shadowmages, Aidy.'

'My contract with the Guild predates your involvement with the Hands, and so takes precedence!'

'I have no contract, Aidy. I am here because I have to be, because these people need me. Because they will die without me, and that is not something I can walk away from. I fight because I have to fight.'

'God damn you, Lucius!' Adrianna spat, and went on cursing him, decrying amateur practitioners and their lack of respect for the Shadowmages guild. He let her anger ride out, knowing he risked her striking him down on the spot, but also hoping he had understood how her loyalties ran.

When her fury was spent, she whirled back on him. 'You don't leave me any damned choice, do you?'

He waited for her next words, though he found it difficult to hold her stare.

Closing her eyes, Adrianna sighed, and with the release of breath, so the fire of her rage seemed to dissipate. 'It seems you have a personal stake in this war, Lucius, and it is clear that I don't. I'll release myself from the contract with the Guild. To continue would risk coming into conflict with another Shadowmage and however agreeable that may be on one level, I will not do it.'

'Thank you, Aidy,' he said.

'Oh, don't thank me, Lucius,' she said. 'I am well aware I have been played, and there will be a reckoning after this war is done.'

He nodded slowly, then played his next card. 'After this, I will take up my training in earnest.'

That made her look twice at him, and she frowned.

'It is a promise I make to both you and Master Forbeck,' he said. 'I will dedicate myself to the Shadowmages, learn all I can, and abide by the rules of the guild.'

Clearly sceptical, Adrianna cocked her head. 'Why?'

'I am going to stay in this city, Aidy,' he said. 'It is going to become my home again. I'll always have an allegiance to the Hands, but I will also pledge myself to the Shadowmages. I want to learn about our gift. I want to be more than I have been.'

'Your record in this matter is hardly sterling.'

'True,' he had to concede. 'But please allow that a man can change. I don't want to be your enemy, Aidy. We should not be enemies.'

Taking a step closer, Adrianna dark eyes bored into his own, as if trying to plumb the depths of his mind for the truth. 'If you do as you say, Lucius, you will have my support. But my God, if you should prove false…'

'I know,' he said simply.

She took a step back, preparing to leave. 'We have an understanding, then. I will not interfere with your plans, and will henceforth break off contact with Loredo and his Guild.'

'There was… just one more thing,' Lucius said.

'Oh, with you there always is,' Adrianna said, but waited patiently to hear him out.

He took a breath, preparing himself to see how far his relationship with Adrianna truly stretched. 'The Hands' assault on the Guild begins this evening.'

She frowned. 'I thought you said…'

'Tomorrow is when the Hands move as a whole. In a few hours, however, I will enter the Citadel and strike at the heart of the Vos guard. Their captain, von Minterheim.'

Adrianna just looked at him, mouth open, dumbstruck.

'That is the signal for the Hands to begin. With the guard paralysed and leaderless, they will be of little aid to the Guild, for a time at least.'

It took a while for Adrianna to find her voice again. 'That… is either incredibly stupid and ill-conceived, or…' she trailed off.

'Whatever it is, it won't be easy. However, my request…' he hesitated for a moment before steeling himself to continue. 'I wanted to ask you if you would come with me, to fight by my side and ensure the mission's success.'

Trying very hard to ignore Adrianna's dark eyes, Lucius began to explain. 'I cannot offer you money or anything that would be the equal of the contract you have lost, but this is important to me Aidy, and — '

'Fine.'

'What?'

'Fine,' she said with a shrug. 'I'll come with you. Then we'll see just how good a practitioner you have become.'

Lucius had expected argument, threat and disparagement, but not an easy acquiescence. It caught him off- guard.

'You better tell me what you have planned,' Adrianna said. 'Then I can tell you where you are going wrong, and how to fix it.'

The Citadel lay silhouetted against the giant sphere of Kerberos that hung imposingly across half the evening sky. Bands of clouds racing across its surface like the wake from a ship moving at speed. The Five Markets were quiet, just a few late traders desperately trying to hawk the last of their day's stock.

Lucius' initial plan had been scotched by Adrianna almost immediately in favour for an easier and less complicated approach. He had envisioned an assault upon the walls, a stealthy dash through the courtyard and then a sweep of the keep in order to locate their prey. Instead, the more experienced Shadowmage had suggested they allow von Minterheim to come to them. The changing of the guard was an event undertaken with typical Vos regularity, and it was always overseen by the captain so long as he was present in the city. That meant not a dangerous and probably futile attempt to gain access to the keep, but instead a hard-hitting strike executed in the main courtyard of the Citadel.

Quickly warming to the idea, Lucius had seen its promise. The point of the attack was not simply to avenge himself and the Hands on von Minterheim, but to shatter the guard. To paralyse their ability to retaliate to the Hands' next move against the Guild, however briefly. The Vos army could not be destroyed in Turnitia, but it could