reputation for cheating, no one would do business with me.'
When Kesk put it that way, it did seem to make sense, yet Aeron found he wasn't ready to let the topic go.
'You'd betray a hireling in the blink of an eye if it was worth your while, particularly if you thought you could make him disappear with no one the wiser.'
'We agreed on a nice fee for your work, but hardly large enough to beggar me, or make me go to the trouble to play you false. I don't see the saddlebag. Where is it?'
'Somewhere safe.'
'It's like that, is it?'
'I lost three friends stealing that box.'
'Which means you don't have to split up the coin,' said the tanarukk. 'You can keep it all, and wind up four times richer than you expected. Be satisfied with that. Don't think you can grind me for more.'
'You knew to send us after the box, so maybe you knew how well protected it was. But you didn't warn me.'
Kesk snorted-a wet, ugly sound like a pig oinking-and said, 'I thought you knew the game, redbeard. I thought you were a man. When a job gets bloody, a man doesn't weep and whine about it.'
'Right. A man hits back when someone sets him up for a fall.'
The tanarukk glared and said, 'Why wouldn't I tell you everything I knew about the… the box? I wanted you to get away with it, didn't I?'
'Maybe you feared that if I knew what I was getting into, I wouldn't take the job. Or maybe you hoped some of my crew would get killed. That would save you Red Axes the trouble of slaughtering us all yourselves.'
'I told you, we weren't planning to kill you. Maybe we still won't, provided you come to your senses. The War Leader knows, you've got a death coming for this harebrained stunt here tonight, but I've got other meat to chew. Now, where's the lockbox?'
'What's it worth to you, really?'
Kesk quivered, quite possibly with the urge to charge and attack.
'Curse you, human,' the gang leader said, 'we had a deal, and no one goes back on a bargain with me!'
'I'm not reneging, exactly,' said Aeron. 'It's just that I charge extra for every lie and lost partner.'
'You don't know what you're getting into. If you've got any brains at all, you understand I can't let folk cross me and live to brag about it, or else I'm finished in this town. But even that isn't the whole of it.'
'You're starting to bore me, Kesk. Perhaps someone else will pay a fair price for the coffer.'
The tanarukk shuddered, and the corner of his mouth twitched and drooled around the jutting tusk and fangs.
'All right,' Kesk said. 'I'll give you five times as much as we agreed on.'
'Ten, and we'll make the trade at a place and time of my-'
The flame in the oil lamp flared, momentarily illuminating the shadowy gate as brightly as the noonday sun. Aeron had the misfortune to be looking in the general direction of the blaze, and it dazzled him.
He didn't know how Kesk had accomplished the trick. Maybe it was some innate capacity derived from his demonic heritage. But he didn't even need to hear the pounding footsteps to comprehend why the tanarukk had manipulated the flame. Kesk had had his back to the lamp, so he hadn't been blinded, and he was charging in to attack his startled, crippled foe.
Aeron flung himself to the side. Something whizzed past his head, just missing, judging from the breeze. He assumed it was Kesk's battle-axe.
Tharag roared something in the uncouth language of his kind, reminding Aeron that he had two foes, not just one.
Damn it!
He should have taken a split second to knife the bugbear before rolling clear, but had been too rattled to think of it.
He couldn't battle both of them, not when all he could see was spots and blobs swimming before his eyes. Truth to tell, he wouldn't have bet on his ability to outfight Kesk under any conditions. He had to get out of there.
Aeron sensed something lunging at him. He jumped backward, with a sick certainty that it wasn't enough to save him, then heard two bodies smack together and Kesk bellow in frustrated rage. Evidently he and the bugbear had rushed Aeron at the same instant, and on the fairly narrow platform, had gotten in each other's way.
Aeron knew it had only bought him a second, time he needed to use to leap back down into the water, where his foes' axe and scimitar couldn't reach him. But which way was it? Blind as he was, disoriented from dodging, he was no longer sure.
All he could do was take his best guess. He ran-one stride, a second-and pitched into empty space. He felt a split second of elation, then he crashed down on a solid surface.
For an instant, stunned, Aeron couldn't grasp what had gone wrong, let alone what to do next. Finally it came to him that he'd landed inside one of the boats. The craft bounced as someone else jumped in with him.
Aeron scrambled backward, bumped into the gunwale, and swung himself over the side. His maneuver tipped the craft, and Kesk cursed as he struggled to keep his balance.
Aeron plunged into the water, then struck out in what he prayed was the direction of the river. A missile of some sort, a thrown dagger, perhaps, splashed down beside him. Finally his vision began to clear, and he saw he was headed the right way.
As he reached the mouth of the gate, he glanced backward, and felt a jolt of terror. Kesk held his battle-axe poised for a swing at the chain that held the portcullis in the raised position. The weapon's edge glowed scarlet as he activated some magic bound in the steel.
Aeron hurled himself forward. Metal clashed, chain clattered, and the grille dropped just behind him, kicking up a little wave that carried him a few feet farther out into the Scelptar.
The trick then was to make it safely ashore. Aeron thought Kesk would send the Red Axes to prowl along the riverside, but if he kept on swimming as fast as he could, he reckoned he'd be able to make it onto dry land before the tanarukk could organize the search.
CHAPTER 4
The dirty, dark-haired boy cowered in the corner, for Sefris had hurt him until the pain burned all the resistance out of him. She'd needed a deft touch to avoid marking him. It was all right that he already carried a street urchin's usual collection of bruises and scrapes, but he wouldn't be deemed acceptable if she herself spilled so much as a drop of his blood before the ceremony started. That was just the way it worked.
Thanks to his terrified passivity, she didn't need to worry about his trying to bolt through the door. She could sit by the window and watch the moon sink toward the horizon. She couldn't start until the Dark Goddess's twin sister and greatest foe exited the sky.
Sefris had found the skinny, ragged child begging at a busy intersection. Perhaps he stole as well, when the opportunity arose. Representing herself as a simple traveler and devout worshiper of Ilmater, god of pity, she feigned horror at the discovery of a child so young reduced to such wretched circumstances. She insisted on spiriting him away for a hot supper, a bath, and a new suit of clothes.
At first, wary, he'd been reluctant to go, but with gentle persistence, she persuaded him. Evidently feeling at ease, he started to prattle merrily as they strolled along, but the words caught in his throat as soon as she ushered him into the cramped little flat where, supposedly, her brother and his wife were putting her up.
Upon reaching Oeble, she'd known she needed a private place in which to sleep and perform her rituals, so she'd cleared one out. The broken corpses of the previous tenants sprawled where they'd fallen. The boy froze and gawked at them, which made it easy to relieve him of his knife, immobilize him, and administer as much punishment as required.
Eventually Selune hid below the horizon like a pale ghost creeping back into its grave. Sefris rose and advanced on the beggar.
