'Good luck for me.' I reached for my purse and wondered how much to give them. Stuff it, they could have the whole lot; I cut it loose with my dagger.
'Get drunk on me and do me a favour, forget you ever saw me.'
Mad-dog blinked. 'You don't have to—' he began uncertainly.
'Cheers.' One of his mates took the purse from me and weighed it appreciatively.
We continued walking slowly along until we had passed a patrolling Watchman. The dark hid the blood on our clothes but I was as nervous as a colt in a breaking yard. I left the miners at the next street corner without looking back and hurried back to the inn as fast as I dared. I slipped through the stableyard and snatched up a cloak some fool had left on his saddle. Wrapping it round me to hide the bloodstains, I went up the back stairs. The parlour door was locked, which threw me, and I rattled the handle angrily.
'Open up,' I hissed into it.
Keys rattled and I fell forward as Darni snatched the door out of my hand in opening it. I pushed past him.
'We've got a demon of a problem on our backs—' I began breathlessly.
'Do you know where he is?' Darni grabbed my shoulder, his fingers digging in painfully.
'Where who is?' I shoved his hand off. 'Listen, this is important.'
'No, you listen.' Darni was a pace away from outright fury and I realised I did not want to see that. 'Do you know where Geris is?'
'Geris?' I looked at him stupidly. 'He's supposed to be here playing runes with What's-his-name the nephew.'
'He's gone.' I looked round to see Shiv kneeling by the coffers we'd been hauling over so many leagues, the now open and empty coffers.
'Gone?' Repeating everything was not very helpful but I could not get my mind round what they were saying.
'According to the innkeeper, he left just before I got back.' Darni's face was set like stone. 'He's taken three seasons' work with him and gone off with a group of yellow-haired men.'
I stared at him, jaw dropped open. I shut my mouth, turned on my heel and ran. I slammed out of the inn, ignoring Darni's outraged bellow and the startled stares of the customers.
Pelting through the dark streets, I found myself muttering the first truly sincere prayer of my adult life. 'Halcarion, please let him be there, please let him be there.' Was the Moon Maiden still going to be listening to me after I'd used up so much luck already tonight?
'Can I help you, madam?' Another of those well-polished Watchmen stepped out of a doorway to bar my path. I registered the gleam of his breastplate just fast enough to stop myself palming my dagger; my nerves were as taut as a bowstring and fraying fast.
'Sorry? No, thank you. I'm late for a meet, that's all.' I stumbled over the words but he just saluted me briefly and stepped back.
I forced myself to walk more slowly; I was still wearing bloody clothes and the last thing I wanted to do was explain that away. No one was raising a hue and cry so it didn't look as if the murder had been discovered yet but it wouldn't take long; the servants would be home soon for a start.
The horse fair was still wide awake; the corrals were full and herders in from Dalasor and Gidesta were camped round fires, singing and drinking with scant regard for anyone who might want to sleep. The Eagle was lit and lively and I pushed my way through the crowd, hampered by the need to keep the cloak wrapped round me.
I scanned the throng for the dark curly head, the long limbs. Finally I saw the man I was looking for; he was playing White Raven with a horse trader, their finely balanced game attracting a circle of people. He looked up as I approached, the lamplight glinting gold in his brown eyes, but now I had found him, I just stood there dumbly, unable to think what to say.
'Is it Grandmother? Has she had another seizure? All right, I'm coming.' He rose and escorted me out immediately, supportive arm around my shoulders, half a head taller than most of the press of people who parted before us.
'What is it?' We paused in the space beyond the horse pens where no one could overhear us.
'You're hunting yellow-haired men. Have you got a lead on them yet?' I demanded.
'Not yet,' he said slowly. 'Why do you ask?'
'Someone I'm travelling with has disappeared and I think they've taken him.'
'Shit!' His composure broke for a moment and I saw real fury in his eyes, his hand gesturing involuntarily towards his sword hilt. 'So who are you? What's your business?'
'I'm travelling with a wizard and an Archmage's agent. They're collecting Tormalin Empire artefacts for some project of Planir's. We had a Vanam scholar with us, Geris. We were out this evening and when we got back, he'd gone, apparently with a group of blond men.'
'He couldn't have gone off himself? Why do you think these men are the ones I want?' His eyes were keen and his face impassive. Not a man to play runes with when drinking.
'On the road here we were hit by a troop of these cornheads, and when I was out doing a job tonight I was attacked by more of them. That's no coincidence. You're looking for them and it has to be something important to bring you this far north.'
'What was the job?'
I hesitated; I did not want to give too much away and I felt strangely reluctant to admit to my role as wizard's tame thief. 'Can we help each other over this?' I persisted. 'I can't say more until I have your word.'
'Surely.' He nodded and swore a binding oath to Dastennin; an interesting choice.
As I told him the bare essentials of the tale, the five chimes of midnight interrupted us. He cursed and looked around. I saw the horse traders dousing their fires and the inns escorting reluctant customers to the doors. I'd only just made it.
'We can't do much tonight.' He ran a hand through his hair. 'How about I see you at first light?'
I nodded and turned to go; I could not think of anything else to do or say and the energy generated by the night's shocks was fading fast. I stumbled on some dried horseshit and would have fallen if he had not caught my arm.
'Are you all right?' I saw him rub his fingertips together, sniffing to confirm the blood.
'It's not mine.' I said tiredly. 'It's just been a pig of a night and I'm exhausted.'
'You can have my bed here if you want,' he offered.
I shook my head. 'I'll be fine. Darni will start taking the city apart if I go missing too.'
'The wizard?'
'No, the agent. Be careful of him, by the way; he doesn't take ideas from other people well.'
'Do you want me to walk you back?'
'No thanks. I'll be careful.'
He nodded and turned to go back to the Eagle. He looked back over his shoulder. 'By the way, what's your name?'
I stared at him for a moment before realising we'd not even introduced ourselves.
'Livak, I'm called Livak.'
'I'm Ryshad.' He winked at me and smiled encouragement. 'See you in the morning.'
He crossed the horse fair with rapid strides of his long legs and I lost him in the press of shadows. I walked slowly back to our inn. Now it was after midnight, the Watch would be taking more careful note of who was out and about. I raised the hood of my cloak and kept to the shadows. Perhaps I should have accepted Ryshad's escort: a couple would have been less noteworthy. I realised he had not pressed the point and I wondered when I'd last met a man who took me at my word when I said I could take care of myself. It made for a refreshing change.
Darni was nearly chewing the table when I got back. 'Don't ever go off like that again!' he spat at me in fury. 'Where the shit did you go?'
'I know someone who might be able to help,' I said curtly. 'He'll be here in the morning.'
I pushed past him and headed for the table where Shiv sat, head hanging over a cup of wine.
'Shiv!' I'd forgotten all about him; we'd been supposed to meet back at the Watch lock-up. 'What—