The Twilight herald

Isak studied the boy leaning against the walclass="underline" young, skinny, aver¬age height for a youth of fifteen-odd summers. No weapons.

'A strange night to be taking the air,' Isak said softly. The boy spun around in alarm, for a moment not seeing Isak's face and then gasping when he did. 'Getting a moment's peace away from your family?' Isak's command of the language was not perfect, but it was good enough to be understood.

'No sir,' came the sullen reply. Sir, Isak thought with interest, an odd way for a local to speak to a foreigner unless I look older than I think I do.

'Then what are you doing? It's a bad night to be out.'

'Every night is a bad night in Scree,' the youth said, 'but I think I'm safe on the streets around here. Safer than you, anyway.'

Isak gave a grin. 'Really? I'd heard this was one of the worst districts for criminals.'

'They're just poor round here, not criminal – unless you think being poor is a crime.' The youth gave him a defiant look. 'But there are criminals out tonight, and they're the ones I'm waiting for. They don't much like white-eyes, so if I were you I'd go somewhere else.'

Isak thought for a moment. The youth had definitely been watch¬ing the house, but as far as Isak could tell, it was a derelict building – certainly nothing to interest normal criminals.

'What's your name?'

'What's yours?' the youth snapped.

'My name? Ah, Horman,' Isak replied. Now why did I say that? That's not the name I'd agreed with Vesna. What made me think of my father?

'Fine, if you say so. I'm Mayel.'

Isak reached out a hand. 'Well, Mayel, how about you come up here and tell me all about these criminals.' Mayel took a half-pace back as Isak's massive arm loomed forward. 'Come on; share a pipe with me.'

The promise of tobacco seemed to clinch it for the young man, who took a step forward and grasped Isak's hand. The white-eye hauled Mayel up without effort and deposited him on the walkway.

'Gods, you're a big bastard,' Mayel exclaimed when he saw Isak straighten up.

'Easy there, you were calling me "sir" a moment ago.'

'Sorry, bad habit,' Mayel apologised, not mentioning which was the bad habit. 'Just hadn't expected it; you're bigger than any white-eye I've ever seen.'

Isak ignored the point. 'What's that accent I can hear? Are you a local? It sounds like you've been educated, but you're hardly dressed like a merchant's son.'

Mayel plucked at the ragged clothes he had on. 'I was a novice at a monastery, I got some learning there. What's it to you?'

'Just working out who I'm dealing with,' Isak replied breezily. 'Always best to find out beforehand. Here, help yourself.' He offered his pipe and tobacco pouch and Mayel took them with delight.

'So what are you doing out here?' Mayel asked once he'd filled the pipe and lit it. 'Have you enlisted with Mistress Ostia's army?'

'No, we're escorting someone, some lord's mistress.' Tila had in¬sisted on accompanying them and Isak hadn't been able to dissuade her. He knew he wouldn't hear the end of forbidding it outright, so in the end, he'd agreed that the White Circle would likely not harm a woman, and accepted her suggestion that she play the lordly whore being escorted by mercenaries in these troubled times.

'One of those White Circle bitches?'

'Probably,' Isak grinned. 'You should be careful what you say about them in strange company though.'

'Ah, you're not tied to them. I hear the only white-eyes the Circle have are ones they trot around on leashes. They don't speak or piss without permission from their mistress.'

That drove the smile from Isak's face. He'd come close to becom¬ing little more than a pet of the Queen of the Fysthrall. Wondering how his life would have turned out if she'd succeeded was a sobering thought. As far as they could tell, he'd have been made to march his armies all the way to Tir Duria and lay siege to that fortress city, costing tens of thousands of lives. It would probably have been the ruin of the Farlan nation in the process.

'So who does your mistress belong to? Someone powerful?' Mayel asked, enjoying the pipe enough to not have noticed Isak's changed mood.

'Don't know. Why do you ask?'

Mayel suddenly looked apprehensive. 'I've been away for a few years,' he said, hunching his shoulder. 'I'm still working out who the people with power are.'

'I don't think he's anyone very powerful, just a man who's very fond of his pretty mistress.' Isak pictured Count Vesna and almost smiled again. The man had looked constantly anxious since they had met up again on the border. He and his band of soldiers were bloodied and grim, drained by the weeks fighting Duke Vrerr's cause. The reunion had been muted, and since then Vesna had rarely left Tila's side.

Isak gestured towards the unlit house. 'So why don't you tell me why your criminal friends are interested in that house?'

'Why should I? What are you doing here?'

'Watching out for a friend. He has business with someone in that house.'

Mayel frowned. 'What sort of business?'

'A personal dispute.'

'And you're just sitting here watching?'

'It's personal,' Isak replied gravely. 'If he wanted my help he would

ask, but he won't need it.'

'He will once my cousin's men arrive,' Mayel blurted out. 'They've also got business there, and you don't want to get in their way.'

Isak cocked his head to one side. 'Now what sort of business could they have with that house?'

'People have been disappearing in the city; we hear it's got some¬thing to do with the man who lives in that house. My cousin runs this district and he doesn't like madmen preying on his people; he's going to have a look around that house and see what's there.'

Isak stared at the house. It was completely dark, and silent; he couldn't even see any movement within the grounds. That struck him as a little odd; while Doranei hadn't explained fully what was going on, Isak would have expected anyone the king was interested in to have posted guards, or at least to inspect the grounds once or twice. He'd been watching a good while now, and he'd have guessed the house was deserted.

Emin would soon be making his move, then they would see just how dead it was around here.

To be on the safe side, Isak reached down and picked up a couple of small stones lying near his foot. Ignoring Mayel's curious expression, he tossed them over his shoulder and they pattered away into the darkness. Within a matter of heartbeats, Major Jachen was crouched down at Isak's side, betraying no surprise at the presence of the young stranger.

'Where are the others?'

'I sent most back to the house with the tart,' Jachen replied, keep¬ing in role. 'I know what you're like for getting into trouble, so I kept Leshi, Tiniq and Jeil with me.'

Isak grinned. Lesarl had added the rangers Leshi and Tiniq to his party. They were Ascetites, men whose latent talent for magic had never developed, but instead they had natural and learned skills pushed beyond normal limits. The pair were as stealthy as Mihn and almost as quick and strong as the white-eyes of the Palace Guard. Tiniq was the twin of a white-eye, General Lahk, which was appar¬ently impossible, while Leshi had the remarkable ability to be able to stand so perfectly still that he faded into to the shadows. In a forest, even another ranger could walk within a few yards of the man and never see him.

With the losses to Isak's personal guard and the great danger posed by entering Scree with so few soldiers, it had been prudent to fill the gaps with more unnatural troops. In addition to a squat, bearded battle-mage who'd introduced himself as Mariq and said nothing else since to Isak, there was a knight from Torl whose remarkable skill with a bow meant he too had to be an Ascetite, and Shinir, one of Lesarl's female agents, who had only a loose relationship with gravity whenever climbing was necessary – she was also the most spiteful and unforgiving woman Isak had ever met.

Their addition had already provided one unexpected bonus. As they were trying to work out how Mariq and Isak would get past the White Circle mage attending the gate, their Ascetites had gone through, and their strange abilities had so thoroughly confused the mage that she'd developed a migraine and abandoned her post, leaving Isak free to walk straight in.