"You will die, you know. This is the last bolthole. Your end is here."

An end for both of us then, Lalo thought numbly. I will not mind-Then histrembling fingers found the crack. He moved his hand along the wall, lipswhispering the numbers that had become a litany-sixty-six, sixty-seven steps...Please, Lord Ils, Jet it be here... sixty-eight... Shalpa help me, sixty nine,seventy?

His fingers closed on a rusting semicircle of iron, and stifling a gasp ofrelief he hauled himself upward, though his fingers slipped on the rungs. Thesplashing behind him slowed as if his enemy had paused to listen, then became atumult as Zanderei began to run.

Lalo gained the top, shoved the wooden cover aside, and heart bursting, rolledover the edge into the clean air. But he could not rest now, not yet, not untilthe trap was sprung. Summoning strength where he had thought there could be nomore, he hauled the cover over the shaft and drove home the wooden bar. Andwithout waiting to see if it would hold, he staggered back to the first shaftand did the same thing there.

Then he sank to the cobbles beside it, pulse hammering, knowing that this last,god-given strength was gone and he could do not more. This was the only place inthe network of sewers where two shafts entered the conduits so close together.Zanderei was trapped there now.

How sweet the air was to his lungs. From some upper room Lalo heard the tinkleof a gittem and a woman's low laughter. A soft wind comforted his burningcheeks-a sea wind. And then Lalo remembered with mingled satisfaction and horrorthat Zanderei was doubly doomed. With the sea wind would come a rush of darkwater from the Swamp of Night Secrets, propelled by the tidal bore.

"You-Assassin-you've done well-but what made you think you could win this gamewith me?" Lalo whispered through cracked lips. Laughter rasped his throat, andhe sat shaking by the locked well-mouth while the slime of the tunnel dried onhis skin. A stray pickpocket, passing by, made the sign against madness andscuttled away. He heard a whistle and then the clink of a sword as a Hell-Houndpassed the mouth of the alley, but he supposed he looked like nothing human,crouching there.

"Limner, are you there?"

Lalo jumped, hearing the voice so close to him. The wood of the shaft-topshuddered as it was struck from below, and Lalo leaned on the bar. Hanging fromthe rungs by one hand, there was no way Zanderei could gain enough leverage tobreak free. That was what Lalo had heard in dark tales whispered by childhoodfriends, and later, overwinecups in the Vulgar Unicorn. If he lived, he toowould have a tale to tell. ...

"Assassin, I am here and you are there and there you will stay," croaked Lalowhen the dull hammering finally stilled.

"I will give you gold-I have never broken my word . . . You could establishyourself in the capital."

"I don't want your gold." I don't even want to go to Ranke, his thoughtcontinued, not anymore.

"I will give you your life..." said Zanderei. "Coricidius won't believe you,you know, and the Hell-Hounds will have your skull for a drinking bowl. At thevery least they will strike off your hands ..."

Involuntarily, Lalo's fingers clasped protectively around his wrists, as if abright blade were already descending. It was true-surely he had lost all he hadever gained. Better to meet Zan-derei's knife than to live without being able totake brush in hand. If I cannot paint I am nothing, he thought. I will surelydie.

But he did not move. Shivering with exhaustion and despair, still he would notthrow away this victory, even though he hardly understood his reasons anymore.

"Limner, I will give you your soul..."

"You can only give death, foreigner! You cannot trick me!"

"I do not need to-" the voice seemed very tired. "I only need to ask you aquestion. Have you ever painted your own portrait, Limner with the sorcerer'seye?"

The silence stretched into eternity while Lalo tried to understand. He felt asubtle quiver in the earth that told him the tide was beginning to turn. Whatdid Zanderei mean? Of course he had done self-portraits by the dozen, when hecould get no one else to pose for him-

-In the old days, before Enas York had taught him to paint the soul ...

I've been too busy-no... the awareness came reluctantly, I was afraid.

"What will you see on your canvas when you have murdered me?" The voice echoedhis fear.

"Stop it! Leave me alone!" Lalo cried aloud. He heard a deep voice shout ordersin the street beyond the alley, and saw for a moment the flicker of lanternsbobbing by, pallid in the moonlight.

In a few minutes the poisoned waters would be driven from their bed by theinexorable pressure of the tide, and rush through the sewers of Sanctuary like ahost of angry serpents seeking their prey. In a few minutes Zanderei would bedead.

If he disappears, maybe they will blame Zanderei for the Fire. When the stirdies down I'll be free to paint again. His hand twitched as if he held a brush,but the motion triggered Zanderei's words in his memory.

"Have you ever painted your own portrait?"

Lalo shuddered suddenly, violently. Could even Enas Yorl lift the curse this manhad laid upon his soul? He heard the irregular tramp of men trying to march inclose order over an uneven road. The sound was louder now-in a few moments theywould pass his alleyway. In a few moments the waters would be here.

"What will you see when you have murdered me?"

Without conscious decision, Lalo found himself running stiffly towards theSerpentine.

"Ho there! Guards-he is hiding in the sewers-down this alley!" He held hisground while they debated, knowing that they could not recognize him under thesodden clothes and mud, and motioned to them to follow him.

Then he pounded down the alley, bent to wrestle the bar from the shaft-cover andran on until he found the dark overhang of a staircase to shelter him. Below hefelt a trembling and heard the hiss of many waters, and, just as the wooden lidof the shaft was knocked aside, the hollow boom of water forced upward throughtoo narrow a way.

Something dark clung to the rim of the shaft, like a rat flooded from its hole,then clambered the rest of the way out once the fury of the waters had passed.But now the Hell-Hounds surrounded the shaft. There was a flurry of movement andLalo heard swearing and a cry of pain. Among the voices he distinguished thesoft tones of the Emperor's Commissioner.

"Is that who you say you are?" A deep voice, Quag's voice, replied. "Well, ifwe've lost the dauber, at least we have you. My Lord Prince will be interestedto learn what sharp-toothed rats his brother keeps to guard his granaries! Comealong, you!"

Lalo sank back against the post of the stair. It was over. The Hell-Hounds weredragging Zanderei away as once they had dragged him into the night.

He would find a way to let Coricidius know what the painting had shown and whatZanderei had confessed to him. Would they call him into court to prove it? Wouldthey dispose of the assassin quietly, or send him back to Ranke to report hisfailure? With a dim wonder Lalo realized that it did not matter anymore.

Gilla would have harsh words for him when he reached home, but her arms would besoft and comforting ...

But still he did not move, for below the surface questions in his mind pulsedone more perplexing-Why did I let Zanderei go?

Today he had faced death, and fought for his life, and conquered fear. He hadrealized that the evil of the world was not confined to Sanctuary. But if hecould do all this, he was not the person that he had thought he knew.