They went back very much the way they had come, and long before they came closeto the alley behind the Unicorn, Cappen had a sure idea that such was theirdestination.

6

The pair of them went well enough where Hanse had figured they would go, in thealley behind the Unicorn. He held back as he had been doing and kept them insight... wished anew that he had had the chance during the day to creep up toIschade's lodgings and have a closer look, but she had been there most of theday, and daylight and the fact that it was the second storey gave him no easyoptions. When she had left, towards evening, he had been obliged to follow,having no real idea other motives and habitual movements ... and well that hehad followed, since this evening had turned out as it had.

But there was still, as there had been, a presence on his trail -and that wasCappen. Hanse knew that much, had caught sight of the minstrel out of his ownterritory and seen him more than once on streets where Cappen had no businessbeing.

And who had hired Cappen?

It was not Cappen's custom to take employment; he diced and he sang songs; butnever this kind of work. He was not suited for ft. Enas Yorl could have hiredbetter. Far better.

But this Ischade -

Hanse refused the idea. And yet constantly nagging at him in that small nook ofhis mind where he tucked coincidences, was Cappen's presence that morning. ButCappen had been in the game too, like Mradhon Vis and Sjekso; and Cappen had getoff with some profit, as Cappen usually did.

Cappen bought him a drink; and that was uncommon, that Cappen had that much tospare. But it was in Cappen's nature to play the lord and throw about what hehad.

Cappen had ducked out of the Unicorn a scant moment before the blind man came,having assured Hanse's presence there with that drink... but that then circledthe matter back to Yorl, where it made least sense.

Hanse forbore another glance over his shoulder, reckoning that even Cappen'sunskilled stalking might pick that up. He kept his attention towards the pair infront of him, kept moving where necessary - watched them reach the steps andboth of them start up the stairs towards the lady's lodgings, without anyexchanged movement which might mean the passing of the loot.

Now ... now while the noise of the creaking stairs gave him sound to rely on intracking them - he had his chance, and took it, a path he had marked out thatafternoon. He carefully set his hands on a barrel, levered himself up into atuck and sought the next level of debris, noiselessly, one after the other,holding his breath as one foothold rocked and the next proved stable.

He made the roof as the pair made the door and opened it; he edged along it withthe greatest care - a wooden roof at least, and not the tiles some fancieduptown. Even now he would have preferred to be rid of the boots and to gobarefoot, as he had worked in the days before prosperity, but he figured therewas no time for such. He edged his way around the ell of the roof on wetshingles and out on to that section over the room itself.

There was noise inside, a sharp, animal sound which lifted his nape hairs andmade him less certain he wanted near this place at all. He edged closer to thevery edge of the eaves, put his head over, viewing upside down where onlyparchment covered the window and formed a scant barrier to sounds and voicesfrom inside. He heard footsteps clearly, heard a napping sound... and suddenly ajolt and crack as an aged shingle snapped in two under his hand on the edge. Itflung him overbalance, but he caught himself on his belly, spread-eagled on theroof. 'Hssst!' he heard from inside, and he swore silently by appropriate godsand began to work his way hastily back from the vulnerable edge.

His hands, his legs went numb; his breath grew short and the talisman at histhroat became a lump of ice and fire. Magic, he thought, some warding spellflung his way ... he dealt with wizards; and it was a trap. He strove to makehis limbs do what they well knew how to do: carefully he put a knee on a wet andworn row of shingles on the slant.

One broke; he slipped, a rattling loud career down the layered face of theshingles, his feet swinging into empty air, his wild final thought that if hefought the fall now he might go head downwards or on to his back. He let go,slid, expecting a dizzying long drop -the barrels, maybe, the debris of thealley might break his fall and save his back and legs -

He hit the edge of the porch unprepared, a shock that sent him tumbling afurther few feet down the stairs backwards - a ridiculous lot of noise, hisbattered mind was thinking through the pain, an embarrassing lot of noise...

And then the door was open above him, and he was lying sprawled on his back headdownwards on the narrow steps, looking up through his feet at Mradhon Vis, whocame with the metal flash of a dagger in his fist.

Hanse went for the belt knife, curled up and threw it with all he had: MradhonVis staggered back with an oath, spun half about by the cast as Hanse twisted toget up, his feet higher than his head with a railing on his left and a wall onhis right, which hindered more than helped. He got as far as his knee when thebravo's foot caught him under the jaw and hurled him back into the wall; and aknife followed - further humiliation - up against his throat while Mradhon Visgrabbed his hair and twisted. Hanse fought to get loose; he thought that hestruggled, but the messages were slow getting to his limbs, and the burning ofthe amulet at his throat distracted him with the feeling that he was chokingor was it the knife?

'Bring him up,' a female voice said from the light of the doorway; and Hanselooked blurrily up into it, while a hand twisted into his hair jerked him up andthe dagger shifted a keen point to his back under the ribs. He went up thestairs, and followed the blackrobed figure which retreated inside. There seemedlittle else at the moment that he could do, that he wanted to do, bruised as hewas and with his wits leaden weighted. He blinked in the interior light, stareddully at the russet silks, at the clutter of objects separately beautiful, butwhich lay disarrayed - like bones in a nest, he thought distantly, thinking ofsomething predatory; and he jerked at the sudden racket and nutter ofwings, a fluttering of the lamplight in the commotion of a great black birdwhich sat on its perch over against the wall.

'You can go,' the woman said, and Hanse's heart lifted for the instant. 'You'vebeen paid. Come back tomorrow.' And then he knew she spoke to Mradhon Vis.

'Tomorrow.'

'Then.'

'Is that all there is? And leave this here?' A jab at Hanse's back. 'I took aknife, woman; I've got a hole in my arm and you keep this and turn me out in thewet, do you?'

'Out,' she said, in a lower tone.

And to Hanse's bewilderment the knife retreated. Hanse moved then, turned in theinstant, thinking of a quick stab from behind, his own hand to his wrist sheath... and he had the blade out, facing Mradhon Vis - but somehow the rest of themove failed him, and he watched dully as Mradhon Vis turned away and sulked hisway to the open door.

'Close it behind you,' the woman said, and Mradhon Vis did so, not slamming it.Hanse blinked, and the amulet at his neck hurt more than any bruise he hadtaken. It burned, and he had no sense left to get rid of it.

Ischade smiled abstractedly at her guest, left him so a moment, having greaterbusiness at hand. 'Peruz,' she said softly, shook back her hood, and taking fromher robes the necklace, she drew near the huge raptor ... or the guise it wore.With the greatest of care she slipped the necklace into a small case which hungfrom the side of the stand and fastened the case in its turn to the scaly leg ofthe bird. Peruz stood still too, uncommonly so, his great wings folded. A lasttime she teased the breast feathers, the softness about the neck - she had grownfond of the creature in recent weeks, as anything that shared her life. Shesmiled at the regard of a cold topaz eye.