‘Good enough. Our money is lodged in the Central Reserve. Your payment needs to be made there within a week.’

Denser stood. ‘It’ll be there tomorrow. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need a bath.’ He made to leave; The Unknown stopped him.

‘Where are you staying?’

‘I hadn’t given it any thought.’

‘Get Tomas to make up a room. There’ll be no charge.’

‘That’s very good of you. Thank you.’ Denser seemed a little confused, though he smiled.

‘And if you’re up to it, come to the party. You financed it, after all. Main bar, dusk.’ Denser nodded. ‘Just one more thing. Ilkar? A ForeTell, please.’

Ilkar nodded, the ghost of good humour touching his face as he stood up and walked over to Denser.

‘What do you need?’ asked Denser.

‘Not much,’ said Ilkar. ‘It’s a very general spell, single trait only. I’m merely looking for honesty. When I touch you, just answer the question I ask yes or no.’

Ilkar closed his eyes and uttered a short incantation. His right hand made a pass in front of his eyes, mouth and heart before he placed it on Denser’s shoulder.

‘Will two hundred thousand truesilver be deposited in The Raven account at the Central Reserve within a week from today?’

‘Yes.’

Ilkar opened his eyes and then the door. ‘See you later.’ Denser left. Ilkar pushed the door shut and glared at The Unknown Warrior. ‘Anything else you want us to give him? The freedom to use Julatsan blood to replenish his mana, perhaps?’

The Unknown said nothing.

‘I don’t trust him,’ said Hirad.

‘Why do you suppose he’s staying here?’ asked The Unknown.

‘No, it’s not the money,’ said Hirad. ‘The ForeTell says he’ll pay that. There’s much more. Like why he agreed to pay us so much so readily. Let’s face it, we’d have done the job for two thousand each.’

‘Why do you suppose he’s staying here?’ repeated The Unknown. ‘If he’s involved us in anything, I want to know where he is. That, Ilkar, is why I want him downstairs tonight.’

‘You expecting trouble?’ asked Talan.

‘No.’ The Unknown leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs. ‘But even so, short swords should be worn, and not just out of respect for Ras.’

‘It’s only now, isn’t it?’ Ilkar had pulled the cork from a bottle of wine and poured himself a goblet.

‘What is?’ Sirendor motioned Ilkar to do the same for him. The mage passed over his goblet and filled another.

‘Now you’ve stopped to think, now the glint of truesilver has faded, you’re all getting twitchy, aren’t you?’ He sat down in his chair. ‘Xetesk is dangerous. Nothing is ever what it seems. There’s always a bigger story and I for one don’t believe anything he said about that amulet.’

‘Why didn’t you say?’

‘Oh, and you’d have listened, would you, Hirad?’ snapped Ilkar. ‘Two hundred and fifty thousand for a day’s ride versus me. Don’t shovel it my way.’

‘I don’t see the problem,’ said Richmond. ‘We’re here, we’re safe, the money will be paid. We’ve bought ourselves more choice.’

‘If we live to enjoy it,’ muttered Ilkar.

‘You’re overreacting,’ said Sirendor.

‘You don’t know them.’ Ilkar spoke slowly. ‘I do. If he’s involved us in something, we’re expendable. Xetesk doesn’t have any code and they don’t follow any rules.’ He paused. ‘Look, all I’m saying is, be careful around Denser. We may well have got away with this one but we’ll just have to wait and see.’

‘We don’t have to work for Xetesk again,’ said Hirad evenly.

‘Too right we don’t,’ replied Ilkar.

‘We don’t have to work for anyone again.’ Silence followed Talan’s words. Hirad rose stiffly and walked to the table which carried the drinks. He poured himself wine and brought the bottle, another and more cups back to the fireplace. Those without helped themselves.

‘We didn’t have to work for anyone before but I know what Talan means,’ said The Unknown. ‘That two hundred and fifty thousand means we can do everything we talked of when we started and everything we never dared dream we could do. Just think of the possibilities.’

‘I think you’d better start by telling me about last night and what you said.’ Hirad drained his cup and refilled it.

‘We tried to wake you. We had no desire to exclude you,’ said Sirendor. ‘We went out of the castle to join Richmond. I don’t know about the others but looking down at Ras’s grave I had my first fear that one day it could be me. Or Ilkar—’ He gestured around The Raven, finally nodding at Hirad. ‘Or you. I didn’t want that. I want a future while I’m still young enough to enjoy it.’

‘The decision’s made, is it?’ Hirad’s voice was gruff.

Sirendor breathed deeply. ‘While we were talking, it became obvious that we all felt the same. Gods, Hirad, even you’ve talked about packing it in during the last two years. We all want to live. Talan wants to travel, Ilkar’s under pressure to go back to Julatsa. I . . . well, you know what I want.’

‘Husband and father, eh?’ Hirad smiled despite the thudding of his heart and the knot in his throat.

‘All I have to do is stop fighting and the Mayor won’t stop us marrying. You know how it is.’ Sirendor shrugged.

‘Yeah. Sirendor Larn tamed by the Mayor’s daughter. It had to happen some time, I suppose.’ Hirad wiped at the corner of his left eye. The atmosphere in the room was intense, focused on him. ‘You know I won’t stand in your way.’

‘I know,’ said Sirendor, but the look they shared spoke everything.

‘You can see the sense in it,’ said The Unknown. Hirad stared at him blankly. ‘Gods, Hirad, I’ve been half-owner of this inn for a dozen years and if I’ve served behind the bar a dozen times I’m lucky.’

‘And what about you?’ The barbarian turned his attention to Richmond.

‘Before yesterday I wasn’t sure,’ said the blond warrior. ‘But I’m tired, Hirad. Even standing waiting for something to happen is tiring. I—’ He stopped and rubbed his brow with three fingers. ‘Yesterday, I made a mistake I’ll have to carry to my grave. And right now, I’m not sure I trust myself to fight in line and I’d be surprised if you did. Any of you.’

Another silence. Long. Hirad stared around The Raven but no one said any more.

‘It’s unbelievable,’ said Hirad. ‘Ten years. Ten years and yet you’ve made the biggest decision of our lives . . . my life, while I was sleeping.’ He was too angry even to shout and his voice held calm. But at the same time he knew it wasn’t anger. It was a deep and bitter disappointment. The inevitable result of the formation of The Raven. The split. The funny thing was that, at the outset, Hirad never thought he’d survive this long. The future had been meaningless. Until now. Now it crashed over his head and he found he was frightened of it. Very frightened.

‘Sorry, Hirad.’

‘I just wanted someone to ask my opinion, Sirendor.’

‘I know. But the decision wasn’t taken last night, just confirmed.’

‘You didn’t ask me.’ Hirad got up and moved to the door. He needed a few drinks and to laugh. ‘Tell you what,’ he said. ‘You retired folk fund the party and I’ll try to forgive you.’

Styliann’s eyes blazed and his face reddened. In the holding chamber beneath his tower, the three mages cowered where they sat, too exhausted to stand in respect of their Lord.

‘Tell me again.’ Styliann spoke low and quiet, the power of his voice filling the small chamber.

‘We were only sure three hours ago and even then we had to make our final fail-safe check. We didn’t want to cause concern until we had absolute proof,’ said one, an old mage whose life had been devoted to his single task.

‘Concern?’ echoed Styliann, voice cracking ever so slightly. ‘The greatest evil in Balaia’s history has gone missing. Causing me concern is the least of your worries, believe me.’

The three mages exchanged glances.