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Once she had sated herself on shopping at Harrods and gorged on the best of the city’s fish and chips, he would take her north to Lancashire They could spend a week soaking up the sea and sun at Blackpool He could even take her back to his faed to the crown as part of Bowland Fells, and show her the moors he had so loved as a boy

As Korvel went to theto look down at the deserted streets, he realized how long it had been since he had seen the place of his childhood He had never gone back, not once since Richard had offered him sanctuary, but with Simone at his side it would be different

His eyes drifted down to the storybook she had said belonged to her, an artifact from her childhood She had never said why her father had come to Marseilles, or why she had been left alone in such a dreadful place for a child Korvel had confided to her the most painful and intimate details of his mortal life Not even Richard knew all of it Yet Silanced over at the bedrooital clock in the kitchen Twenty le phone call

"Simone?"

When she didn’t reply he went into the bedroom to find it e the fresh boot marks in the soil below made his hand clench on the marble sill until the stone cracked in half

He vaulted through theand dropped to the ground The dae, and when he followed it to the front of the town house he found it veered away fro in the lot across the street Wherever she had arranged to one there on foot

Few mortals understood how the Kyn had become such effective trackers Unlike humans, with their limited senses, the Kyn could detect even the faintest trace of scent left behind by a living creature The reater the concentration of scent it absorbed froh it Simone may have intended to elude him, but here in this city by the sea she had left behind what amounted to a virtualhim a mile from the town house, and confirmed the existence of his shadohen he diverted into a small park and doubled back As he ca hi as well as the weapons concealed under it He took cover as a second ed on the first, and they spoke briefly in hushed voices

"Where is he?"

"He made you before you entered the park" The second eneral direction "I think he went that way"

"Monsieur?"

Korvel turned around to see a gendarlanced at the younger htstick?"

"No, you endar it with enthusiasm "You wish me to bash someone over the head for you, htstick froet about this and return to your rounds, Officer"

As soon as the sendarme wandered off, Korvel tucked the baton in his sleeve and e to fasten the front of his trousers before he walked with a casual gait toward the two an to hurry away, at which point Korvel took out the baton and hurled it It made a loud thunk as it connected with the back of the other round

His companion’s eyes ide before he turned and broke into a flat run for the nearest building He crossed ten yards before Korvel seized his collar and lifted hi him to land atop his unconscious friend

Korvel heard the snap of a bone but not the usual acco howl When he moved to stand over the two men, the one as still conscious flipped over and tried to craay

"Be still" When the rabbed the ankle of his functioning leg and dragged hi it back Once he re from therinned "He said to kill you if you cauild master" The man’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he went liarments produced only pistols fitted with silencers; neither of the assassins carried any form of identification or any clue as to who had sent theation would cost too much precious time

He had to find Simone, now

Korvel used the n before he returned to the block where he had last detected Simone’s scent It led him out of the residential area and into the narrow streets of an industrial section, where prefabricated buildings sat quietly rusting, their s boarded up or broken Here and there he saw the faded and battered signs of cargo handlers, ihting and activity he guessed it had been years since any of them had been in business

Simone’s scent ended in front of the unmarked bay of an enor froroup of mortals--at least twenty He walked around to the side door of the building, which stood ajar Through the gap he saw the outlines of crates and shelving filled with plastic-wrapped pallets of goods