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She stuffed his head into her carry-pouch and turned to regard the woman and theAlzena hesitated

Was the wo; they had seeht, and ran the wo to the side , she climbed out Below her was a first-story addition to the house

She dropped onto it with a clatter of tiles

She felt an arrow’s bite It took her in the calf, punching through the bulge of muscle to the other side Alzena cursed and rolled off the tile roof She landed easily on the pile of hay that lay on the ground, waiting for the servants to cover the garden for the winter More arrows flew around her—the quick-witted archer was shooting fast, trying to hit what he couldn’t see She waited until a man ran out the back door, then slipped into the Rokat house The real servants had been sent away—only warriors in street clothes were here now, andupstairs in answer to the nursemaid’s shrieks,

In the room near the front door Alzena stopped to deal with her injury First she broke off the arrowhead, then yanked the shaft fro Both went into her carry-pouch with the head; she dared not leave thees to use There was so into her boot If she tried to bandage it here, people would see the bandage apparently floating in ness spells

She lihs were still fighting

From the sounds that came from Cod Alley, the fire was out of control She hobbled down Tapestry Lane, shaking her head

There ought to be fun in this victory over the hated Rokats Even the prospect of her family’s pleasure in what she did see to the house she had worried about killing the children, but when her work got to that, she had been cold What was the point to any of this, if she felt nothing?

CHAPTER 8

After lunch, Sandry remembered that she needed some copper beads for a trim on one of her uncle’s tunics Like any noble she could have asked the merchant, whose shop lay on Arrow Road in the eastern part of the city, to send a clerk to her with a selection, but it was too nice a day to stay indoors The bead hted to see her, and had a dozen new types of bead to show her With a nuuards turned back toward Duke’s Citadel They decided to crosstown on Yanjing Street rather than tangle in the afternoon crowds on streets like Harbor, Gold, and Spicer They were a block west of Market Square when Kwaben pointed out a billow of s a fire

As they rode closer—the blaze was on one of the little streets that ean to hear talk A bunch of drunks brawling had started it, soued Others said that Provost’s Guards were protecting a merchant fro that, Sandry and her guards followed the gossip past the alley where the fire was and onto Tapes try Lane The Provosts Guards had set wooden barri cades there Inside theether as prisoners under three Guards eyes Another Guard questioned a young woman in a nursemaid’s cap and apron who sat on the steps to a house She rocked back and forth, weeping, scarlet hands pressed to her face

The Provosts Guards would have liked to keep Sandry outside the barriers on both ends of the street, but they couldn’t refuse a noble as also athe barricade, Sandry glimpsed dark suard questioned the nurse maid The hairs on the back of her neck prickled

She: dis Then she backed Russet to the other side of the barrier, blocking Kwaben and,Oamawhen they would have followed "Stay there,"’ Sandry told the I need to see"

"My lady,” protested Oao inside—and, there’s plenty of provost’s folk, about, aren’t there? Sandry looked at the fe the barricade, who nodded "So inside I’ll be safe, too The fewer people alk around here, the better Close up," she ordered the Guard

The wo the barricade into place "I don’t know that you shouldSandry’s kit with mistrust

"Master Wulfric Snaptrap will vouch for h she wasn’t sure of that at all What she was sure of was that those smears of darkness, if they were the saht before, had to be protected until Snaptrap could look at them himself Does this stuff rub off on people? she wondered, approaching the Rokat house slowly, inspecting the ground before her and on either side Would it stick to anyone as it had to Lebua and Gury? She couldn’t take a chance on whether itany sood," shenurseust He looked at Sandry "Who let you in?" he growled

Tin Sandrilene faToren, the duke’s great-niece," she said, exa the steps for dark s one side of the steps to disappear under the sobbing wolanced at her and sed hard The woman’s hands, which from a distance looked as red as paint or dye could make them, were covered in blood Her cap, apron, skirt, and blouse were splotched and her shoes nearly black with it