His shriek escalated. Then Kamist Reloe sprawled, the sorcery still flickering over his twitching, burned body.
A figure slowly emerged from where the Talon had kicked the acorn moments earlier, and crouched down beside Kamist Reloe. ‘It’s disloyalty that bothers us the most,’ he said to the dying High Mage. ‘We always answer it. Always have. Always will.’
Kalam recovered his second long-knife, eyes on the closed flaps on the chamber’s back wall. ‘He’s through there,’ he said, then paused and grinned. ‘Good to see you, Quick.’
Quick Ben glanced over and nodded.
The wizard was, Kalam saw, looking older. Worn down. Scars not written on his skin, but on his heart. He will, I suspect, have nothing good to tell me when all this is done . ‘Did you,’ he asked Quick Ben, ‘have anything to do with the diversion?’
‘No. Nor did Hood, although the hoary bastard’s arrived. This is all Raraku.’
‘So Kamist said, not that I understand either of you.’
‘I’ll explain later, friend,’ Quick Ben said, rising. He faced the back flap. ‘He has that witch Henaras with him, I think. She’s behind some fierce wards that Kamist Reloe raised.’
Kalam approached the doorway. ‘Leave those to me,’ he growled, unsheathing his otataral long-knife.
The room immediately beyond was small, dominated by a map table, on which was sprawled the corpse of Henaras. Blood was still flowing in streams down the table’s sides.
Kalam glanced back at Quick Ben and raised his brows.
The wizard shook his head.
The assassin gingerly approached, and his eyes caught something glimmering silver-white on the woman’s chest.
A pearl.
‘Seems the way is clear,’ Kalam whispered.
Another flap slashed the wall opposite.
Using the points of his knives, Kalam prised it open.
A large high-backed chair filled the next chamber, on which was seated Korbolo Dom.
His blue skin was a ghastly grey, and his hands shook where they rested on the chair’s ornate arms. When he spoke his voice was high and tight, jittery with fear. ‘I sent an emissary to the Adjunct. An invitation. I am prepared to attack Sha’ik and her tribes-with my Dogslayers.’