Sandry shook her head and made herself smile. "The only thing that distresses me is the thought that you got up early this morning to read papers," she informed him. "You're supposed to rest, Uncle!" As they walked down the stair to their mounts, she thought, And what will Lark say if I stay with him?

"Pasco. Pasco, wake up." He rolled over and moaned. A hand grabbed his shoulder. "Pasco, you chuff, getting up was your idea. Now do it—I want to go to bed." Pasco Acalon sat up, blinking. His sister Halmaedy knelt by the bed, her dark eyes amused. She was still dressed for the watch that had just ended, the brown leather of her jerkin stark against her dark blue shirt and breeches.

Pasco rubbed his face, ordering his traitorous body to move. " 'S a disgusting hour to be about," he grumbled.

"No arguments here. What's the deal, anyway?"

Pasco swung his legs out from under the blanket and leaned against his oldest sister. Their long, amber- skinned faces labeled them as kin: the same winged black brows over ebony-colored, eyes, noses a little too short, and. straight mouths a little too wi de. At twelve Pasco was just starting to get his growth, his thin body coltish as he wrestled with arms and legs that tended to go every which way.

"A friend, wants a favor," the boy mumbled as he pulled on his garments, tying the string that held up his breeches as tight as he could manage. His shirt required no buttoning, which was why he'd picked it out last night. The less; he had to do before he was properly awake, the better.

"What: kind of favor?" Halmaedy demanded, suspi ious. "This isn't off the straight, is it? Because—,"

Pasco ruffled her hair—glossy black, cropped short on the sides and left to grow long on top, just like his. "You're home now," he reminded her. "No need for harrier work here." Harrier was; street slang for a Provost's Guard. "An Acalon off the straight?" he went on, his voice strangled as he bent over to don his shoes. "The very skies would cry at it. Go to bed, Halmy. Try to dream of something beside arresting drunks and house breakers."