"I thought she was going with us. Not the other way around."

Only Murgen did not snap up a membership in the bitch-of-the-minute club. Good lad, that Murgen.

Lady, of course, already knew a stopover was needed.

"I'm serious, guys," I said.

If I wanted to be serious, One-Eye would be, too. "Why?" he asked.

I sort of shrank. "To pick up the Annals I left behind at Queen's Bridge." We got caught good, there. Only because we were the best, and desperate, and sneaky, had we been able to crack the imperial encirclement. At the cost of half the Company. There were more important concerns at the time than books.

"I thought you already got them."

"I asked for them and was told I could have them. But we were busy at the time. Remember? The Dominator? The Limper? Toadkiller Dog? All that lot? There wasn't any chance to actually lay hands on them."

Lady supported me with a nod. Getting really into the spirit, there.

Goblin pasted on his most ferocious face. Made him look like a saber-toothed toad. "Then you knew about this clean back before we ever left the Barrowland."

I admitted that that was true.

"You goatfu-lover. I bet you've spent all this time concocting some half-assed off-the-wall plan that's guaranteed to get us all killed."

I confessed that that was mostly true, too. "We're going to ride up there like we own the Tower. You're going to make the garrison think Lady is still number one."

One-Eye snorted, stomped off to the horses. Goblin got up and stared down at me. And stared some more. And sneered. "We're just going to strut in and snatch them, eh? Like the Old Man used to say, audacity and more audacity." He did not ask his real question.

Lady answered it for him, anyway. "I gave my word."

Goblin did not mouth the next question, either. No one did. And Lady left it hanging.