Fifty yards. A hundred. All upslope, tiring. "Slow down," Medjhah said. "Let'sbe careful. It could be a trap." The veydeen were not all passive about theoccupation.

A whisper of scuffling came from up ahead.

The alley bent to the right. Yoseh dashed around the angle and sensed apresence. It resolved into vague shapes struggling. A man trying to drag aboy. Panic swept the man's face momentarily. Then he flung a hand towardYoseh.

The alley filled with a blinding light and heat and a child's cry of despair.

Yoseh went down as Medjhah and Kosuth stumbled into him from behind. The fireburned like the furnaces of hell.

"Gorloch, thou art merciful," Azel murmured as he watched the target takesomething from an older boy and hurry toward the alley whence he watched. Hehad anticipated a long and difficult stalk. They had become wary. But thisbird was flying to the snare like it wanted to be caught.

What the hell was the kid lugging? A goddamned skull. Where the hell did heget that?

Azel fell back a few steps, hoping the kid's eyes would be used to the glareoff the bay and he would come into the alley blind.

No such luck. The kid was not seeing good, but he was seeing good enough. Hestopped a dozen feet too soon.

"Bring it here, boy. Give it to me." The kid moved some. Not enough. He wasn'tcompletely unwary. "Will you hurry it up?"

That got the brat close enough. Azel leaped, grabbed. The kid started yelling.

Azel made him give his name. Taking the wrong brat would be worse than doingnothing.

The kid kicked and yelled and flailed around with the skull. Azel ignoredthat, backed up, watched the brats at the alley's mouth, yelling themselves.

Then figures in black appeared, their weapons glittering.

Azel cursed. "Dartars. Where the hell did they come from?" Fear snapped athim. He spent a part of it by yanking the boy violently. He would lose thosewhoreson turncoats in the maze webbing the Shu quarter south of Char Street.