Four principal avenues extended out from the garrison’*s parade grounds, the one leading northward converging with the Gate Road that led to the city wall and the North Coast track-the least frequented of the three landward routes to and from the city.
In the shadows beneath the gabled balcony of a palatial estate just beyond the armoury, on the north avenue, a clear line of sight was available for the short, lithe figure standing in the cool gloom. A rough-woven hood hid the features, although had anyone bothered to pause in passing, squinting hard, they would have been startled to see the glint of crimson scales where the face should have been and eyes hidden in black-rimmed slits. But there was some-thing about the figure that encouraged inattention. Gazes slid past, rarely comprehending that, indeed, someone stood in those shadows.
He had positioned himself there just before dawn and it was now late afternoon. Eyes fixed on the garrison the messengers entering and exiting the headquarters, the visitation of a half-dozen noble merchants, the purchasing of horses, scrap metal, saddles and other sundry materiel He studied the skin hides on the round-shields of the lancers-flattened faces, the skin darkened to somewhere between purple and ochre, making the tattooing subtle and strangely beautiful.
Late afternoon, the shadows lengthening, and the figure made note of two Letherii men, passing across his field of vision for the second time. Their lack of attention seemed… conspicuous, and some instinct told the cowled figure that it was time to leave.
As soon as they had passed by, heading up the street westward, the figure stepped out from the shadows, walked swiftly and silently after the two men. He sensed their sudden, heightened awareness-and perhaps something like alarm. Moments before catching up to them, he turned right, into an alley leading north.
Fifteen paces in, he found a dark recess in which he could bide. He drew back his cloak and cinched it, freeing his and hands.
A dozen heartbeats passed before he heard their footfalls.
He watched them walk past, cautious, both with drawn knives. One whispered something to the other and they hesitated.
The figure allowed his right foot to scrape as he stepped forward.
They spun round.
The Awl’dan cadaran whip was a whisper as it snaked out, the leather-studded with coin-sized, dagger-sharp, overlapping half-moon blades-flickering out in a gleam-ing arc that licked both men across their throats. Blood sprayed.
He watched them crumple. The blood flowed freely, more from the man who had been on the left, spreading across the greasy cobbles. Stepping close to the other victim, he unsheathed a knife and plunged it point-first into his throat; then, with practised familiarity, he cut off the man’s face, taking skin, muscle and hair. He repeated the ghastly task with the other man.
Two fewer agents of the Patriotists to contend with.
Of course, they worked in threes, one always at a distance, following the first two.
Prom the garrison, the first alarms sounded, a shrill collection of bells that trilled out through the dusty air about the buildings.
Folding up his grisly trophies and pushing them beneath a fold in the loose rodara wool shirt that covered his scaled hauberk, the figure set off along the alley, making for the north gate.
A squad of the city guard appeared at the far mouth, five armoured, helmed Letherii with shortswords and shields.
Upon seeing them, the figure sprinted forward, freeing the cadaran whip in his left hand, while in his right hand he shook free the rygtha crescent axe from the over-under strips of rawhide that had held it against his hip. A thick haft, as long as a grown man’s thigh bone, to which each end was affixed a three-quarter-moon iron blade, their planes perpendicular to each other. Cadaran and rygtha ancient weapons of the Awl’dan, their mastery virtually unknown among the tribes for at least a century.
The constabulary had, accordingly, never before faced such weapons…
At ten paces from the first three guardsmen, the whip lashed out, a blurred sideways figure-eight that spawned screams and gouts of blood that spilled almost black in the alley’s gloom. Two of the Letherii reeled back.
The lithe, wiry figure closed on the last man in the from row. Right hand slid along the haft to run up against flange beneath the left-side crescent blade, the haf** slapping parallel to the underside of his forearm as he brought the weapon up-blocking a desperate slash from the guard’s shortsword. Then, as the Awl threw his elbow forward, the right-side blade flashed out, cutting at the man’s face, connecting just below the helm’s rim, chopping through the nasal ridge and frontal bone before dipping into the soft matter of his brain. The tapered, sharp crescent blade slid back out with ease, as the Awl slipped past the falling guard, whip returning from an over-the head gather to hiss out, wrapping round the neck of the fourth Letherii-who shrieked, dropping his sword as he scrabbled at the deadly blades-as the Awl dropped into crouch, his right hand sliding the length of the rygtha haf** to abut the flanged base of the right-blade, then slashing out. The fifth guard jerked his shield upward to block, but too late-the blade caught him across the eyes.
A tug on the whip decapitated the fourth guard.
The Awl released his hold on the cadaran’s handle and gripping the rygtha at both ends, stepped close to slam the haft into the last guard’s throat, crushing the windpipe.
Collecting the whip, he moved on.
A street, the sound of lancers off to the right. The gate, fifty paces to the left, now knotted with guards-heads turning his way.
He raced straight for them.
Atri-Preda Bivatt took personal command of a troop of lancers. Twenty riders at her back, she led her horse at a Canter, following the trail of a bloodbath.
The two Patriotist agents midway down the alley. Five city guardsmen at the far end.
Hiding out onto the street, she angled her mount to the left, drawing her longsword as she neared the gate.
Bodies everywhere, twenty or more, and only two Seemed to be still alive. Bivatt stared from beneath the rim of her helm, cold sweat prickling awake beneath her armour. Blood everywhere. On the cobbles, splashed high on the walls and the gate itself. Dismembered limbs. The stench of vacated bowels, spilled intestines. One of the survivors was screaming, head whipping back and forth. Both his hands had been sliced off.
lust beyond the gate, Bivatt saw as she reined in, four horses were down, their riders sprawled out on the road. Drifting dust indicated that the others from the first troop to arrive were riding in pursuit.
The other survivor stumbled up to her. He had taken a Mow to the head, the helm dented on one side and blood flowing down that side of his face and neck. In his eyes as he stared up at her, a look of horror. He opened his mouth, but no words came forth.
Bivatt scanned the area once more, then turned to her Finadd. ‘Take the troop through, go after them. Get your weapons out, damn you!’ She glared back down at the guardsman. ‘How many were there?’
He gaped.
More guardsmen were arriving. A cutter hurried to the screaming man who had lost his hands.
‘Did you hear my question?’ Bivatt hissed.
He nodded, then said. ‘One. One man, Atri-Preda.’
One? Ridiculous. ‘Describe him!’
‘Scales-his face was scales. Red as blood!’
A rider from her troop returned from the road. ‘The first troop of lancers are all dead, Atri-Preda,’ he said, his tone high and pinched. ‘Further down the road. All the horse but one-sir, should we follow?’