Doifuzan emerged from the darkness of the alley and looked down at the sprawled bodies. «We are well begun,» he said softly. Blade needed no reminding that these first four victims of the night would only be the first-and most likely by far the easiest.
The tunnel was much darker than the night above, and also damper, smellier, and much dirtier. In many places the roughly mortared stones dripped slime. Elsewhere they were encrusted with centuries of filth. It brushed off at the slightest touch, showering down on the twenty-nine uroi as they passed, powdering and caking their clothes. Blade suspected that if they hadn't already been wearing black, they would have been before they reached the far end of the tunnel.
They moved along at a swift trot, following the light from a single lantern Yezjaro carried in one hand. They moved with drawn swords, except for the six smallest uroi. These were enveloped from neck to ankles in the heavy green canvas cloaks the courtesans wore to protect their silk robes from the filth of the tunnels. These disguised men would be the first out of the tunnel at the end of the journey.
Blade was determined not to spend a single unnecessary minute in the tunnel. In fact, he found himself having to fight not to break from a trot into a run. Once they were loose in Lord Geron's house, it would be hard to keep them from doing a memorable night's work. But if an attack came here in the tunnel, they would be as helpless as kittens in a basket. They would die unsung and unhonored, and those few who heard the tale of the twenty-nine uroi of Lord Tsekuin would call it a tale of foolishly wasted lives.
In fifteen minutes they had reached the point where the tunnel branched. Blade knew they must now be well inside the walls of the Hongshu's palace. But that made no real difference. They were no less helpless against attack in the tunnel now than they had been before.
They did not halt until Yezjaro raised his lantern over his head and waved it three times. In the half-darkness ahead Blade saw a rusty iron ladder rising through the roof of the tunnel. At the base of the ladder was an iron plaque, also red with rust and green with slime. Under the rust and slime, Blade could make out the badge of Lord Geron.
Most of the twenty-nine uroi flattened themselves against the walls of the tunnel, letting the six disguised as courtesans move up to the front. Doifuzan came with them. He and Yezjaro would be going up the ladder first, pretending to be the guards sent from the Warm Gates quarter with this group of ladies. It was a matter of honor for Doifuzan, once the first dabuno of Lord Tsekuin, to be the first man into the house of Lord Geron.
Doifuzan and Yezjaro vanished upward into the darkness at the top of the ladder. The six got ready to follow them. The other uroi tried to make themselves silent and invisible.
Five sharp thumps from above, as Doifuzan knocked on the cover over the shaft. Five more, in a carefully spaced two-one-two pattern. That was the normal recognition signal for this month. Then a clank and grating, squealing noises as someone on the surface pulled the cover aside.
«Six ladies for the service of this house,» said Yezjaro.
«What's this? Six ladies from the Warm Gates? We didn't have any ordered for tonight. It was next week that-«
«You didn't? Then why did we get clear instructions to deliver them here?»
«I don't know. Somebody made a mistake, I guess. But-«
«You're damned right somebody made a mistake. And we're going to find out who.» Clatterings as Yezjaro climbed the rest of the way up to the surface.
«Wait a minute! You can't come up into the house if you're not-!»
«The devil we can't, my friend! I'm not going to keep the ladies down in that stinking bole while you people wake up your superiors and argue.»
Lady Musura took the cue. Her voice was shrill with proptest and indignation, a perfect imitation of a high-priced, temperamental courtesan. «What in Kunkoi's name is going on up there, you fools? If we have to wait here much longer, half of us will fall ill. And none from the Warm Gates will ever come again to the house of Lord Geron!»
That last threat did the job. None of the guards wanted to be the one responsible for such a disaster.
Blade heard the grumbling and muttering of several confused men talking together, then:
«All right, bring them on up. They can wait out here, though.»
«Very well. Come on up, ladies.»
The disguised uroi scrambled up the ladder, one by one. Blade and Lady Musura stationed themselves one on each side of the ladder and waited, listening.
They heard the «ladies» climb out, one by one, and Doifuzan's voice counting them off, also one by one. «That is all of them.»
Those words were the signal. From the darkness above came a quick series of soft but deadly noises. Swords being drawn, then sheathed again in human bodies. Blood gurgling in the throats of dying men. The thump of bodies falling on soft earth and the crackle as they fell into bushes. A half-choked cry, cut off brutally by a hand clamped over someone's mouth. Scrabbling footsteps-and then a body came hurtling down from the darkness above, to land with a sqump! on the slimy stones at Blade's feet. The man's eyes had rolled up in his head, showing only the whites, and blood was still pumping from a slash under his ribcage. Lady Musura brought her foot down hard on the man's throat. Cartilage crackled and the man heaved and writhed in a final convulsion, then lay still.
«Time to come up,» came Doifuzan's voice from above.
Blade went up the ladder like a cork from a champagne bottle, hardly feeling the iron rungs under his feet. He vaulted out of the shaft and stood with his sword drawn as the rest of the party swarmed up the shaft after him.
Three guards lay dead or dying around the entrance to the shaft. They were apparently all to die in silence. At least the house that loomed beyond the trees at the far end of the garden remained silent and almost dark.
But the alarm would be given sooner or later. Now they had to move faster than ever, storming through a house they did not know, sealing off all escape routes and then combing it room by room and nook by cranny. Speed, speed, speed! If anything could doom Lord Geron, it would be speed!
The six disguised uroi finished stripping off their disguises. Doifuzan looked around, and Blade could see his lips move as he counted off the twenty-eight fighters standing in the darkness around him. So far all the dead had been the enemy's. That wouldn't last much longer, however much luck they had.
Doifuzan raised his hand. Yezjaro threw the lantern down on the ground. It flickered and died. The instructor's voice rang out in the darkness, roaring out defiance to any ears that might be listening.
«Thus shall Lord Geron also go down into the darkness. Those who served Lord Tsekuin-follow me!»
They dashed toward the house, spreading out as they ran. They crashed through bushes and pounded across small bridges, making what seemed to Blade more noise than a herd of stampeding cattle. Before Doifuzan had reached the door, shouts came from inside. Then women started screaming and lights began to flicker behind windows.
Doifuzan was the first to reach the door, Yezjaro close behind him. just as Blade reached the house, someone lit a lantern inside, almost in front of him. He saw two silhouettes dark against the yellow white oiled paper of the window. Reflexes took over. His spear shot forward, stabbing through the heavy paper with a sharp pap and skewering the left-hand figure just above the waist. Fortunately the howl of surprise and agony was a man's. The other silhouette vanished, as blood from the dying man sprayed dark against the window.