Crokus tossed his cards into the table's centre and leaned back, closing his eyes.

“Does the lad surrender as well?” Kruppe asked.

Crokus nodded.

“Hah, Kruppe remains undefeated.” He set down his cards and tucked in a napkin at his thick, jiggling neck.

In the thief's mind suspicions of intrigue ran wild. First the assassin's war now Rallick and Murillio had something cooking. He sighed mentally and opened his eyes. His whole body ached from the night's adventures but he knew he'd been lucky. He stared down at Coll without seeing him The vision of those tall, black assassins returned to him and he shivered.

Yet, for all the dangers hounding his back up on the rooftops this past night, he had to admit how exciting it'd all been. After slamming that door behind him and quaffing the beer Sulty had thrust into his hand, his whole body had trembled for an hour afterwards.

His gaze focused on Coll. Coll, Kruppe, Murillio and Rallick. What a strange group-a drunkard, an obese mage of dubious abilities, a dandified fop and a killer.

Still, they were his best friends. His parents had succumbed to the Winged Plague when he'd been four years old. Since then his uncle Mammot had raised him. The old scholar had done the best he could, but it hadn't been enough. Crokus found the street's shadows and moonless nights on rooftops far more exciting than his uncle's mouldy books.

Now, however, he felt very much alone. Kruppe's mask of blissful idiocy never dropped, not even for an instant-all through the years when Crokus had been apprenticed to the fat man in the art of thievery, he'd never seen Kruppe act otherwise. Coll's life seemed to involve the relentless avoidance of sobriety, for reasons unknown to Crokus-though he suspected that, once, Coll had been something more. And now Rallick and Murillio had counted him out of some new intrigue.

Into his thoughts came an image-the moonlit limbs of a sleeping maiden-and he angrily shook his head.

Sulty arrived with breakfast, husks of bread fried in butter, a chunk of goat cheese, a stem of local grapes and a pot of Callows bitter coffee. She served Crokus first and he muttered his thanks.

Kruppe's impatience grew while Sulty served Rallick. “Such impertinence,” the man said, adjusting his coat's wide, stained sleeves.

“Kruppe is of a mind to cast a thousand horrible spells on rude Sulty.”

“Kruppe had better not,” Rallick said.

“Oh, no, of course not,” Kruppe amended, wiping his brow with his handkerchief. “A wizard of my skills would never belittle himself on a mere scullion, after all.”

Sulty turned to him. “Scullion?” She snatched a bread husk from the plate and slapped it down on Kruppe's head. “Don't worry,” she said, as she walked back to the bar. “With hair like yours nobody'd notice.”

Kruppe pulled the husk from his head. He was about to toss it down on the floor, then changed his mind. He licked his lips. “Kruppe is magnanimous this morning,” he said, breaking into a wide smile and setting the bread down on his plate. He leaned forward and laced together his pudgy fingers. “Kruppe wishes to begin his meal with some grapes, please.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

I see a man crouched in a fire who leaves me cold and wondering what he is doing here so boldly crouched in my pyre:

Gadrobi Epitaph Anonymous

This time, kruppe's dream took him out through marsh gap along South Road, then left on to Cutter Lake Road. Overhead the sky swirled a most unpleasant pattern of silver and pale green. “All is in flux,” Kruppe gasped, his feet hurrying him along the dust barren road. “The Coin has entered a child's possession, though it knows it not. Is it for Kruppe to walk this Monkey Road? Fortunatetly Kruppe's perfectly round body is an example of perfect symmetry. One not only born skilled at said balance, one must learn it through arduos practice. Of course, Kruppe is unique in never requiring practice in anything.”

Off in the fields to his left, within a circle of young trees, a small fire cast a hazy red glow up among the budding branches. Kruppe's sharp eye could make out a single figure seated there, seemingly holding its hands the flames. “Too many stones to turn underfoot,” he gasped, “on this rock rutted road. Kruppe would try the ribbed earth, which is yet too green with the season's growth. Indeed, yon fire beckons.” He left the road at approached the circle of trees.

As he strode between two slim boles and stepped into the pool of light the hooded figure turned slowly to study him, its face hidden in shadow despite the fire before it. Though it held its hands in the flame, they withstood the heat, the long, sinuous fingers spread wide.