"What's the situation?"

  Adalai drew his weapons for the second time that day as he listened to Cassian's reply. "There's three of them with crankbows and possibly swords but it's hard to see clearly," he whispered. "They're spreading out to scout the area."

  "What's our move?"

  "We have numbers, might as well keep together and make the most of them." His tin sheet flew back into his belt pouch. Then, with a flick of his fingers, Cassian sent three daggers and his arming sword floating up out of his belt. "I'll watch the rear and make sure they don't get the jump on us. Verina, can the Linnorm watch two ways at once?"

  "It can."

  "Then you will watch the flanks. But carefully," he admonished, wagging a finger in her direction. "That creature can topple a building on us as easily as that lot can kill us."

  "You aren't in a smithy any more, Signore, we have a little more room here than that."

  Cassian ignored her. "Marta, to the front. Keep that shield at the ready and Adalai will handle the rest."

  "I will?"

  "You can't?"

  "I just expected you to want to handle it yourself." Adalai moved towards the smoke rising in the distance, his senses straining to catch any sign of the approaching men. Marta stuck beside him, her shield already lit with a dim golden glow.

  While he didn't know much about the Shieldbearer's gift he did know that Gifts with "bearer" in their name somehow enhanced the function of a named item. So presumably Marta's shield was somehow superior to the norm. At least so he hoped. While Adalai had advocated they bring her along he really didn't want to see the woman get hurt.

  Before he could follow that trail of thought any further his ears caught the quiet scrape of leather boots on gravel. He pointed Marta towards the sound with his dagger and leveled his arming sword in a low guard. A moment later a head popped out from around a pile of rubble and disappeared just as quickly.

  "Zalt," he whispered and darted forward. A split second later the man who had just peeked around the rubble Leapt into the air a good twenty feet, loosing the bolt from his crankbow. The shot was remarkably good, rushing towards Adalai as if drawn by a string.

  A pulse of light came out from Marta's shield, forming a dome around them. The bolt struck the dome and shattered. A few steps later Adalai slammed into the dome as well.

  "Sorry!" Marta called, the dome vanishing.

  Adalai didn't bother with a reply, instead dashing forward to intercept the Leaper, hoping to catch him before he could recover from his jump. It was not to be. The Leaper was nimble enough to draw his blade midair and kept his feet under him on landing. By the time Adalai reached him the man was already on guard. He assumed a low, forward leaning stance common in sword methods that emphasized the point like were common in Renicie. Adalai assumed the stance favored by duelists that fought with sword and dagger. Body upright, both weapons in front of his torso.

  Judging by eye Adalai guessed the other man's sword was a good two to four inches longer than his own which, on top of the man's stance, gave him a significant advantage in reach. He was going to have to end the duel as quickly as possible. Sliding his front foot forward a half step he stretched his sword out in a probing motion, trying to provoke a response. The other man refused to rise to the bait, just circling his point about slowly, waiting. Keenly aware that there were other crankbows moving to take their shots somewhere in the ruins Adalai realized he was going to have to force the matter.

  He opened with a low thrust, dagger guarding high. His opponent parried and struck in riposte, aiming for Adalai's face - the natural target on a man who might have armor under his doublet. Turning that blow with his poinard, Adalai stepped in, trying to keep his measure. But the man had the advantage over Adalai and he knew it. He gave ground, feet passing each other, to try and keep himself just out of reach. For a split second it seemed the strange impass would hold, the one giving ground and the other pursuing, until they both wandered into the ocean.

  Then the glowing dome popped into place again and the bandit crashed into it. Adalai swooped in, slashing his sword at the man's throat. The bandit parried but Adalai's follow-up dagger thrust landed solidly in the man's ribs, drawing a grunt but failing to burst any rings in the mail under the bandit's doublet. Then the dome vanised again and both men collapsed in a heap on the ground.

  They wrestled for a moment, four hands suddenly grasping for a single dagger, the only weapon of use at such close quarters. Then, just as the bandit was pushing away from Adalai, it was over. Marta's mace slammed into the man's head and he fell limp. Adalai scrambled to his feet in time to see another bolt flying towards them from the Gulf side of the island. Fortunately the bandit in that direction was not as good a shot as his comrade and the bolt flew by far overhead.

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  A head of the Linnorm appeard above them, its nose pointed towards a mostly intact building thirty yards away. Marta raised her shield and charged towards it, Adalai just behind her. The building had an open doorway but no windows, just small gaps in the walls where some stones had come loose. It was from one of those gaps where the second shot came. Once again Marta snapped a glowing barrier in place to stop it, though now Adalai could clearly see it was taking a growing toll on her. It vanished as soon as the bolt glanced off of it. Her shoulders slumped, her pace slowed and Adalai began to overtake her. For a moment he considered slowing to match her pace but he wasn't sure she could use that trick again. So instead he turned up his speed and prayed.

  He dove into the building and spun, thrusting blindly in the direction the bolt had come from. A gleaming golden sword sliced through his own blade effortlessly. A Bladebearer. Lovely.

  Adalai instantly threw the useless remains of his sword at his opponent and charged, taking advantage of the other man's flinching to close distance and ram his dagger into the man's sword hand. The dangerous tool clattered to the ground and Adalai slammed into the bandit, stabbing upwards with his dagger. Blood gushed from the wound under the man's jaw and he collapsed in a heap. Adalai shook himself off and backed away, scooping up the bandit's fallen sword and using it to put the man out of his misery.

  Marta met him at the entrance to the building, looked him over to make sure the blood wasn't his, and said, "One more."

  The Great Linnorm's reptilian head once again pointed them in the right direction, this time appearing over top of a low hill of loose stone. It waved back and forth in a lazy fashion, which Adalai took as a beckoning gesture. The two of them started in that direction, still on guard, but as they rounded the hill they discovered Cassian sitting there, two of his daggers sitting at his feet, covered in blood. Verina stood a short distance off, watching their nominal employer with some curiosity. Adalai allowed himself to relax just a bit. "You got the third, then?"

  Cassian just nodded. Breaking into a wide grin Adalai reached down and hauled him to his feet. "No need to skulk about, then! That went just as well as we could hope. Excellent strategem, Maestro Ironhand!"

  It was only as Cassian was staggering to find his balance that Adalai caught a faint wiff of vomit. The Ironhand was white as a sheet. "Thank you," the other man managed, "I'm glad you and Marta aren't hurt."

  Frowning, Adalai looked him over again, asking, "What was your bandit's Gift?"

  "Mine?"

  "The bandit you fought."

  "Oh, Impulse, he had the gift of Impulse."

  Adalai's frown grew deeper but he kept his thoughts to himself. There was a more pressing matter to look after. In the years since the Kings at the Corners sent him to Nerona he'd grown used to thinking of the people there as far more used to violence than he had ever been before. But Verina had mentioned a smithy. Just one of many places that could very well keep a man far from lethal violence their entire lives.

  Killing the first time was never easy. Though Cassian's cause was good and the men had attacked first Adalai couldn't blame the man for reacting the way he had. That still left them with plenty that needed doing.

  "Marta, take Cassian and Verina and go look for a place to camp until the tides go out again. Have the Linnorm pop his head up every five minutes or so until I get back to you. He can watch for trouble while he's at it."

  The Hexton woman nodded. "Should we just use their camp?"

  Cassian visibly flinched at that suggestion and Adalai shook his head. "No, probably best we didn't. They were camped near the center of the island anyway. Get as close to the next stage in the path as you comfortably can." He gave Cassian a gentle shake. "Where did you leave him, Maestro?"

  Wordlessly, Cassian raised an arm and pointed towards the ocean's side of the island.

  "What will you be doing?" Verina's question was more idle curiosity than demand.

  "I think I should have a look at our dearly departed friends."

  With nothing more than a pointed finger to go by locating the bandit Cassian had killed took longer than he would have liked. Eventually he found the third corpse at a blind corner, a crankbow at his feet. Around the corner some distance on were several bolts. If he had the Gift of Impulse he could have been firing them and using it to steer them around the corner, effectively attacking Cassian blindly. The bandit had numerous stab wounds on his face, arms and neck, as well as numerous gashes in his doublet that had exposed the mail beneath.

  It was an amateurish kill but it had worked. Adalai found himself wondering if Cassian had used his Gift to deliver all the slashes or if he had landed the deathblow himself. There wasn't much besides the weapons and a small pouch of coins on the dead man. Adalai took them and moved on. The trip back to the other two bodies felt much longer than it had a moment ago, when the press of battle was hot upon him. As he walked through the quiet stones of a forgotten town Adalai found himself wondering what the Kings he'd met said to the bandits when they collected their souls. Did everyone get the full song and dance routine he had? Or was that a special case?

  Did they know he'd been involved in another death? Did they care? His life in Nerona hadn't been peaceful by any stretch of the imagination. Hopefully if he was on the wrong track they'd let him know.

  Then again, they hadn't told him he was on the right track until it had basically killed him.

  Such joyful thoughts filled his mind as he trudged through the island, prodding at corpses and ransacking the campsite. The dead men had shown the foresight to leave a pail of sand by their campfire and Adalai thought it wise to use it. Most of the island was stone but it never hurt to be careful. There were several empty water skins in the camp, along with three full ones that he took. There were quite a lot of provisions, too. Planks and sticks of driftwood lay against a few large rocks, drying in preparation for the fire. The men had been there for a fair bit it seemed.

  Once he was sure he'd taken anything that might be useful Adalai left the dead men's camp and tracked down the others. They'd set up at the corner of two intersecting walls, too run down to determine if they'd once been a building or just some property boundary. The water was less than forty yards away but the partial shelter of the walls broke the wind and was really rather snug. He joined them there and began to sort through what he'd found.