'Thalric of the Rekef? That b.a.s.t.a.r.d!' Draywain barked. 'Oh, I know where he went, don't you worry. Now let me see the money.'

Without taking her eyes from him she unshipped a pouch, emptied it onto the table. A flurry of gold and silver spilled out, and Draywain and his men pulled closer to inspect it.

'One hundred Imperials our agreed price,' she said. It was a decent sum of money, Hokiak decided, for just a piece of information. Not a fortune, certainly, but an awful lot.

Draywain looked up from the money, and he had obviously come to a slightly different conclusion. 'It's not enough,' he said. 'Not enough for imperial secrets that n.o.body else'll sell you. My life's. .h.i.t the rocks recently, Dragonfly-lady. I need to relocate myself somewhere an honest man can do business, and that isn't cheap.'

'That is not the arrangement,' Felise snapped.

'Well then the deal's changed places when you weren't looking,' Draywain replied. 'Now you double what you've got there and I'll start talking.'

'That is not the arrangement.' Again the words were slower, more pointed, as though she was clarifying some simple matter for a simple man.

'I have what you want, Wealer,' Draywain told her. 'Cough up the goods or I'm taking it right back out with me.'

'Draywain-' Hokiak began, but the Beetle cut him off sharply.

'Stay out of this, old man!' he snapped. 'I'm doing business here.'

That's all I need to hear. Hokiak rubbed the two claws of his good hand together, seeing his men pick up the signal. Hokiak rubbed the two claws of his good hand together, seeing his men pick up the signal.

'So let's see the rest, Wealer,' Draywain insisted.

'You knew the terms I offered,' she said. 'I need that information.'

'I'm a merchant and this is a seller's market,' he responded without sympathy.

And she smiled and Draywain took that for a good sign.

Then the sword came out from under her cloak, the whole gleaming length of it that had been held close down the line of her body. The cloth was flung back as she lunged into action, revealing armour beneath that was iridescent blue and green and mother-of-pearl.

She had the blade through the first bodyguard's gut before he could react, drawing it smoothly out to smash the next man's crossbow and the half-fired bolt on the back-swing. The crossbowman fell backwards, reaching for his blade, and the remaining bodyguard went for her.

He was not bad, that man. Clearly he had seen a few fights before. It was a waste, Hokiak decided, but that was the nature of this business.

Felise Mienn's sword was four feet long, but half of that was the hatched and bound metal hilt. The blade itself was straight and double-edged, tapering only towards the very point. She swung it with both hands and in either hand, dancing it round and past and over his guard as the luckless man tried to defend his patron. In a single fluid move she had sidestepped his strike and put the blade across his neck with far more force than her slender arms looked able to muster, half taking his head from his body.

Draywain bolted then, and she flung the sword at him as if without thinking. It slammed into the wall right alongside his head, cutting a line across his cheek. He screamed and stopped there, tugging at the hilt. The point of it had pinned his ear to the wall. His ear ear? Hokiak had never seen such a throw, and it had been solid enough that the Beetle could not yank the sword free using both hands.

The crossbowman had his blade now and he went for the unarmed woman. She stepped back and back as he came, cloak swirling about her, and then blades flicked out from her thumbs. It was the first Hokiak knew of the weapons that their Ancestor Art gave to Commonwealers. They were two-inch curved razors and she now stood poised with them ready, fingers clenched inwards but thumbs ready to strike.

The last bodyguard paused, weighing up the odds.

'Kill her!' Draywain screamed weakly. 'For blazes' sake, just kill her.'

He was a professional man now torn between his reputation and safeguarding his health. In that moment Felise went for him, claws slashing across him three times before he could even get his sword between them. He stumbled back, blood trailing from his face. Lunging forwards, Felise caught his head with both hands, as though she was a lover about to kiss him. Then she gashed both claws across his throat and he fell at her feet.

She looked at Hokiak then, and if her eyes had been burning mad before there were whole fiery suns of demented rage there now.

He forced himself to lean peaceably on his cane and indicate, with a twitch of his chin, that not one of his men had moved to intervene. He was not sure that she would understand him, but then she was stalking across the b.l.o.o.d.y floor towards Draywain.

'Keep away!' he shrieked. 'Someone help me!' but Hokiak knew that his backroom had thick walls and people around this part of the city always minded their own business.

She put one hand up, stilling the quivering hilt of her sword.

'Thalric,' she said simply, conversationally.

'Thalric, of course!' he gasped. 'They sent him away. They sent him west, to the new-found lands. The city h.e.l.leron, where the foundries are. He's Rekef Outlander. You know what that means?'

'Oh, I know exactly what that means,' she said. Only Draywain could see her expression just then, and his voice dried up to a whimper.

'Do you know where this h.e.l.leron is, Hokiak?' she asked, without turning.

'Sure I do,' the old Scorpion said. Seems like every month I'm shipping people west. Seems like every month I'm shipping people west.

'Good,' she said and pulled her sword out of the wall effortlessly. As Draywain gasped in relief she rammed the point of it double-handed through his chest and then whipped it out, all in one movement. He was dead instantaneously, without even realizing what was happening. Perhaps, Hokiak thought, that was her way of mercy. Or her thanks. Charming thought. Charming thought.

'You will find me means to get to h.e.l.leron,' she told him. 'And supplies. A map that I can read.' That last was because she was not Apt, of course, not one for machines or crossbows or technical drawing.

'I got an old Gra.s.shopper chart,' Hokiak said. 'Ain't what you'd call recent but I don't guess they moved the cities that much. Look, this all is going to cost. I earned my one-in-ten for bringing him here, no matter what he did.'

She turned then, smiling, and she was a lovely-looking woman, when she smiled and more likely to kill a man than any Spider-kinden seductress.

'But Master Draywain has just chosen not to collect his fee. What's one-in-ten of nothing, Master Hokiak?'

The Scorpion gave out a sigh, and his men around the room tensed, ready. 'Now that ain't how we do business around here. You got what you came for.'

'Do you think I care about gold?' she asked him. 'Do you think that I can't find more? Do you think for me this is about money money?' She snarled at that last. 'I would empty the coffers of the Empire and the treasuries of the Commonweal to find this man Thalric. You want money? Take it all all.' She gestured at the pile, the not-quite-a-fortune, that she had left on the table. 'Just get me what I want.'

Five.

'I was right here in my front office,' Parops told them. 'I had a crossbow and a telescope, but after I while I just used the telescope. It was quite something to see.' He indicated the view from his slit window.

'Nothing's happening now,' Totho pointed out. There was a tray of bread and spiced biscuit on Parops's desk, and he was aware that Skrill seemed to be working her way through it all methodically.

'That's war: boredom and boredom and then everything's far too interesting all of a sudden,' Nero confirmed. He was sitting on the desk looking at Skrill and obviously trying to decide what she was.

'So what happened?' Salma asked.

Parops put his back against the wall beside the arrowslit. 'Take a look at the disposition,' he invited. Salma did so, seeing only a large extent of land between the city walls and the Wasp camp, which was dotted with a few tangled heaps of wood and metal.

'First off, they moved their engines in,' Parops explained. 'They started shooting straight off and they must have some good artillerists, because in only a few shots they were sweeping the wall-tops with sc.r.a.p from their catapults, forcing everyone's head down. They were loosing some at the walls, too, lead shot rather than stone, I think. We were shooting back from embedded positions like the one atop my tower. You can see evidence of some of our successes out there, but with our lot flinching back all the time it took a while to make the range to them. And of course n.o.body was getting a peaceful time of it. They had their men flying over the wall amidst the rocks.'

'Sounds risky for the men,' Salma said, studying the tents, making out what he could with his keen eyes.

'A good few of the incomers got squashed, no doubt, but n.o.body seemed to care on either side,' Parops confirmed. 'They were frothing mad, attacking everything along the length of the wall itself, or just charging off into the city in bands of eight or ten. Shields and a chitin cuira.s.s was all they had, most of them, and javelins, and that fiery thing they do with their hands. They didn't seem like proper soldiers, to be honest more like a rabble.'

'A rabble is what they were,' Salma confirmed. 'The Wasps call them Hornets, but they're just Wasps really. We saw a lot of them in the Twelve-Year War when they invaded my own people's lands. They're from the north-Empire, nothing but hill-savages. Your average Wasp is a touchy fellow at the best of times, but the Hornets are downright excitable.'

'And clearly expendable,' Nero added.

'Right,' confirmed Salma. 'So what happened?'

'Well, we had crossbowmen on the walls, and line soldiers defending the artillery,' Parops explained. 'Their first charge, coming with all that rock and lead, took its toll, but we knew they were a flying kinden, so we had ranks of crossbowmen stationed beyond the walls as well. Any that lingered on the battlements or tried to press into the city were picked off. We think the toll was about four hundred of them, in all, and just thirty-seven of ours. Most of those fell to their artillery and first charge, too. After that we were well dug in.'

'And are you calling it a victory?' Salma asked him.

'Opinion is divided,' Parops admitted. 'Some who fought on the walls say it was, but I, who was just watching from inside here, say not. They had their tacticians out, carefully seeing how it went, so I'm suggesting to my superiors that they'll do better next time.'

'Wise man, good advice,' the Dragonfly told him.

'So what are we we supposed to do in the meantime?' Totho asked. 'We can't just sit here. We have to get word to Stenwold.' supposed to do in the meantime?' Totho asked. 'We can't just sit here. We have to get word to Stenwold.'

'The city is sealed,' Parops said sadly. 'That's the one thing we and the Wasps seem to agree on, as we're not letting anyone out, and neither are they. If you left without permission from the Royal Court you'd be shot by our crossbows, and even if you weren't, they have flying patrols on the lookout all the time.'

'They'll try to recover the broken engines after dark,' Totho said suddenly. 'They'll send slaves to do it, probably.' He had taken Salma's place at the slit window. 'Your artillerists should keep the ranges, and keep watch.'

'Night artillery's always a challenge,' Parops said. 'I've said it, though. Let us hope they take it up.'

Totho frowned at that 'I've said it,' and then realized what the man meant, remembering the mindlink that the Ancestor Art gave to all Ants. It united them within their own walls and equally divided them from their brothers in other cities.

Skrill finished another mouthful of bread, and took a swig of beer from the nearby jug. 'I ain't fighting no siege,' she said.

'They wouldn't have you anyway,' Nero told her.

'Now I ain't good enough for your siege?'

'We fight together, as one,' Parops explained. 'Foreigners on the walls would only get in the way. No offence, but that's how it is.'

Skrill shrugged.

'On the other hand,' Nero said, 'if the walls do come down, then we're all all invited.' invited.'

'Did their engines break through anywhere, when they turned them on the walls?' Totho asked. He closely examined the arrowslit, seeing how its flared socket was set into a wall three feet thick at least.

'A few stone-scars but nothing structural,' Parops said. 'They're going to need a bigger stick to get through these walls. Nero tells me my kinden aren't renowned for having new thoughts, but one reason for that is that the old ones have always served us pretty well. We know how to build a wall that won't come down.'

'And of course, this is another thing their . . . tacticians out there will have noted. That they will need more . . .' Totho mused. 'What are their artificers like, Salma?'

'I'm no judge,' the Dragonfly admitted. 'They're like people who put big metal things together. That's about my limit.'

'It's an odd thing,' said Nero, 'but the best imperial artificers, in my experience, are Auxillians: slave-soldiers or experts from the subject-races. True Wasps always prefer to be proper warriors, which is more about the fighting and less the tinkering around. I've had a good look out there and a lot of the big toys are in hands other than the Wasps'.'

'Can they be turned?' Totho asked immediately. 'They're slaves, after all. If they turn on their masters, with our help, they could escape into the Lowlands-'

Salma was shaking his head and Nero chuckled. 'You'd a.s.sume, with all their experience as slave-owners, that the Wasps would have spotted that one, boy. Which is exactly why they have. Any funny business from those poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds down there, and their families will get to know about it in the worst way. And, besides, if some platoon of Bee-kinden, hundreds of miles from home, does decide to go it alone, you think they'll be welcomed any, in Tark? Or anywhere else? And home for them is now within the Empire's borders, so any man jumping ship will never get to see it again.'

Salma nodded. 'I should tell you something, I think, at this point.'

Nero and Parops exchanged glances. 'Go on, boy, don't hold it in,' the Fly-kinden prompted.

Salma's smile turned wry. 'I didn't come here just for Stenwold's war, or even my own people's war. Not just to fight the Wasps, anyway.'

Totho nodded, remembering. Salma had barely mentioned the lure that had drawn him on this errand, which had originally been Skrill's errand alone. Totho had almost forgotten that himself, amidst the catalogue of his own woes.

'Don't keep us in suspense,' Nero said.

'A woman, I'm afraid.' Salma smiled brightly. 'I came here after a woman.'

'A Wasp woman?' Parops asked.

'No, but I'm told she's with the camp. With some order of theirs, the . . . Grace's Daughters, is it? No, Mercy's Daughters.'

'Never heard of them.' Nero said. 'So what about it?'

'I will be leaving Tark at some point,' Salma said, 'whether your monarch approves or not. Because she's out there somewhere and I have to find her.'

Nero's glance met that of Parops. 'Must be wonderful, to be young,' the Fly grumbled. 'I almost remember it, a decade of making a fool of myself and getting slapped by women. Marvellous, it was. Your mind seems set, boy.'

'I mean what I say.'

'Then at least choose your moment,' Parops said. 'Work with the city and let us get to trust you. Because there will be a sortie sooner or later. We're not just going to sit here and watch them ruin our walls, you realize.'

'Forgive me, but so far your city doesn't seem interested in working with any of us,' Totho pointed out.

'That was then,' Parops told him, taking the jug from Skrill and taking a swig from it. 'Now you are, nominally, on our side, and people want you to talk to them.'

Salma's grin broadened. 'Now that's unfair. There was a delightful Ant-kinden lady earlier who wanted nothing more than for me to talk to her.'

And at that there was a rap on the door and, when Nero opened it, she was standing right there, the Ant interrogator, staring straight at Salma.

Alder made a point of not wearing armour. Not only should there be some privileges for a general, but he hated being fussed over by slaves and servants, for with one arm he was unable to secure the buckles.

The largest tent in the Wasp encampment was not his living quarters but his map room. If a.s.sa.s.sins chose to head for it at night in search of generals to kill then that was entirely agreeable with him. He had sent a call out to his officers to join him, and if he had known that an Ant tower commander had dubbed them 'tacticians' he would have found it highly amusing. The term might just fit himself but, as far as planning this siege went, his was a perilously lonely position.

He was a man made for and unmade by war: lean and grey, though athletic still. He remembered a time when the t.i.tle 'General' was reserved for men commanding armies. Now back at the imperial court there were generals of this and that who had never even taken the field. In his mind he preserved the purity of the position.

He was of good family, in fact. That had taken him to a captaincy. After that each rung of the ladder had been hard-won, climbed under enemy shot, and slick with blood. His face had a rosette of shiny burn-scar across nose and right cheek. His right arm had been amputated by a field surgeon who had not expected him to live.

That surgeon still received, at each year's end, twenty-five gold Imperials from the amputee's personal coffers. General Alder remembered the competent and the skilled.

So why, he asked himself, am I left with these misfits as my command staff? am I left with these misfits as my command staff? He lowered himself into one of the four folding chairs, watching his staff file in. The Officer of the Camp was Colonel Carvoc, an excellent administrator though an almost untried soldier, now seating himself to the general's left. His armour was polished and unblemished. To Alder's right came the Officer of the Field, Colonel Edric. Edric was a man of strange appet.i.tes and humours. An officer of matchless family, he spent his time amongst the hill-tribe savages that pa.s.sed for shock troops in this army. He always went into battle, by his own tradition, in their third wave. He even wore their armour, and a chieftain's helm with a four-inch wasp sting as a crest. With coa.r.s.e gold armbands and a mantle of ragged hide, he looked every inch a tribal headman and not at all an imperial colonel. He lowered himself into one of the four folding chairs, watching his staff file in. The Officer of the Camp was Colonel Carvoc, an excellent administrator though an almost untried soldier, now seating himself to the general's left. His armour was polished and unblemished. To Alder's right came the Officer of the Field, Colonel Edric. Edric was a man of strange appet.i.tes and humours. An officer of matchless family, he spent his time amongst the hill-tribe savages that pa.s.sed for shock troops in this army. He always went into battle, by his own tradition, in their third wave. He even wore their armour, and a chieftain's helm with a four-inch wasp sting as a crest. With coa.r.s.e gold armbands and a mantle of ragged hide, he looked every inch a tribal headman and not at all an imperial colonel.