Bastion

and Bey rehearsed Mags in the use of a weapon that was new to him. It wasn’t a nice weapon. It was purely an assassin’s weapon. He didn’t think it likely that the Weaponsmaster would ever teach anyone the use of this thing. But it was one that was going to give them the maximum chance of silent kills.
    “Throw again,” Bey murmured, holding up his fist, with a hat on it, to make it the size of a man’s head. Mags could barely see it against the moonlit snow outside, but that was just about as much light as he was going to when he finally used this thing.
    Mags threw the braided wire loop over Bey’s fist without touching hat or skin, and yanked on the wooden handle. Gently, because if he yanked at full strength he could seriously damage Bey’s wrist.
    “And then the knife to the kidney, which I know you know how to do. Remember, if you need to take a second blow, only to strike below the ribs. Do not try anything clever, like cutting the spine, or striking for the heart. A strike that hits bone does you no favors. Good. Again.”
    Mags was discovering that Bey’s memories were actually working to improve his own muscle-memory to an extent that was a little terrifying. That time, he hadn’t even had to think at all about the toss. He’d just done it. A few more times—
    “A few more times, and you will be almost my equal,” said Bey, echoing his thoughts. “Again.”
    •   •   •
    Sure enough, there were at least two Sleepgivers peering into the blackness of the cave. Mags didn’t think they realized how easy they were to see against the snow. He actually spotted them first, and touched Bey to alert him to their presence. Both of them froze completely still, as only a Sleepgiver could, so that not even a single straw rustled. They breathed slowly, meditatively, through their noses, as the Sleepgivers cautiously moved their heads into the cave entrance and attempted to make out anything, anything at all. The only sound was that intermittent dripping somewhere deep in the caves. The only smell was stale, dead smoke and cave-damp.
    Mags and Bey had already removed everything to the storage caves. Only the caravan remained, and that was because it was too hard to move anywhere else.
    It wasn’t where it would catch the light, anyway.
    The Sleepgivers peered and listened, peered and listened, and got nothing for their pains. Eventually, the heads vanished, and Mags thought he might be hearing the sound of someone climbing the cliff with a rope.
    “And so, they fulfill my first prophecy,” Bey breathed. “Let us hope that they continue to do so.”
    •   •   •
    At the first light, Mags elbowed Bey when he thought he heard a whisper of noise outside the cave. Then he crouched low, and with one hand on the floor to keep himself steady, scuttled to the other side of the cave and felt his way along the wall until he came to a place where the cave made a turn to his left. This was not a way he had run before. It was a strange sort of “running” that had him skimming or gliding his feet barely above the surface of the rock to avoid making a footfall—something he had not known how to do until he had shared Bey’s memories.
    That turning gave him an obtuse “corner” to hide behind that would still allow him to see the entrance. Bey wasn’t nearly as lucky, since on his side, the wall stayed more or less straight—except that Bey had the caravan to hide behind.
    He knew what Bey was doing: setting himself up on the opposite side behind the caravan. He couldn’t hear a thing, though. Bey was just that much better than he was, able to walk across straw without making a single stalk break or rustle.
    Now he definitely heard something out there, and once again, there were heads showing against the dim light and the white snow, two on Bey’s side of the cave, one on his. That was a piece of luck. He would only need to deal with one target.
    They waited out there a very long time. Long enough for the scrap of sky he could see to lighten to blue from gray. The Sleepgivers must have decided it was more risky to be out than in, because at that point, they all three slipped into the cave, bodies pressed against the rock.
    Another piece of luck. He kept his eyes narrowed against the growing light at the entrance and concentrated on the one on his side. Bey had said that he didn’t think the Sleepgivers were all that familiar with the layout, even of the outer part of the cave. “They