Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker

around him. The espers had raised their heads, and they were all looking at him, their faces cold and focused and entirely menacing.
    "Put him down, Owen," Hazel said gently. "Please put him down."
    Owen let go of Chance and stepped back. He didn't even try to draw his sword or
    his disrupter. He somehow knew they wouldn't be able to help him. The feeling of menace was thick on the air, and a slow power burned beneath it. Chance readjusted his clothing fussily and sniffed at Owen.
    "My children protect me, Deathstalker. Always. I suggest you leave now before they decide to do something unpleasant and terminal to you."
    "Time to go," said Hazel. "He's not joking, Owen. Those kids are dangerous."
    "So am I," said Owen. "I'm a Deathstalker, Chance, and don't you ever forget it."
    "The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
    Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy."
    Chance looked down his nose at him. "That's what your father said to me the last time he was here."
    "I'm not my father," said Owen. "I fight dirty."
    He turned and left with Hazel close behind him. The espers on their cots watched them go, their heads turning as one.
    In the cold and mists outside the bakery, three toughs with drawn swords waited impatiently in the adjoining alleyway for their prey to emerge. They'd had to pay out good money at the Blackthorn to pick up the trail on the Deathstalker and his woman, but they expected to be fully repaid, and a hell of a lot more, by the reward money on their prey's heads.
    Three toughs from the underside of Thieves' Quarter, Harley, Jude and Crow.
    Cutpurses, back-stabbers and muscle for hire. Normally they would have had more sense than to go after a renowned swordsman and warrior like the Deathstalker, but the reward money had inflamed their minds, and anyway, they felt safe enough
    attacking together from ambush. With any luck, it would all be over before the Deathstalker even knew what was happening, and then they could each take turns with his woman before they killed her. They clutched their sword hilts tightly and stamped their boots impatiently in the snow. They hadn't planned on so long a wait, but then, planning wasn't exactly their long suit, any more than patience.
    It was snowing again, and the mists were getting thicker. If the temperature had been any lower, it would have dropped off the bottom of the thermometer. Crow scowled. He was nominally the leader, because he talked the loudest, but he was beginning to get a bad feeling about the ambush, even though it had been his idea in the first place. It was taking too long. They couldn't just keep standing around in the alleyway with their swords in their hands. Someone would notice, even in Mistport He turned to Jude to complain about the wait in general and the cold in particular, and then stopped. Jude wasn't there. Crow blinked.
    Jude had been there a minute ago, large as life and twice as smelly. Crow looked quickly around the narrow alleyway, but there was nowhere he could be hiding. At least Harley was still there. Crow grabbed him by the arm, and Harley nearly jumped out of his skin.
    "Don't do that! You know I get a nervous twitch when I'm startled. What do you want?"
    "Where's Jude?"
    Harley looked at Crow uncertainly, and then looked vaguely round the alleyway.
    "I don't know. I thought he was with you. He was here a minute ago."
    "I know he was here a minute ago, but he isn't here now! What's happened to him?"
    "I don't know! Maybe he had to take a leak and… wandered off."

    "Without saying anything to us? And why didn't we notice him going?"
    Harley thought hard. It wasn't easy. Thinking had never come easily to Harley, and he rather resented Crow asking him all these questions. Harley wasn't in the gang to think. He was there to take orders and hit people. He looked hopefully at Crow, in case he'd come up with the answers by himself, and then looked quickly away again.
    "I'll take a look down the end of the alley," he said hastily. "Just in case."
    He trudged quickly off through the snow before Crow could ask him just in case what. Crow watched him go and growled under his breath. The ambush hadn't been started properly yet, and already it was going wrong. He glanced back at the bakery to make sure the prey hadn't appeared yet, and then looked back at Harley. Only to find that he'd disappeared, too. Crow made a small whimpering noise. There was no way