White Road

the tide. He should be sailing in about now.”
    “If we run, they’ll cut us down,” Rieser whispered back, “but we’ve thinned them out. I count only eleven men left.”
    “Are you ready to stop this?” someone called.
    Seregil went to the side of one of the front windows and looked cautiously out. A man with the look of a captain sat on horseback beside a hooded man. Almost a dozen men were still in front of the house, nearly all of them archers. As he watched, two more staggered out of the shadows, clutching their heads.
    That’s what I get for being merciful
, Seregil thought—though he had rather assumed he’d killed them with his rock throwing.
    Just then the mounted man next to Ulan pushed his hood back.
    Seregil laughed. “Ilar! I didn’t expect to see you again.” Even from here he could see the dark, swollen bruise on his jaw.
    Alec stepped in beside him, and for an instant Seregil was afraid he was going to charge out after him. Instead, he regarded the other man coldly. “You’re worse than a stray cat at supper time. Always turning up when you’re least wanted.”
    Seregil studied Ilar’s face and the way he sat his horse. Thelibrary had been dark; now he had a better look at him, though, and it simply confirmed his impression. This was not the gloating man who’d made Seregil wash his feet and taunted him with fleeting glimpses of Alec during their captivity. Nor was this the same man who’d tried to seduce him once again during their escape. Even at this distance, Seregil could see fear in his face, and his stoop-shouldered, cringing posture. As their eyes met, however, he also saw the hunger in him. Ilar was Ulan’s creature now; no doubt certain promises had been made, which almost certainly did not involve letting Alec or him go.
    “Well now, where are we?” he asked, leaning on the window frame.
    “Surrender, and I assure you, none of you will be killed,” their leader replied.
    “Those are your terms? Not very enticing.”
    “You’re as foolish as your friends. Very well. The khirnari only wants Alec. You have his solemn word that he will be well treated. The rest of you can go.”
    “Even worse!”
    Micum, who’d been standing just behind Seregil, disappeared for a moment.
    “Well treated?” Alec laughed hoarsely. “Then he’s either lying or he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s an abomination. How in Aura’s name can you support this, Captain Urien?”
    When Micum returned his face was dark with fury. “Rieser is gone, and so are the books. All of them.”
    Seregil kept his expression neutral and his attention on the captain.
    “I was ordered to catch a thief and return what was stolen,” Urien told him. “These are the terms I was given. Whatever my khirnari asks of me, I know it is for the sake of Virésse.”
    “Even if it means he becomes no better than a necromancer?”
    “He’s lying to confuse you!” Ilar told him angrily. “Remember your honor, Captain. And the khirnari said tobring Seregil, as well. He’s one of the chief thieves. The others can be killed.”
    Just then they heard a low whistle from behind the house.
    Micum went to the window and looked out between the shutters. “Well I’ll be damned,” he whispered. “Rieser’s back, and he’s brought horses!”
    “Captain, please grant me a few moments with my companions. They may take a bit of—convincing,” Seregil said.
    “Take all the time you like,” Urien replied.
    Seregil closed the shutters and went with the others to the back window. Outside two men lay on the ground, dead or senseless, and Rieser stood over them with four saddled horses and the bag of books slung from one of the pommels.
    One by one they climbed out and took a horse, then began leading them away in the direction of the cove. They hadn’t gotten more than a hundred feet, however, when someone shouted, “There they go! They’re escaping!”
    Seregil gave Micum a quick leg up onto his horse, then leapt into the saddle on his own and followed the others as they galloped for the cove, their starlight shadows coursing like pursuing dra’gorgos beneath them.
    They had a head start and the element of surprise, but Urien and his remaining men were hard on their heels.
    Rounding the headland for the second time that day, Seregil let out a victory cry at the sight of the ocean lapping at the high tide line and the
Green Lady
riding at anchor. Longboats were skimming in across the glassy