Andra Kendrick was as one with the night. His clothing blended with the inky shadows and his hair and face were wrapped with cloths. Even the blade of his curved sword had been blackened by candle smoke.
Only a flash of his eyes betrayed his position as he glanced towards another form hidden a dozen yards away; this figure was dressed in the same midnight blue as Kendrick and was equally indiscernible beneath a cart piled with animal pelts.

There were others here too, a dozen men and women concealed in doorways and behind barrels and pallets teetering with ill-stacked crates and bundles.

The smell of the sea was carried on a stuttering breeze, and mast bells made a mournful chorus as ships bobbed on the rising swell of the ocean. It was too late for gulls, but bats streaked in and out of the compound hunting a feast of insects drawn to the lights behind the windows of the massive warehouse Kendrick watched. The warehouse was immense, huge even in this dock-land district of Kallovar that had many large buildings, and fortified to the extent of the bastions of the robber barons of the North. There were men inside, at least a dozen, each tough as jerked-beef and murderous of intent, handpicked for their lack of virtue. They were silent for now, but Kendrick knew the peace was only fleeting. Afore time curses and roars would sunder the night, that and the screams of the dying; resistance would be potent to protect their master's investment.

Kendrick looked up at a row of windows more than three stories from the ground. The glass was grimy with soot and grease from a nearby tannery, and the figure hanging from a rope lowered down from the roof was forced to use a coat sleeve to clear a small patch to gain a view inside. The figure hung like a spider on a thread of gossamer, the grip of one knee and one foot the only thing thwarting a tumbling fall to the cobblestone yard below. Kendrick's eyes narrowed, but there was more than concern for the aerial gymnast in his gaze, there was also admiration and pride. He watched the figure lean towards the window and scan inside the warehouse. After only a few seconds the figure turned and went back up the rope with simian ease. At the roof parapet, the figure un-hooded a lamp and flashed a message to those in the courtyard below.

Kendrick turned to his left, his hands signalling to the figure beneath the cart, then immediately turned to his right and repeated the gesture. He came out of his crouch and vaulted over the barrels he was hidden behind, motioning the others up and forward. Steel made a sibilant hiss, as twelve swords were unsheathed in unison. He began a crouching run towards the warehouse as a huge door in its belly began to slide open with a shriek of chains and pulleys. He was silent as he ran, and the knot of men in the doorway was unaware of him as he sprinted towards them. But their ignorance would only last a few seconds.

go to next page(page 2)