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. It was equally natural for Lord Daeran to try Bast and company for conspiracy in the murder of Braesubjects, and to stake them out in the hot sun and cool night, providing them only water, and only enoughto keep them alive until they would die of starvation and exposure.Nice folks, eh?* * *"Just about midnight," Ahira said."Guard will be changing any time."My time.No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always use good intelligence, if you catchmy drift.We had taken conspicuously rich rooms that were even more conspicuously secure.They were on thethird floor of the inn, with but a single door entrance, and two balconies, neither of which would be easilyaccessible from below, and only barely from above the overhanging roof would prevent somebodyfrom simply dropping down from roof to balcony.There was nothing that would prevent me from rappelling down the side of the building into the edge ofthe square below, except the possibility of some passersby seeing what was going on.But local light-discipline was lax, and two of the lamps on the street were out, the residents not yetbraced by armsmen demanding they be lit.More than enough shadow for the likes of me.Walk out the front door? Sure, I could have done that but it's always better to have the option of beingofficially somewhere else when there's skulduggery going on.That's me, Walter Slovotsky: skuldugger.I sat tailor-fashion on the floor, Andrea behind me, fingers kneading at my shoulders hard, just this sideof bruising.I might turn down a massage from a pretty woman, but only rarely from somebody who isgood at it, and never from a pretty woman who is good at it.Jason scowled.I had a blindfold over my eyes, but I could hear him scowl."I should go too," he said.Tennetty snorted."Like you could get him out of trouble?"His voice was too quiet."Yes," he said."Like I could get him out of trouble."He was right he had saved my life last time out but it was irrelevant.We weren't configured forviolence or flight, and I didn't see any way to change that, not tonight.If we had been morecold-blooded, we would have left the engineers in the hot sun for another day before I wentreconnoitering giving the rest of the group time to get beyond town, ready to run if things went sour.But no.They had been up there for days and days, slowly burning to death and starving in the hot sun,and while I didn't see any possible way I could get them out tonight, the sooner we knew what we wereup against, the sooner we could get them out.Ifwe could get them out.Look truth is that the importance of something doesn't have a lot of effect on whether or not it'sdoable.I've had too many lessons on that already; I hoped this wasn't going to be another one.Time for a quick sneak around, to find out whether rescue for the engineers consisted of a breakout, ora merciful death.Or nothing at all.If you can't do it, you can't do it."Time," I said, rising to my feet.I opened my eyes, and could see through the blindfold that the lampswere still on in the room."Lights out."I heard several puffs of air, and then: "Lights are out."The best way to see in darkness is to be born a dwarf not only do they see better with less light, theycan see three colors down into the infrared, and can find their way at a dead run through territory andconditions where you and I wouldn't have a prayer.The best way wasn't open to me.The second best way to see well in darkness is, first, to have theheredity that gives you decent night vision; second, to eat your carrots, whether you like them or not Idon't; and third, to give your eyes enough time in darkness before you venture out into it.Black is one of my favorite colors, particularly at night.The trouble is, it's the classic color of a thief.Similarly, it would have been nice to rub some black greasepaint over my face and hands, but that wouldhave labeled me as someone skulking about.Ahira gripped my shoulder for a moment."Don't get too close, and don't get into trouble [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]