"Hello, Miles," said Toede, tapping his dagger against his nails.

"Toede," lisped the kender guard. "Thought I'd find you here."

"No, you didn't," smiled Toede. "You thought nothing of the kind. You thought this was the easiest way to escape. I know because I had the same route planned."

"I don't know what you're talking about," sputtered the kender.

"You threw the dagger that hit Kronin."

"You don't know that!" said the kender. "You were looking elsewhere, leaning under the table."

"You would notice that," said Toede. "Then you must know that I could not have done the deed. Yet you were the first to shout for my head. It was you, Rogate, Bunni-swot, Kronin, and I on that side of table. If it had been Rogate, you would have seen it clearly, and maybe even have stopped him. Bunniswot is a scholar who can't even handle a butter knife without causing himself grievous injury. I was leaning forward, you said so yourself. So the only one who could have done it was…"

"I didn't mean to hit him," spat the kender.

"No, you meant to hit me," finished the hobgoblin. "But I leaned forward, so you missed and struck Taywin's father."

There was a silence. Finally the kender guard said, "You can't take me back, you know." ' "I can't?" said Toede.

"Look. You take me back, and as soon as I get within shouting range, I shout that I've spotted you." Miles chose his words carefully. "There are a hundred crazed kender out there, all of them after your hide. You may know the truth, but by the time anyone listens, you will be garot-ted."

"I've been dead before," shrugged Toede.

"And you really want to be dead again?" said Miles. When the hobgoblin didn't respond, the kender said, "I'm going now. Best of luck on your own escape." He started across the slippery pole, his footing sure and even.

"Miles?" came Toede's shout behind him. Halfway across the pole, the kender turned, looking over his shoulder at the hobgoblin.

"Yes, Toede?" he said.

"Why?"

Miles turned on the narrow bridge. He spread his hands out to explain that if Toede was supposed to be a martyr, he should be a dead martyr, for he knew about all the lies and half-truths that Bunniswot and Rogate and even Taywin told. He wanted to prove Toede an unworthy being to follow, and the best thing for the hobgoblin was to die under the kender swords.

Miles intended to say all that, really. But as he spread his hands, he felt a harsh, sharp thump in his chest, and looked down to see the hilt of Toede's dagger protruding from his shirt, just to the left of his sternum.

Then he felt the cold rush of the waters hit, and then nothing more at all.

"Dance upon the water lilies, Miles," said Toede. "Dance upon the lilies."

It was about a half hour later when Bunniswot found Toede, still at the bridge, listening to the thunder of the rapids.

Toede started for a moment, then nodded as Bunniswot sat down next to him.

"How bad is it?" said the hobgoblin.

"Not as bad as it seemed," said the scholar. "It became apparent soon after the attack that you were not responsible, and would have been realized sooner if Rogate had not gotten into a wrestling match with a dozen kender, defending your good name."

"Kronin alive?"

"They have a few good healers," Bunniswot said, nodding, "and they anticipate injuries at a moot, so he's fine. He thinks you're out finding the assassin."

"Already found him," said Toede. "Miles."

Another nod from the scholar. "They figured that, too. He alive?"

"No," said Toede, not adding anything else.

"Well," said the scholar, "after they sorted out that you didn't try to kill Kronin, but Miles probably did, the entire party shifted into a celebration in your honor-you know, the brave little humanoid, unfairly accused, who seeks out the guilty party."

'That's a new one," grunted Toede.

"And it's now more than ever likely that the kender clans will join the rebellion," added Bunniswot. "You want to head back?"

"In a moment." Toede sighed, then added, "Ever kill anyone, scholar?"

"Me?" A nervous laugh. "Oh, no. Uh… and you?"

"More than I care to count," said Toede. "Even more that I have been indirectly responsible for. And yet, this one, felt so…"

'Troubling?" suggested Bunniswot. "Painful? Thought-provoking?"

"Satisfying," finished Toede, ignoring Bunniswot's sudden start. "This one was worth it, as though I had accomplished something. You know?"

"Uh," said Bunniswot, "I don't, I'm afraid."

Toede sighed again. "Must be a deficiency in your species. I guess we should go back. What's on tap now?"

Bunniswot brightened. "You missed several more toasts to your glory, and now Taywin is reading her poetry."

Toede made a face. "Perhaps we ought not to hurry back," he said. "Maybe we should get our story straight about my epic battle with the assassin. It would help if I had a scholarly witness to the culmination."

Toede looked at the scholar for a moment, then added with a smile, "And while we're at it, you can remind me of some of 'my' quotes."

Chapter 23

In which Our Protagonist is swept along by events, and the oft-mentioned necromancer finally makes an appearance, after his own fashion. Also, a council of war is held, havoc is cried, and the gnolls of war are unleashed.

"When are these mysterious allies going to show?" snarled Toede, sitting on the crushed remains of an ogre plinth. They were back at the scholars' old campsite that, except for the rot, looked just as Toede had left it six months earlier. The remains of the birches and stone monuments lay like broken toys around the site.

Bunniswot shrugged, squinting at the sun. "He said about midday. Does it look middayish to you?"

"Remind me to not let you draw up the battle plan," muttered Toede. He looked over to Taywin and Rogate. Rogate had sketched out a map of Flotsam and was drawing arrows from outside the walls to inside the walls. With Miles's death, Rogate had become the "honor guard" for Highmaster-in-Exile Toede.

Toede watched Rogate draw a long, sweeping arrow that started in the west, looped entirely around the city, and attacked the Rock from a seaborne invasion. "Or him, either," added Toede.

Bunniswot sniffed "Taywin says the best mode of attack would be from the south, where the walls are still in disrepair. I tend to agree."

Toede nodded. "The problem is not the condition of those walls. The problem is the wall between the Lower City and the Rock. In case of invasion, the public plan was always to mobilize the populace and meet the enemy at the outer walls. The secret plan was for the upper classes to pull back into the Rock and leave the rest to fight and die in the streets."

"Do you think Groag would continue that policy?" said Bunniswot.

"If it works, don't mess with it," responded Toede. "Besides, you said that Groag's first order of business was rebuilding the Rock Wall, then the manor, and is only now starting to rebuild the outer wall."

"And quickly," added Bunniswot. "There are a lot of cheap materials and cut corners in that particular project. I wish we could find another siege machine like your friend Jugger."

"Jugger is… was… unique." Toede shuddered, thinking of that long, lazy arc over the Blood Sea. "At least I hope so. I never want to meet another denizen of the Abyss…" Toede stopped for a moment, then asked, "Do you hear that?"

"What?" said Bunniswot.

"Sounded like someone laughing in the distance," said Toede. Another pause. "It's gone now."

Bunniswot shrugged, shaking his head. "Groag has hired a number of mercenaries, including ogres from the Balifor area and some minotaurs from across the Blood Sea, all for personal protection. Most of the rest of the armed forces have survived two of your 'visits' to Flotsam already. As a result, they are battle-hardened, but they have no desire to face an army with you at the helm."