"I do think of her as my friend, you know. I don't want to see her get hurt making the same mistakes I did when I was young." Lord Victor could be as nice as Giogi Wyvernspur.

Olive looked doubtful. "Even so, that leaves us with another problem. I don't know how it works among your people, but among the fur-bearing races of halflings and humans, love wreaks havoc on us. It's like pouring sand into the fine gearwork of the mind. When you should be thinking about your enemies' position and your defenses and where to strike, your mind is wandering off and you're thinking about his eyes, or his smile, or what he said last."

The paladin thought of Alias's own comments about the lovers by the fountain on the day they arrived in Westgate. With eyes only for each other, they were sitting ducks, she'd said. Alias knows enough to guard against that, he signed.

"Hah," Olive declared. "Shows what you know. 'I'll never be that stupid' is what every woman thinks until it happens to her. Then, too, something could happen to Lord Victor. He could be hurt or kidnapped. Alias wasn't all that rational when she thought Finder was threatened. What would she be like if something happened to someone else she'd grown attached to?"

The halfling's warnings were cut short by the sound of horses' hooves on the cobblestones outside.

The halfling and^saurial exchanged glances, then Olive padded over to the window. Standing in the shadow of the curtain, she looked down onto the street. After a moment, she waved Dragonbait to approach.

The saurial sighed and ambled forward, but the halfling grabbed his tunic and jerked him to the side. "Stand in the shadows," she hissed. Feeling a little foolish, and a little guilty, but also a little anxious, the paladin did as instructed before looking down on the street. He shifted nervously, made uncomfortable by the sight below.

Victor's carriage stood outside the hotel door. As Lord Victor helped Alias down, she slid into his arms, threw her own around his neck, and pressed her lips against his. The pair remained embracing, lips locked against each other for an embarrassingly long period to witness.

Dragonbait pulled Olive away from the window, back to the chessboard and made her sit down opposite him. They both stared at the chessboard without seeing the pieces, waiting for Alias's return.

When Victor finally released her, Alias drew in a deep breath and giggled.

"You make me feel so good," Victor whispered.

"Good as in virtuous?" Alias teased, gently nibbling at bis ear.

"Lucky, happy, fortunate, fated, delighted," the young noble burbled. "I've never had anyone I could really talk to. Knowing you understand, that you're with me-" He faltered for words. "Are you sure you have to go?"

The swordswoman nodded. "It's late. We both have a lot to do tomorrow."

"It's already tomorrow," Victor murmured, sliding his hand up and down her back.

"Exactly," Alias retorted, and she slipped gracefully from his grasp and began climbing the steps to the hotel door.

Lord Victor reached out and grasped her wrist. "Alias?" he entreated her.

"Yeeesss?" the swordswoman answered, making no attempt to pull her captured arm away.

Lord Victor moved closer, standing on the step just beneath hers. He looked up into her eyes. "Give me a token," he demanded with a grin, "or I shall never let you go."

"A token?" Alias replied with a little laugh, not certain she'd heard him correctly.

"A token to show your regard for me, at least, that is, I hope you have some regard for me, for my feelings, for what you mean to me. Please. Some trinket to remind me of you when we're apart."

Alias thought of her new earrings, but somehow they didn't seem enough a part of her. "I don't think I have…" she started to say, then she thought of something appropriate. "Wait. You have to let go of my hand first, though."

Victor released her and held out both his hands cupped together, waiting for his boon.

With a deft motion Alias released the peace-bond knot tying her sword to her scabbard. She drew out her sword and raised it to her head. She held out the strand of hair she wore in an ornamental braid and sliced the braid off with the blade of her weapon. She slid her sword back into its scabbard. After curling the braid into a tiny loop, she laid it in the young noble's palms. Tour token, milord," she whispered.

"Accepted gratefully, milady," Victor replied, bending briefly to one knee. He tucked the red ringlet into his shirt, then his arms snaked out again and grasped the ewordswoman about her waist. He pulled her toward him until they stood lips to lips. They kissed again.

Finally the young noble released the swordswoman. Alias ran up the steps and into the hotel. Lord Victor climbed back into his carriage and urged his horses forward.

As the carriage rolled away, the halfling and the saur-ial could hear Aliasjnoving toward them in the hallway, singing a love song.' ¦

"Oh, yeah. She seems really guarded to me," Olive mocked the paladin. She sat back down beside the chessboard and righted her overturned king. "Your move, Dragonbait," she said.

The paladin sat across from the halfling, his brow furrowed as the hamlike scent of his anxiety wafted out the open window.

Fourteen

It took the swordswoman only a few minutes to change from her finery I back into her armor, but in that time the weather had turned. Clouds rolled in from the east, veiling the moon, and mist rolled up from the bay and the river, shrouding the streets. Despite' the cover this provided the three adventurers, Olive insisted they take one extra precaution to elude any possible Night Masks who might be spying on them-leave the city via the Thalavars' secret underground tunnel.

Once outside the city, Olive crept southward, keeping in the shadow of the city wall, with Alias and Dragonbait following behind. Since only the halfling had been both conscious and free of the sorceress Cassana's magical controls when they'd last used the tunnel that led to Cassana's former home, they had to rely on Olive to lead them to the outside entrance. They sneaked over the fence into the Ssemm family stockyards and made their way to the eastern end of the yards.

As the halfling rustled through an overgrown dry wash searching for the entrance, Alias and Dragonbait kept watch at the wash's rim. The moon broke through the clouds for a few moments, and then Alias could make out seven mounds to the southeast.

There was a good deal of activity in the stockyards to the west of the dry wash. Caravans were being readied for departure in the morning. Alias shifted nervously, worried that she would be discovered trespassing, and Orgule Ssemm would add his complaints to those of Ssentar Urdo, further annoying the croamarkh. "Olive," ehe whispered. "What's taking you so long?"

"Ill bet the passage hasn't been used since Finder and I came through it. The gully is really overgrown," the halfling whispered back.

An eternity of heartbeats seemed to pass before Olive called out to report her success. Dragonbait, able to detect the heat of the halfling's body in the dark, took Alias's arm and led her to Olive's location. The halfling crawled out from beneath a thicket of wild raspberry. "I don't think either of you could get through like I could," Olive reported. "You'll have to hack at the brush some."

The two warriors drew their swords and cut into the briars until they'd cleared a path into a tributary of the gully.

"There!" Olive whispered excitedly, pointing into the hillside.

The doorway was partially blocked by mud and rock carried by heavy rains, but the door was still visible. Fortunately it opened inward, so they weren't required to do any digging. Alias pushed up the latch with the tip of her weapon and nudged the door open with her foot. The door's hinges made an alarming squeal, and a decade's worth of dust assailed the swordswoman's nostrils.