"In Lady Patience."

"Do you believe in God? Pray for her, Vigilant."

"So the children will be few."

"The children had better never be conceived," said Angel. "Or they'll come down out of the mountain in an hour, able to communicate with each other as the wyrms always did. Not the feeble thing the geblings do. The ancient wyrms were one self. No matter how many bodies his mate brings forth, Unwyrm will have one child.

And if they do take over the earth, they'll be a single entity, knowing all things that each one knows. If any survive at all-"

"None will," said Will.

"I'll see to that," said Sken. "I'll see to the little monsters."

"Monsters?" said Angel. "Yes, you see to the monsters."

"Strings," said Will. "How fast can you get us up the mountain to Unwyrm's lair?"

"Outside Freetown, the Miserkorden have platforms that rise most of the way. If Unwyrm doesn't try to stop us, we could be there in twelve hours or so. If we leave here at dawn, we'll be there by nightfall."

"You can bet the others won't have it so easy," said Will. "It won't do to face Unwyrm unrested. Strings, is there somewhere here that we can sleep? Just for a few hours?"

"You've paid for this box," said Strings.

"I suppose we wouldn't be the first to stay all night."

"You'd be the first who slept." Strings smiled. Kristiano laughed.

"Sken," said Will, "I'll stand a two-hour watch. Then you wake for the next two."

"I had hoped for more sleep than that," she said.

"It's all we'll get. And you, Angel-you might as well sleep straight through. You may think you're an invincible assassin, but I've been a soldier in my day, and my body count is at least as high as yours."

"I told you, he isn't in me anymore."

"I just warned you in case he came back." Will smiled.

"You mean you're not going to kill him?" asked Sken.

"That's right," said Will.

"And will you take me with you?" asked Angel.

"I've known Unwyrm's call," said Will, "and I feel no contempt for those who succumb to it. God has some good purpose in mind for every soul that's born. You have a right to try to redeem yourself. But I promise you, I'll kill you in a moment if I see that Unwyrm has you again."

"I know," said Angel. "I want you to."

"He does," said Strings.

"Four hours," said Will. "At dawn we'll head for the top. We're not much of an army, but with God's help we'll be more than Unwyrm can handle."

"How do you know God doesn't want Unwyrm to win?" asked Angel.

"If he wins, we'll know God wanted him to." Will smiled. "Reality is the most perfect vision of God's will.

It's discovering God's will in advance that causes all the trouble."

"The fate of mankind is in the hands of a fanatic," said Angel. "As usual."

Chapter 17. THE HOUSE OF THE WISE

"YOU SHOULD HAVE GOT MORE EXERCISE ON THE BOAT," said Ruin.

Patience could hardly speak for panting; Reck was doing scarcely better. Only Ruin seemed tireless as they ran along the narrow street.

Despite Ruin's greater endurance, it was Patience who had chosen their route so far, dodging among the buildings, climbing over roofs and scrambling up ladders and trellises. Reck and Ruin had little experience with urban scenery; they had no sense of where blind alleys might lead, or what buildings could serve as inadvertent highways to the next level. Patience, however, had spent years climbing over, under, and through the many palaces and public buildings of King's Hill, which in some areas was as densely populated and overbuilt as Cranning.

The soldiers were shouting behind them, but a curve in the road that skirted a jut in the cliff's face hid them from the soldiers' view. Patience saw an open gate into a small garden on the cliff side of the road. She quickly scanned the area for possible escape routes. The garden was beside a two-story house, which led upward to a stone retaining wall built against the cliff face. The wall no doubt supported a road on the next level up. A sewer pipe protruded a couple of meters below the lip of the retaining wall; to avoid having the waste from above pollute them, the builders on this level had connected it to a thick masonry drainpipe that carried the wastewater down to a collector barrel. Until now, there had always been ladders or stairs or elevators connecting the different levels, but apparently these two states were feuding, and the sewer connection was the best they had seen so far. To Patience, it looked like a highway to safety.

The problem was that during the climb they would be hopelessly exposed. But if they hid in the garden, the soldiers might pass them by. It would give them a few moments until Unwyrm realized what had happened and began to guide them back. Powerful as Unwyrm was, he couldn't see through his minions' eyes, or even understand their conscious thoughts. He could only shove them in roughly the direction he wanted them to go, by making them want desperately to go that way. It gave Patience some time, some room to maneuver; it was the only reason Reck and Ruin had not yet been killed, or Patience separated from them.

All this thought took only a moment; Patience drew the other two through the garden gate. It had been open slightly, jammed in place by debris and built-up dirt that showed that the owner never moved it. Patience left it undisturbed. She had the other two move well into the garden, behind some barrels, out of sight. She waited near the entrance, her loop in hand. Only one person at a time could get through the gate. With luck, though, no one would try.

They heard the soldiers run by. Their captain was shouting orders to them. Then there was silence, except for their distant running footsteps as they ran farther and farther away.

Patience turned to leave the gate and join the geblings, but Ruin was waving to her frantically: get back, get back. She turned around just as a soldier, his sword leading, stepped through the gate. It was a reflex, with no thought at all, to lariat his head with the loop and snap it tight. By chance the loop fell right where cartilage connected two vertebrae of his neck; the force and speed of her attack were so great that the loop gave only a moment's hesitation in cutting right through the spine.

The man's head twisted and spun off his shoulders; both his own forward movement and the pull of the loop made the head tumble toward her, striking her chin and rolling down across her chest.

Angel said I couldn't do this, she thought. Said I couldn't cut off a man's head with a single pass of the loop.

And at the same time, she thought: The blood will never wash out of this gown.

The soldier's body still stumbled forward, his arms reaching out to break his fall. Then the last instructions of the head to the body were exhausted; the body collapsed.

Patience quickly dragged the body inside the gate, where it couldn't be seen from outside. Then she put the head back on the neck and propped it in place with rocks and a small keg. Let them not see at once that he was dead. It might be a useless gesture, but Angel had taught her to do that, since it usually bought more time than it cost; and because the person who discovered the body was the one whose action would make the head separate from the neck, it was all the more horrifying-and therefore demoralizing.

Ruin and Reck had already guessed the next move, and were climbing up to the roof of the house. After climbing dozens of similar buildings this morning, they had mastered the basic routine. They stayed behind chimneys and did their best to be invisible from the street.

Patience quickly joined them-she was a more practiced climber than either of them. In moments she was leading the way again.

There was a boy, about ten years old, working on the roof. He had a hammer, which he had been using to repair shingles. At the moment, however, he had a murderous glint in his eye. Unwyrm was in him, and all he wanted was to use his hammer to stop them. Patience knew she could get by him; already his gaze went past her, as he looked with loathing on the geblings behind her.