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Her glare turned violent, face contorting with the audible grinding of teeth as she levelled a bronze finger at him

‘Don’t you dare speak of oaths like you know any beyond your own to coin, you chicken-legged, cowardly, purse-fornicating, wheel-raping, hairless eater of broken aol rose up, scratched the back of his head ‘That one I haven’t heard before, I’ll grant you’ Rather than anger, it ith a furroed curiosity that he cast his gaze at the Serrant ‘So … what’s really on your mind?’

The Serrant turned her bronze shoulder to him ‘It’s complicated’

‘To you, doorknobs are complicated’

‘Why would you be interested?’

‘Perverse fascination is not interest’

She stared at hi between appalled and ainst each other, her face cracked in short order and revealed a look that Argaol had not yet seen on her normally stolid, firm-browed face

Fear

‘I worry,’ she said, ‘about the adventurers’

Argaol blinked ‘Do they owe you money?’

Her face screwed up ‘Ah, no’

‘So …’

‘Well, just one of them, really’

‘Which one?’

Quillian stared into the waters lapping at the dock ‘I shouldn’t say’

‘Asper, then’

‘What?’ Her head snapped back up with a look of alarm on her face

‘Don’t look so da his eyes ‘You think you’re the first woman to worry after another woman? It was either her or the shict’ He furrowed his brow ‘It’s not the shict, is it?’

‘No’

‘Didn’t think so,’ he replied ‘That would have been far, far too interesting to hope for’ He lay back down upon the dock, folding his arh; the priestess is the only decent one ast them’

‘Then you share my concern’

‘Not especially, no Sebast is due to s theet to be content that a woman who thinks you’re a fanatical lunatic is safe’

‘But she’s …’ Quillian paused, looking a little more alarmed ‘Wait, did she tell you she thinks I’ she thinks it It’s sort of your thing’

‘My thing is atoney,’ the Serrant snapped ‘If I am zealous in this pursuit, it’s only because I’m truly repentant, truly devoted’

‘Well, wait for her to co yourself The trip from Teji to Destiny takes only a week or so’

‘So you say,’ Quillian said, folding her ar Isles’

‘Aye’

‘They’re not called that because they’re convenient They’ve been lawless and beyond the grasp of Toha’s navy for ages’

‘Whatoutpost It’s always been a trading outpost It’ll always be a trading outpost No pirate is going to attack it if they can save the’

‘Given that we only barely held off Rashodd when you swore you could deal with hiands, I trust you’ll see why I’ht processes’ She frowned, staring out to the distant horizon ‘Have you heard any news, then? Froaol said ‘But he’ll get the job done’

‘If he was going to,’ Quillian muttered, ‘ould the Lord Eaolback over the edge ‘Confess your sinful thoughts about the priestess while you’re at it I’m not interested anymore’

The next part was fairly routine: the ht to co none, the rattle of metal as she reached for her sword He didn’t bother to open his eyes, even when he heard the steel slide back into its sheath and the heavy, burdened slam of her feet as she skulked down the dock

He had just begun to get settled, ready to entice a curious fish with the dark flesh of his big toe, when the footsteps began to get louder

‘I told you,’ Argaol said with a sigh, ‘I’aol’

The voice was deep, resonant, full of presumed authority He cracked one lid open

The other shot up like a crossbow bolt

There was no doubting thecoat withfrom his belt left no room for doubt But the size of the man, his broad shoulders and healthy frame, contradicted any iic-users Whereas the other wizards he had knoere thin and sickly, the tan vigour of this one, a Djaalested at least norain, he reminded himself, you’ve only known the one

Apparently unwilling to wait for a reply, the man turned his head, atop which sat a rather i hat, to the massive three-masted ship not far away He squinted a pair of blue eyes at the bold black lettering on its hull

‘That is the Riptide,’ he said

‘You can read,’ Argaol replied, his shock fading and general conte home and tell your mother’

‘The priest told me to seek you out We are to leave for Port Yonder at once’

‘So I hear,’ Argaol eneral direction of the city ‘The crew’s out on leave They’ll be back too out and find them,’ the man said sharply ‘Be ready to leave when I return My duties demand a swift departure’

‘I have duties ofwhich is catching led his toe and added, silently, As well asa point that I won’t be cowed by any overzealous bookwor was a wizard trick

‘You’re not a man that visits Cier’Djaal much, are you?’

‘I’ve been once or twice’

‘Not enough to know that the Librarians are the arht poured out in flickering flames ‘The duties of the Venarium supersede the necessity of lunch’