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Suddenly the Hunter lost patience with the efforts to free the rat door He strode over, grabbed an axe frorily attacked the door Loud s echoed down to the cafe until eventually the led rat door was tossed to the side, and one of the Pack was sent into the chute to dig out the rubbish A searchlight was now trained directly into the chute, and the Pack gathered around the exit Sally could see the glinting of their pistols in the glare of the lights With her heart in her mouth, Sally waited for them to discover that their prey had fled

It didn&039;t take long

A disheveled figure erabbed by the Hunter who, Sally could tell, was furious He shook thedown the slope of the duly into the empty rubbish chute Abruptly, he o into the chute Theback reluctantly, but he was forced in, and two Pack Guards with pistols were left at the entrance

The Hunter walked slowly to the edge of the rubbish du that his prey had eluded hiure of a boy

The boy was dressed in the everyday green robes of a Wizard Apprentice, but unlike any other Apprentice, he wore around his waist a red sash with three black stars emblazoned on it The stars of DomDaniel

But at that moment the Hunter was unaware of Dom Daniel&039;s Apprentice He stood quietly, a short, solidly built man with the usual cropped Guard haircut His face was brown and lined fro down prey of the hureen tunic and short cloak with thick brown leather boots Around his waist was a broad leather belt fro a sheathed knife and a pouch

The Hunter srim ses, his pale blue eyes narrowed to a watchful slit So it was to be a Hunt, was it? Very well, there was nothing he liked better than a Hunt For years he had been slowlyPack, and at last he had reached his goal He was a Hunter, the very best of the Pack, and this was thenot only the ExtraOrdinary Wizard but also the Princess, the Queenling no less The Hunter felt excited as he anticipated a night to re, the Trail, the Chase, the Close and the Kill No proble to show his sht

The Hunter turned his thoughts to the Hunt So told him that the birds had flown from the rubbish chute, but as an efficient Hunter he had to make sure that all possibilities were covered, and the Pack Guard he had sent inside had been given instructions to follow the chute and check all exits back up to the WizardTower The fact that that was probably impossible did not trouble the Hunter; a Pack Guard was the lowest of the low, an Expendable, and would do his duty or die in the atte - he&039;d ht with a tremor of excitement, now he must find the Trail

The rubbish dump, however, yielded few clues even to the skilled tracker that the Hunter was The heat from the decay of the rubbish had melted the snow, and the constant disturbance of the rubbish by rats and gulls had already reht the Hunter In the absence of a Trail he

The Hunter stood on his vantage point on top of the duh his narrowed eyes Behind him rose the steep, dark walls of the Castle, the battleht starry sky In front of hi landscape of the rich farmland that bordered the far side of the river, and in the distance on the horizon his eyes took in the jagged spine of the BorderMountains The Hunter gave the snow-covered landscape a long, considered stare but saw nothing of interest to him He then turned his attention to the more immediate scene below hiaze following the flow of the water as it rounded the bend and floiftly on to his right, past the cafe perched on the pontoon, which was floating gently on the high tide, past the little quay with its boats ht, and on down the broad sweep of the river until it disappeared froed outcrop that towered over the river

The Hunter listened intently for sounds rising up from the water, but all he heard was the silence that the blanketing of snow brings He scanned the water for clues - perhaps a shadow under the banks, a startled bird, a telltale ripple - but he could see nothing Nothing It was strangely quiet and still, the dark river silently winding through the bright snowy landscape lit by the shiht the Hunter, a perfect night for a Hunt

The Hunter stood i to show itself to hi caught his eye A white face at theof the cafe A frightened face, a face that knew so He was back on the Trail