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"Brave," Tugertent said "And crazy strong" She cursed in appreciation

"Double-check he’s dead," Co at her, the question obvious in her eyes She put a finger to her lips Quiet Teia let it go There were nal froht was the all-clear, and Buskinback to her Buskin trotted back down the line

"You can see through walls and water?" he asked He was old for a Blackguard, one of the ebon-skinned, blue-eyed Parians who usually only came from noble families, but he was almost painfully thin where Commander Ironfist was thick His halos were red, and streaked out in lines through his irises

"Only if they’re close enough, and thin enough," Teia said "I saw through the leather at the s"

Coo first up the trail, start now Look for ertent will be with you in thirty seconds Their reliefdown at any ti down"

The Blackguards were already carrying the bodies toward the dock to throw in the water

Teia stopped them, found the smallest man, and stripped off his sword belt, floppy hat, and jacket She pulled the jacket on over her own clothes, strapped on the sword, and pulled the hat over her hair There was blood on the jacket She put it out of her nored them She refilled her hand with imbalanced paryl to make a torch Her mouth was dry and it was hard to s, but all she had to do was jog and look She could do that She ertent joined her, she felt overwhelo around corners first," she said

The rest of the Blackguards gathered behind them She took the lead and the three archers followed thirty paces behind her The rest were ten paces behind the around trees and bushes to one cut into the rock of the head itself It was barely three feet wide, and Teia saw that some of the men behind her had to turn their shoulders sideways to slide along the wall The wall itself orn s the sa switchbacks, back and forth across the face of bare rock wall

Teia kept her paryl bea her pupils to see, searching for booby traps or alar theister Martaens had said that her ht? There was so much noise in that spectrum, Teia could barely believe it But she found no traps

She stayed half a switchback ahead of the Blackguards, and when they were all about halfway up the cliffs, Teia heard voices above the her boat!’ "

At least four lanced back In contrast to her own panic, the Blackguards behind her looked cal down, as if racing them for the corner of the switchback The archers didn’t have any angle to shoot them, and if they waited until the soldiers rounded the corner, the soldiers would certainly have ti back around the corner, out of sight, Teia looked back for orders

"Get a count," Buskintoward the same switchback corner, a hundred paces away, and the two trails got closer and closer as they neared each other In another forty paces, if the descending soldiers looked down, they’d be able to see the ascending Blackguards