This ancient Keshian fortress once had a name, now lost in time. Walls and towers were mostly gone, so only one underground entrance a few hundred feet away led into tunnels and caverns, as well as the masonry upon which Belasco stood. Jim had no plan on entering that labyrinth. In Jim’s great-grandfather’s day it had been locally known as the Tomb of the Hopeless. Legend had it an entire garrison had been left to die. It once commanded the entrance to what was called the Valley of Lost Men. Jim reoriented himself, out of habit.

To his right was a gap in the rocks that would let him move swiftly to a trail north, an abandoned caravan route that ended in the Keshian port city of Durban. At the foot of these hills a half dozen of the deadliest thugs Jim could find waited for his return. Five were cutthroats who occasionally worked for him in Durban; the sixth was Amed Dabu Asam, his most trusted agent in the Jal-Pur desert region and the one he relied on to carry word back to Krondor should Jim not return by dawn.

To the left was an open expanse and then a sudden drop down to a sheer cliff. Only the gods knew what waited down in that desolate valley below, so Jim knew that should he bolt he was certainly going to his right.

He glanced around, trying hard to look like just another devoted follower of the demon, mimicking the ritual movements of the others. He hoped his constant glances up toward the archers didn’t call attention to himself. He knew that very soon many things would happen, all of them bad.

Jim had been trying to find the nest of a group called the Servants of Dahun, known to others as the Black Caps, for over half a year. It had taken poring over reports from his great-grandfather’s days for Jim to decide to investigate this ancient fortress.

Once home to a cult of fanatic assassins, the Nighthawks, the site had been considered abandoned for a century. Obviously someone decided that now that no one was paying attention, it might be a good time to reoccupy these ruins.

The ancient fortress was close enough to Krondor and the Empire City of Durban to allow quick and easy access for these murderous dogs and it was far enough away from any place a sane man would wish to visit that the chances for discovery were small. Jim had almost gotten himself killed twice getting here and now was counting the seconds of borrowed time he had remaining.