Morveer frowned. He was sure he could hear the vague sound of someone chewing. “Are you eating?”

“Just a bun.”

“Well stop it! We are at work, for pity’s sake, and I am trying to think! Is an iota of professionalism too much to ask?”

Time stretched out to the vague accompaniment of the incompetent musicians down in the courtyard, but with the exception of the guards rocking gently from side to side, there was no further sign of movement. Morveer slowly shook his head. In this case, it seemed, as in so many, one moment was much like another. He breathed in deep, lifted the pipe to his lips, taking aim on the furthest of his allotted pair—

The door to Ario’s chamber banged open. The two women emerged, one still adjusting her skirts. Morveer held his breath, cheeks puffed out. They pulled the door shut then made off down the corridor. One of the guards said something to the other, and he laughed. There was the most discreet of hisses as Morveer discharged his pipe, and the laughter was cut short.

“Ah!” The nearest guard pressed one hand to his scalp.

“What?”

“Something… I don’t know, stung me.”

“Stung you? What would’ve—” It was the other guard’s turn to rub at his head. “Bloody hell!”

The first had found the needle in his hair, and now held it up to the light. “A needle.” He fumbled for his sword with a clumsy hand, lurched back against the wall and slid down onto his backside. “I feel all…”

The second guard took an unsteady stride into the corridor, reached up at nothing, then pitched over on his face, arm outstretched. Morveer allowed himself the slightest nod of satisfaction, then crept over to Day, crouching over two of the holes with her blowpipe in her hand.

“Success?” he asked.

“Of course.” She held the bun in the other, and now took a bite from it. Through the hole Morveer saw the two guards beside Ario’s suite slumped motionless.

“Fine work, my dear. But that, alas, is all the work with which we were trusted.” He began to gather up their equipment.

“Should we stay, see how it goes?”

“I see no reason so to do. The best we can hope for is that men will die, and that I have witnessed before. Frequently. Take it from me. One death is much like another. You have the rope?”

“Of course.”

“Never too soon to secure the means of escape.”

“Caution first, always.”

“Precisely so.”

Day uncoiled the cord from her pack and made one end of it fast around a heavy joist. She lifted one foot and kicked the little window from its frame. Morveer heard the sound of it splashing down into the canal behind the building.

“Most neatly done. What would I do without you?”

Die!” And Greylock came charging across the circle with that great lump of wood high over his head. Shivers gasped along with the crowd, only just scrambled clear in time, felt the wind of it ripping at his face. He caught the big man in a clumsy hug and they tottered together round the outside of the circle.