“No more can I,” I agreed, still propped up by the staff. “We need to see what’s going on out there.” I gestured vaguely toward the entrance flap. “But first, I think we ought to make certain Jade Eyes doesn’t do anything we’ll regret when he wakes up. There has to be a rope of some kind around here. Since I’m a little under the weather—not having slept through the excitement like some here—that leaves you.”

“Jade Eyes?” said Oreg thoughtfully. His right hand moved, drawing the knife in his belt and bringing it across Jade Eyes’s throat before I choked out a belated “Stop.”

Oreg came to his feet, narrowing his eyes at me—or maybe against the pain of his head injury. “I’ve heard your nightmares,” he said. “I’ll not suffer him to live—I gave him a more merciful end than he deserved.” To change the subject, he pointed at the Bane. “What are you going to do with that?”

“Iwant nothing to do with it,” I said, rather firmly for someone who would have fallen but for my grip on the Farsonsbane staff.

“Wait until they come out,” said Haverness’s voice clearly from outside the tent. “You don’t want to interrupt wizards.”

Oreg and I exchanged glances. However our party had fared, it seemed that we had unexpected reinforcements.

Letting the staff take some of my weight, I ducked back out of the tent. A faint trace of light in the east told me that time had passed while I fought the Bane. In the darkness of the early morning, the gem glowed like a fistful of dwarven stones, and in that light I saw that Haverness had brought a small army with him.

I looked around for Tisala, but I saw Kellen first. Facing Oreg and me, at a sword’s-length distance, Kellen stood with his blade drawn, Rosem at his right. Haverness waited behind him, and I finally found Tisala at his side, battered but intact. The rest of the people were hidden by the darkness, but there were a lot of them. In fact, as I looked around, I could see that they surrounded the tent.

They must have been waiting half the night for the outcome of the battle in Jakoven’s tent. The sight of Oreg and me didn’t seem to reassure Kellen. I wondered what results he’d hoped for.

“Sire,” I said, not bowing because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stand up again. “I didn’t expect you here.”

“Yes,” he said. “I rather thought we’d surprise you. It was Garranon who tipped the scales—did you really expect me to believe that he’d go hunting after the attack on Buril?”