In fact, after a while, he realized that he wasn’t as satisfied with last night’s work as he thought he should be. It just wasn’t enough, somehow. He was thrashing around at random, blindly trying to hit the one he truly wanted to hurt and hoping that somehow in the chaos he’d connect with a blow. And even then—how did putting holes in someone’s roof measure up to burning down a building and committing cold-blooded murder in the process?

It didn’t, and that was that. I want him, Skif thought angrily. I want the bastard what ordered it!

Nothing more—but nothing less. And right now, he was settling for less.

Still, that Brother Halcom had a point, too. He’d seemed to think that the two highborn nobles that had been robbed had pretty much deserved it and probably Lord Rovenar had done a dirty deed or two in his life, and Skif had been nothing more than the instrument of payback. That wasn’t a bad thought.

Brother Halcom knew the highborn…

Brother Halcom might know enough to give Skif a clue or two to the identity of the one highborn that Skif really wanted. So maybe Skif ought to see if he could get Brother Halcom to talk.

Finding someone to hurt that he knew deserved it might feel better than this random lashing out.

And maybe, just maybe, Brother Halcom would know who the smooth-voiced highborn was.

* * *

Skif watched Brother Halcom from a distance for a full week before making a tentative approach. He learned two things in that time; Brother Halcom was from a highborn family, and he was here because he wanted to be. Not that his family hadn’t tried to get their “deformed” offspring out of sight, but they’d chosen a much more comfortable—and secluded—Temple for him to enter. Halcom had stood up to them, and threatened to make a scene if he wasn’t allowed his choice.

That gave Skif a bit more respect for the man, and Halcom’s value rose again in his eyes when he realized that Halcom didn’t shirk the dirty work after all. He just did the small things, rather than the large. He did his share of cleaning—usually cleaning up after the Healer Trainees when they’d finished treating a sick or injured animal. When there was a beast that needed to be tended all night, it was Halcom, like as not, who stood the vigil. And when an animal was dying, it was Halcom who stayed with it, comforting it as best he could.