“I will try and find another opportunity to put you where you can observe some of the ones I suspect,” Alberich told him. “If I do not, it is that you will go to hunt on your own. Yes?”

Skif shrugged, but Alberich read in the shrug that he had considered doing so, if he had not already made an attempt or two. “I got cause,” was all he said, and left it at that.

“Meanwhile—I hunt in a place you cannot, for no boy, however disguised, would be permitted to the discourses of the Great Lords of State,” Alberich continued.

Skif cocked his head to the side. “Shut the pages out, do they?” he asked shrewdly, and sighed. “Not like I ain’t busy.”

A most unchildlike child, Alberich reflected later, as he left the boy to finish his feast. But then, most, if not all, of the children from that quarter were more-or-less unchildlike. They’d had their childhood robbed from them in various ways; Skif’s was by no means the most tragic. He’d had a loving mother, for however short a time he’d had her. He’d had a kind and caring guardian and mentor in the person of the thief trainer. That was more, much more, than many of his fellows had.

And if Selenay had even an inkling of the horrors in the twisted streets of her own capital, she would send out Heralds and Guard and all to scour the place clean. There would be a grim forest of gallows springing up overnight.

And her own people would speak her name with hate—and it would be all in vain, for half a candlemark after we’d gone, the scum would all be back again. This was the cost of welcoming any and all who sought shelter under Valdemar’s banner. Sometimes what came in was not good. Not all, or even many, of the former Tedrel mercenaries who had remained in Valdemar were of Bazie’s stamp.

Alberich sought his quarters—he actually had quarters both with the other Heralds and in the salle, but the latter was less convenient tonight. It was too late, or not late enough, for a visitor; his room was empty, and in a way, he was relieved. He was not fit company tonight; there was too much of a mood on him.