One of the slink trainers standing nearby watched the exchange with interest before nodding at Rezkin in acknowledgement. What happened next surprised the young warrior. He had never trained with other small-men, so he had not expected the group punishment and training that resulted from his actions. Instead of the single small-man running off to accept his punishment as Rezkin had commanded, the entire training class amassed at one end of the training arena and began performing the exercises. The slink trainer stood before them in verbal reproach, listing each of the young man’s offenses and reminding them that when one failed, they all failed.

While the trainer’s attention was focused on the class, Rezkin used the opportunity to slip away and into the underground. It was not the diversion Rezkin had intended. He had planned to use the minor distraction of admonishing the trainee to sabotage some of their equipment. When the equipment failed, he hoped it would create an even larger disruption that would gain the attention of the trainer. The strange behavior of these outworlders had surprised him, but it worked in his favor. He was not certain that punishment of the entire group for the failure of one young man was the most efficient training method. He knew, though, that it was a tactic used by instructors and supervisors over large groups, particularly when they did not have the resources or patience to deal with each student individually. He had learned much of this from his military training.

Once he was in the sublevel, Rezkin saw few people scurrying through the dark corridors. Even though he knew the layout, the darkness and solitude of the passages rendered the place a labyrinth seemingly designed to confuse the dead and keep them from escaping. Rezkin had never been the superstitious sort, although many of the soldiers and mercenaries he had met were greatly so; but, he was certain that if the spirits of the dead did walk the plain of the living, they would definitely inhabit these walls. After all, ripping spirits from their living bodies was the purpose for which the assassins lived.

The grandmaster’s door was unguarded. Who in his right mind would consider entering the grandmaster’s chambers uninvited? Rezkin checked the latch and lock for traps and then set to manipulating the mechanism. Halfway through, he realized the master assassin had engaged a synchronic alarm. If the tumblers in the lock shifted into the correct position to disengage, a mechanism within the room would activate and alert the inhabitant, in this case, the Grandmaster of the Assassin’s Guild.