“Just how do you expect us to take on the entire Black Hall?” Rom asked, praying the Raven would say he had an army hidden in the forest, but knowing the prayer would go unanswered.

“I expect to walk the Gauntlet,” the Raven replied.

The second looked at him questioningly and asked, “The Gauntlet?”

“A test of sorts, although it is nearly impossible to survive, and more so since I will have you three to protect,” he replied. “It is a demonstration of both Skill and honor,” he explained.

Rom scoffed. “You keep talking as though assassins have honor. They kill people for no other reason than coin. I may be a thief, but I ain’t never killed no one I robbed. They have a right to defend themselves, after all, and what I want from them ain’t worth their life or mine. Anyone else was in self-defense.”

Rezkin nodded and said, “I have often heard the phrase there is no honor among thieves. You may find yourself to be the exception rather than the rule. Regardless, respectable folk, those who are not criminals, would say you have no honor for taking what is not yours—for taking something you did not work to earn. You made your own code of honor to justify your actions, and it enables you to live the way you do.”

Rom shifted uncomfortably but did not protest. The Raven continued. “The assassins are much the same. They live with a terrible burden, stealing away the very breath of life. Without strict order, they would fall into bloodlust and despair. Their code of honor establishes a limit for the depth to which they will descend. It also enables them to continue operating, and lucratively at that. Clients fear the assassins but place in them a certain level of trust.”

“I don’t see how anyone can trust an assassin,” the second observed with scorn.

“And, yet, you came to Kaibain and got into this boat with me, and now we sit together in the middle of the Tremadel,” the Raven replied. “You must place some level of trust in me.”

Rom gulped. “Are you one of them?” he asked hesitantly, fearing the answer.

The Raven scoffed and said, “I am not one of them, nor do I follow their code; but I assure you, I have killed many more people than any one of them, probably more than all of them combined.”

The three thieves remained silent as Rom and Rezkin rowed the rest of the way across the river. When they reached the other bank, Rom told the boys to wait a short distance away. He turned to the Raven and quietly said, “Considerin’ where we’re goin’, I don’t know whether to be appalled or thankful for your … um … skills, but I can say for certain that I’m terrified. Why’d you bring me and these boys with you?”