Forgetting caution, Tristam crossed the room in three strides and leaned out the window, squinting into the darkness. There was a hint of movement to his left. As soon as he turned his head, the movement stopped. Slowly, his eyes adjusted and the figure of a man resolved itself on the ledge. The stranger was covered from head to toe in black, which made him almost invisible at that height with no torchlight to illuminate him. Sudden elation swept through Tristam, tinged with panic. It was him. The spy he’d been seeking, and he was not going to get away.

Tristam drew his head closer to the wall. He didn’t like exposing any part of himself to this figure, but he didn’t dare let him out of sight.

“You’re surrounded by guards,” he called. The figure didn’t move. “Stay where you are. If you try to escape, you won’t make it out alive.”

There was a pause, and the intruder slowly turned his head toward Tristam. Despite the darkness, Tristam had the impression that their eyes met. Then the masked figure turned and ran.

Tristam pounded his leg in frustration and shouted out the window for guards. If he’d had any doubt about whether this was the mysterious intruder he’d been seeking, it disappeared as soon as he saw the man run. The figure, seemingly oblivious to the great height, moved with a grace that he wouldn’t have thought possible. He ran along a ledge less than a foot wide, ducking under overhangs and barely grazing the surface with his feet. When the intruder reached the edge of one building, he jumped to the next and kept going until an arrow glanced off the wall in front of him. He stopped and surveyed the gathering crowd below, shifting his weight from foot to foot as more guards gathered with bows trained in his direction.

“I want him captured alive,” Tristam shouted before racing downstairs and outside.

When he burst through the door, the courtyard was in chaos. The man was gone and Red Shields were rushing into the building. Tristam grabbed the nearest soldier and demanded to know what had happened.

“He went into one of the windows.”

Tristam started to follow the guard inside, but stopped himself. There were plenty of people searching the building; one extra person wouldn’t help. He needed a better plan. If he were the intruder, where would he go?

The obvious answer was back outside to the ledges. That was where no one could follow him, and where he could best stay hidden. And unless the intruder was prepared to spend days hiding amongst the Palace buildings, he would try to get out of the compound before dawn.