“Becuz Jass’ the bastid what set th’ big fire an’ burned me out—an’ the mun whut was with ‘im wuz th’ mun what paid ’im t’ do it!” Skif heard himself saying frantically. “I know’d it, cuz I ‘eerd ’im say so! ‘Is boss set ’im another fire t’ start right whiles I was listenin’! An’ I wanta know who he is cuz I’m gonna get ’im, an’ then I’m gonna get Jass, an—”

“Enough.” The man held up a sword-callused palm, and Skif found his flood of angry words cut off again. Just in time, too; there had been tears burning in his eyes, and he didn’t want the man to see them. He blinked hard to drive them away, but he couldn’t do much about the lump in his throat that threatened to choke him.

Wut in hell is happenin’ t’ me?

But the man darted out a hand, quick as a snake, and grabbed Skif’s shoulder and shook it. That hand crushed muscle and bone and hurt—

“Now, to me you listen, boy, and engrave my words on your heart you will—” the man said, leaning forward until all Skif could see were his hawk-sharp, hawk-fierce eyes. “You playing are in deeper waters than you know, and believe me, to swim in them you cannot hope. Your nose out of this you keep, or likely someone is to fish you out of the Terilee, with a rock around your ankles tied, if find you at all they do.”

Skif shuddered convulsively, and an involuntary sob fought its way out of his throat. The man sat back on his heels again, satisfied.

“Jass will to worry about shortly, much more than the setting of fires have,” the man said darkly. “And he will answer for the many things he has responsible been for.”

“But—”

“That is all you need to know,” the man said forcefully, and the words froze in Skif’s throat.

The sell-sword pulled out a knife, and for one horrible moment, Skif thought that he was dead.

But the man laid it on the floor, just out of reach, and stood up. “Too clever you are, by half,” he said, with a grim little smile. “Now, about my business I will be. The moment I leave, getting yourself loose you can be about. Manage you will, quite sure I am.”

He dropped the shield over the dark lantern, plunging the chapel into complete blackness. In the next moment, although Skif hadn’t heard him move, the door opened, a tall, lean shadow slipped through it, and it closed again.