Arai flicked some water in the mage's face and slapped him a few times, to wake him up. The man groaned, but gradually began to regain his senses. Realizing that his hands were tied together, he struggled against his bonds, then stopped and scowled at Arai and the others. "Release me."

  "Are you sure he can't do any magic?" Sir Estil asked.

  "Not with his hands bound," Lillandra assured him.

  "Who are you?" Arai asked, pointing his sword at the man. "Why did you attack us?"

  "I'm not answering your questions." He snorted. "Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?"

  "As a matter of fact I do," he said, touching the mage's silver sigil with the tip of his blade. "You're one of the Mages of the Dark Mist."

  "Then you know they'll come for me. The Dark Mist would go to war with Elent herself to recover one of their own. If you don't release me now, all of your futures will be filled with suffering and death."

  Arai was not impressed. "Why did you attack us?"

  He said nothing, but merely sat back and glowered at them.

  "All right, then," Arai said. "We'll do it the hard way."

  "I have been trained to endure all kinds of torture."

  "Who said anything about torturing you? Shell, go get some of your truth serum."

  Shell grinned. "Say, that's not a bad idea." She rushed off and returned a moment later with one her vials, which contained a greenish liquid.

  "Will you do the honors, Sir Estil?" Arai asked.

  "Certainly," the knight replied, and he held open the mage's mouth while Arai forced a spoonful of the potion down his throat.

  "How long will it take to work?" he asked Shell.

  "I don't know. A few minutes?"

  But it didn't even take that long. "What is your name?" Arai asked him, after he had finished gagging on the serum.

  "Dabi Albin de Alto Feneras," he spat.

  "And why did you and your people attack us?"

  "Because we were paid to, of course."

  Arai frowned. "And who paid you?"

  "I can't tell you that."

  He glanced at Shell. "Is the truth serum wearing off already?"

  "I can't tell you," Feneras said, through gritted teeth, "because I don't know. Our client communicated to us entirely in writing, and he never revealed his identity."

  "Who do you believe it was?"

  "Someone who wanted you dead, I imagine," he said sarcastically.

  "What were your instructions?"

  "To kill everyone who came over the mountains with this Gallean caravan," he said. "Every man, woman, and child."

  "Why?"

  "I have no idea. It's not our business to ask questions; our business is to carry out our clients' wishes."

  "You serve your masters well," Arai muttered. "Or not so well, considering how badly you've failed tonight. How were you to be paid?"

  "Half up front, with the other half to be paid after the job was completed. That's the standard arrangement."

  "And how was it to be delivered?"

  "Our client hired a courier as a go-between. Our leader has been meeting with him regularly, at an inn on the other side of the city. He handed over the first part of our fee last night -- twenty-thousand Salosi rallmarks."

  Arai blinked. "Rallmarks? Xanderfast rallmarks?"

  "That's right. How did you know that?"

  "Why were you paid in rallmarks?"

  He shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't ask. Silver's silver; it's all the same to us."

  There was some kind of new commotion going on outside; Arai could hear some shouting and scuffling. Stepping out of the wagon, with Lillandra and the others, he saw that both Minister D'mai and Princess Yasmin had arrived on the scene -- D'mai was surrounded by men wearing his livery, while Yasmin was surrounded by Queen's Men. The two of them were arguing.

  Minister D'mai raised his hand when he saw them. "Arai," he greeted. "I'm glad to see you weren't hurt. I understand you managed to capture one of these assassins."

  "He's in the wagon," Arai said warily, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

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  D'mai nodded to his men. "Take him."

  The men started to move, but Arai stepped in front of them, blocking their path to the wagon. "Forgive me, Minister D'mai," he said, "but we're not done questioning the man yet."

  "Have no fear. My investigators will get to the bottom of this matter." He waved at his men to carry on. "Go on, fetch him out of there."

  But Arai didn't budge. "I don't think so."

  The minister raised an eyebrow. "What is the meaning of this?"

  "Do you know what happened here tonight, Minister D'mai?"

  "Your people were attacked," he said. "And they weren't the only ones. One of these sorcerers attacked me in my own office just a few minutes ago."

  "Is that so?"

  "Fortunately the men guarding my room managed to drive him off," he went on. He glanced at his guards. "Isn't that right?"

  The men, all wearing serious expressions, nodded without saying anything.

  "I want to question the man myself," Princess Yasmin broke in. "I don't want him turned over to D'mai."

  "The last prisoner you took into your custody managed to escape," D'mai countered, rather contemptuously. "Rest assured, I will not allow that to happen to this assassin. Now, step aside, Arai, or I'm afraid I will have to place you under arrest as well."

  Arai was still holding Silus in his hand. When one of D'mai's men came forward, Arai raised the blade, leveling at his chest. "Don't."

  The man frowned at him, sighed, and drew his own blade. The assembled crowd gasped. Lillandra rushed to Arai's side and whispered in his ear: "What are you doing?"

  Arai didn't answer that; he kept his eyes fixed on D'mai. "You're the one who hired the Mages of the Dark Mist," he said, speaking directly to D'mai. "And you're the one who had Princess Nattali killed."

  D'mai scoffed. "What in the world are you talking about? Arrest him."

  "The Mages were paid in Salosi rallmarks. Those coins haven't been minted in forty years. They're rare, unusual."

  "So?"

  "We found Nessa carrying one of those same coins when we captured her in the Riven Mountains. What are the odds of that?" He glanced at Princess Yasmin. "I think it's safe to assume that whoever hired Nessa to kill your sister paid her in rallmarks."

  Yasmin's eyes narrowed. "Go on."

  "So the same person who hired Nessa five years ago hired the Mages of the Dark Mist tonight. Quentis couldn't have been behind both attacks; Quentis is dead. So now we know Quentis was innocent of Nattali's murder, and whatever evidence D'mai had that proved her guilt must have been fradulent."

  "This is ridiculous," D'mai complained. "Why would I hire these assassins?"

  "I don't know why you wanted Princess Nattali dead," Arai said, "but it's obvious why you wanted us dead. Nessa knew, or at least suspected, that you were the one who hired her. You were afraid she would talk. So you sent your men to murder her while she was in Princess Yasmin's custody. Only it didn't work out quite the way you wanted, did it? Your men killed her guards, but Nessa herself managed to get away somehow. Not surprising; she's obviously a formidable woman."

  "Ridiculous," he muttered again.

  "You were afraid that Nessa might have revealed the truth about your involvement in Nattali's murder. You were afraid of being exposed. So you hired the Mages of the Dark Mist to kill everyone in the caravan -- anyone who might have spoken to Nessa, anyone who might have had any contact with her at all since she was captured in the mountains."

  "Isn't that rather audacious?" Sir Estil asked.

  "It is," Arai said. "But the man hired an assassin to murder Queen Alfaze's daughter and instigate a war with the Tessians of the Crag. Audaciousness seems to be one of his hallmarks."

  "You have no proof of any of this," D'mai said.

  "We can find out the truth easily enough," Arai said. "Shell? The truth serum."

  D'mai shook his head. "I will not submit to this."

  "Perhaps your men would like a taste, then," Arai said. "I'm curious to know whether you really were attacked tonight, by these same sorcerers. Or was that just a lie, too?"

  D'mai's men looked at each other uneasily. Finally, one of the men reluctantly stepped forward. "Minister D'mai was not attacked tonight," he said.

  D'mai flew into a rage. "Scoundrel! How dare you--"

  "And it's true what he said about this woman Nessa," the man went on. "He ordered two of my comrades to go to Princess Yasmin's gaol and murder her, and anyone who might stand in their way." He turned to face D'mai. "I suspected it," he said, "but I refused to believe it. You were behind Princess Nattali's murder. And I am prepared to testify to that fact, before Queen Alfaze herself."

  D'mai's guards seemed to deflate, after this young man spoke up; they lowered their weapons, and the man who had drawn his sword against Arai slid the weapon back into his scabbard. "These are all lies," D'mai spat, trying to rally them. "I've never heard anything so outrageous. I have been a loyal servant of Queen Alfaze for the last nineteen years, and I have never wished harm upon her or any member of her family. To think that I would hire an assassin!"

  Princess Yasmin studied him carefully for a long moment. She spoke, at last, to the Queen's Men surrounding her. "Search his estate," she said. "If my men find a single Salosi rallmark there, D'mai, I will have you executed within the hour."

  The Queen's Men hesitated. "The Queen should be informed of this..."

  "I am Yasmin," she said, finding that regal voice, "the Crown Princess of Elent, the Orb-Bearer, the Princess of Rook and Sceptre. You will do as I command, or you will face my wrath."

  The men acceded to her authority, and several of them rushed off to find some transportation to take them to D'mai's estate. D'mai himself was at his wit's end: "You are all making a grave mistake," he fumed. "But especially you, Princess. If you don't back off--"

  But the princess was having none of it. She stepped forward and slapped D'mai across the face. "I've been wanting to do that for a very long time," she muttered. Arai noticed that she was trembling. "Take him to my mother. And bring this man along as well, the one who betrayed him. Take the rest to my quarters. I want them thoroughly questioned."

  The Queen's Men rounded up D'mai and his men without a fight and escorted them away. Princess Yasmin, left alone, closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath. When she opened them again, she seemed to have regained her composure. "Thank you," she said to Arai.

  He sheathed his sword. "You already knew, didn't you? That he had Princess Nattali killed?"

  "I strongly suspected it," she said. "Nattali's death was too convenient for D'mai. He managed to get rid of Quentis, his rival, and to bring war to the Crag at the same time -- he was obsessed with destroying the Tessians; he was convinced they were plotting with the Pantheme to overthrow the government. It's a long story." She sighed. "Unfortunately my mother believed his lies, and I didn't have the evidence at that time to expose him." She looked around, at the carnage the Mages of the Dark Mist had unleashed. "I'm sorry about your people. I'm sorry they were dragged into this. On behalf of the queen herself, you have my deepest condolences, and I will personally guarantee that nothing like this happens again, so long as you are our guests here."

  "What about this sorcerer we captured?" Shell asked.

  "We'll deal with him," Yasmin assured her. "But this is the end for the Mages, I'm afraid. We've tolerated their devilry in the past, but this attack simply cannot be overlooked. Magelight will burn for this -- at least, if I have anything to say about it."

  Lady Melei joined them then, to discuss other matters, leaving Arai, Lillandra, Shell, and Sir Estil to confer among themselves. "That was risky," Lillandra said to Arai. "If that guard of D'mai's hadn't come forward--"

  "How's your arm?" he asked.

  She frowned at the interruption. "I'll be fine."

  "Good." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, just as Princess Yasmin had a moment ago. "It's time," he said at last.

  "Time?" Shell inquired. "Time for what?"

  "It's time for us to move on," he said.