The Stoneholding

don't have bailing cans."

"Maybe we can use our scabbards."

"Better your empty heads," Cammas said, poking the canvas again.

For a while Frysan let them banter back and forth, even after Cammas laid his back into the oars again, for such was the timeless custom of fighting men before battle, a way to ease the tension.

The great pile of a building loomed indistinct on the promontory to their right, overtopping the river. They were approaching the extensive grounds of the Silver Palace, which housed the royal apartments. At a signal from Frysan, the second wherry, which although smaller also carried four men, pulled away and beat fast to the shoreline, following a line of rocky bluffs until it came to a halt beneath them.

Some minutes later Frysan could just make out a straggled line of four figures spidering their way on climbing ropes along the face of the rock towards the top of the bluffs. His eyes scanned the brink, probing the scrub brush. Eldor had better be there, else it would be a measure of chain-link winding sheet for each of them before the night's business was done. But then again, Eldor was the deadliest fighting man in his charge, which was saying a lot, for even a run-of-the-mill highlander was worth at least two ...