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.That's what the knives were for.Fools who relied on only one chance were short-lived fools.All in one packet, three bravos cracked through the lock and crashed into the salon, a swirl of silken capes and flashing blades.The group, with their curled hair and puffy half-slashed sleeves, made a romantic trio as they whirled and thrust bloody holes into the air.Pinch almost gave himself away, so utter was his contempt for what he saw.They practically stumbled and fell over each other in their eagerness to be the first to make the strike, the first to avenge the tainted honor of their lord.Their capes, colorful in courtly dance, snared each other, one's silk foiling the stroke of another."Stand clear there!""Step aside yourself, Faranoch.""He's mine.You fall back.""I yield to no man my lesser.""Lesser?""Stop flailing that ham slicer.You've cut my sleeve!""A mortal blow, Treeve.""Hah! I have him!""Hah indeed, Kurkulatain.You've killed a pillow.""A fierce battle Prince Throdus fought," said the pudgiest as he looked about more closely, tired of blindly lunging.He prodded the spilled contents of the armoire at the entrance to the bedroom."Indeed," commented another, a painfully handsome fop who was just as relieved that there was no prey to be found."They must have battled from one room to the other." As proof he swept his sword across the tangle of hurled goods Pinch had created in his search for the possessor of the strange voice."A skilled swordsman to have kept Throdus at bay so long," the third courtier nervously added.He was a thin stick topped by droopy ringlets.The other two looked at the evidence for this new judgment."Quite formidable…""And he forced Throdus to retreat."As they spoke, the trio slowly bunched together, back to back to back.They eyed corners, flowing arras, even snarled lumps of linen with a newfound fear."Maybe he's dead.""No blood though.""He might have run away.""True…" The six-legged knot blindly edged toward the door."Might have.""He could have bribed the guard," the stick man brilliantly deduced.Pinch stifled a laugh, and the urge to come roaring out of his shadow and send the lot scurrying back around Throdus's legs like yipping little pups."Of course.He knew someone would be coming!""Like us.""We should sound the alarm," the fat one dutifully suggested."And let the guards hunt him!" The handsome one seized upon the idea."It would be the right thing," agreed the stick-pole man.The clot backed to the door and jammed, none of the trio willing to break rank to let the others through.As they hovered there, unwilling to go forward, unable to go back, a shadow fell on them from behind."WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" thundered Cleedis in his best military voice.The trio-as-one sundered itself in terror and blindly darted through the doorway as the old commander shouldered through them, batting his way clear with his cane.As soon as he was inside, the white-haired chamberlain closed the door and planted the cane in front of him, leaning heavily on it as though it were a tent pole."You can come out now," he said like a man trying to coax a beast from a thicket, addressing the air that filled the light and dark between them."I know you've popped yourself into some corner waiting for an unguarded moment to strike.Well, if you mean to do that to me, I'm not going to give you the satisfaction.If you want to fight me, Janol, you'll have to come and get me.""I'd never fight you, Lord Cleedis," Pinch flattered as he stepped into view.The old man squinted his weak eyes to be sure of what he was seeing."Lies and pissing-poor ones at that.I'd kill you given half a reason, Janol, and I suspect you'd do it for even less.""Killing always has a reason.If I do any less, I'm a beast." The rogue tucked the daggers in his belt and spread his arms to prove that he was unarmed.White arms spanned from his hairy dark chest, a heart eaten by shadow."Philosophy from a scoundrel.There is no end of wonders in the world.""There are.I came back here.""And dammit, what happened? I hear you brawled with Throdus."Pinch didn't deny a word of it.He scoured the chaos of clothing for a clean doublet."He's a jackanapes ass.Let's say he was checking the prancer's teeth when it bit him.""And then?""And then nothing," came the muffled answer as the regulator pulled on an undershirt.Pinch wasn't about to mention the strange voice, not until he'd had a chance to learn more.These walls for one-he wanted to check them much more carefully."What did he ask?" Seeing that he was being ignored, the chamberlain lumbered to a chair and settled down.The rogue turned his attention to the washstand."Just as much as it pleased me to inform him.""And what did you inform?""Everything, the lay of it all." The regulator ambled back into the salon, drying one ear with a towel."Which is to say, nothing.The minstrel can't play the tune without an instrument."I've been thinking that now is the time to inform me, Lord High Chamberlain."Half-dressed, Pinch stood over the seated chamberlain and let one hand stray to the daggers in his belt.It was a tribute to the old man's years of soldiering that he looked his adversary square and firm and never once flinched.The implied threat didn't faze him; either the chamberlain had made peace with death long ago or he was canny enough to know the rogue's bluff."Not yet.Soon."Sensing the determination of the rock against the rain, the rogue relented."Anon it is, but if you don't give good words on it soon, I'll have a grievance with you, Lord Cleedis." He stepped back, a signal that the threat was naught."Just remember, a grievance is good enough reason for killing
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