Outside her tiny chamber, Kite shooed Anna away before opening the door. The maid's expression betrayed her reluctance, but she went. Kite waited for a couple of minutes, then entered the room and closed the door behind her.

Saryth was seated on the bed, dressed as he had been at the banquet. What exactly were you expecting? No, don't think about that. He didn't look up as she came in, but he could hardly have been ignorant of her presence. Kite spotted the black eye again, beneath the concealing curtain of hair.

"What did they do to you?"

"I was punished." His voice was guarded.

"Why?"

"For being outside the castle without permission." His flat tone suggested it hadn't been anything unexpected.

Kite bent over beside the bed and picked up her bags, from habit making sure that they appeared to have come from under the bed. From one of the smaller pockets, she pulled a tub of cream, and dabbed her fingers into it. Saryth eyed her warily from the bed, twitching away as she approached him with a healthy dollop of cream on her fingertips.

"Hold still," she commanded. "It'll help bring the swelling down." Gently, she daubed the cream on round his eye, and he flinched at the slight pressure.

A loud thud sounded at the door, and Anna's voice could be heard, raised in protest.

"Quiet, woman!" A man's voice. The thud at the door came again.

"It's too soon," Saryth muttered.

"What?"

He looked at her as though she ought to understand what was happening.

"I was supposed to do... what you told me," he said, looking away and blushing slightly. "Then make sure you were out of the way." He glanced back at her. "They said they'd give me my freedom if I did!" His expression pleaded understanding, and Kite could hardly blame him. In a way, she was quite impressed that the Duke was so keen to capture her that he would sacrifice what had to be a valuable slave.

She knelt on the bed, and raised her hands in front of her, wrists together, looking expectantly to Saryth. He stared at her, aghast.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to tie me up?" Kite kept her tone cheerful and unconcerned. She thought it would probably all work out, but still, this wasn't how she'd been intending to spend her Journeyman trials. Maybe she'd be the subject of the next set of cautionary tales told to student Seekers.

"No!"

"Why not? It's your freedom." More thumps came at the door. Saryth averted his face.

"They've said that before," he admitted. "They never keep their promises."

Kite felt obscurely insulted. Shrugging the feeling away, she fetched her boots and started lacing them up.

"Shall we go?"

"Go where?" He sounded confused, as well he might. Instead of answering, she stepped to the door and slid the bolt back, pulling the door open so it shielded her from the soldiers who came pouring into the room. On the bed, Saryth jerked back with a yelp. The soldiers checked as they noticed the conspicuous lack of foreign blonde traveller, but they looked round too late. Kite burst out from behind the door, bringing her staff down and round, thwacking one soldier on the head hard enough to knock him out. The staff continued its swing, one end landing in the belly of another, winding him, then reversed direction to knock the feet out from the third soldier, sending him crashing to the floor. By the time the fourth soldier, an older, more experienced man, had even begun to look round, she was holding the staff steady over his head.

"Will you let us leave?"

"Not likely, bitch!" He started to turn, but before she could take any action, Saryth stood up behind the man and smashed the oil lamp over his head with far more panicked force than necessary. The veteran slid to the floor amid the smashed glass and spilt oil, eyes rolling up in his head. Kite swallowed an inappropriate urge to giggle.

"The Duke's chambers?" she asked instead, collecting her bags and cloak.

"This way," Saryth said, heading out of the door at a run. He didn't stop to ask why.

There was nobody else in the castle corridors. It was later than she had realised, and most folk must have retired to their rooms straight after the banquet. Saryth led the way along an immense corridor richly carpeted in gaudy orange, swung round into an unexpected stairwell and headed up the spiral steps at speed. At the top, he paused.

"There'll be guards -"

"Oh, that's fine," Kite interrupted breezily. A little voice at the back of her mind was getting very worried, but something was urging her to continue. She'd never felt this mixture of fear and excitement before.

"What are you doing?" Saryth hissed, as she walked round the corner.

"I'm going to talk to them. Come on."

She found it surprising that he followed her. She did not feel she had earned that level of trust.

There were two guards standing before a large pair of doors at the end of the corridor. They looked at each other as the unlikely pair approached, uncertain of what to do. Kite didn't think the outcry that would follow from the four unconscious guards in her chamber would have penetrated this far yet, but even as she came closer, the younger guard said to his companion:

"Isn't she..."

"Yes..." There was a pause as they assessed the situation.

"You'd better come with me," the first guard said, hefting his pike. Kite sighed. As the guard approached, confident of the capitulation of the unarmed intruders, she turned and ran, dragging a thoroughly confused Saryth behind her.

"How is this supposed to help?" he demanded, but she jerked to a stop instead, crouching down and raising the staff, held horizontally. Unable to stop in time, the two guards ran into the staff and tripped forwards. Kite didn't even bother knocking them out, but hurried back to the big door and hauled it open to reveal the Duke's lavish chamber. Saryth slipped in beside her, pushed the door shut and slid the bolt home even as the Duke, enraged, sat up in his bed.

"What are you doing here?" he bellowed. "Get out! Guards!" Beside him, his wife cowered into the sheets, trying to hide.

Kite bowed.

"I came to thank you for your hospitality," she said. "I shall be taking my leave now." The Duke didn't want to listen.

"Get out this instant! How dare you!"

"I wish to buy this slave," Kite said, remaining calm in the face of his temper. The little rational voice in her head stopped gibbering long enough to wonder if the Duke was sufficiently enraged to get out of bed and fight her. From behind, she could hear the sounds of the two guards trying the door.

"GET OUT!" He was actually becoming red with rage now. The guards were beating futilely on the solid wooden planks of the door.

"I offer one gold horse coin," she went on, but he was beyond hearing.

"Woman, get out and take that accursed sorcerer with you!"

"Thank you," Kite said, gave him a bright smile, and placed the gold coin on the thick rug which covered the floor. She turned to the gaping Saryth. "I think we should take another way out."

"There should be a servants' door," he said, gathering his wits and gesturing to the back of the room. The pounding at the door died away as they ran down the narrow, dimly lit stairs. Behind, they could hear the Duke shouting at the soldiers who were belatedly swarming into his chamber.

"Get the woman! And bring back my slave!"