56

I began to wonder if there wasn’t an alert out with my name on it. Three times we tried to go up the Hill and three times patrols got in our way. Unbelievably bad luck.

Morley snapped, “Don’t be so cheerful!”

I started to open my mouth.

“And don’t give me that dog barf about never being disappointed if you only look for the worst.”

“You are in a fine mood, aren’t you?” I reflected a moment. “We’ve known each other too long, you realize?”

“You can say that again.”

“All right. We’ve known each other . . . ”

“And you turn into a bigger wiseass every day I know you. The Garrett I used to know . . . ” Off he hared on an expedition into reality revision. We live in different worlds. He remembers nothing the way I do. Maybe that’s cultural.

The old work ethic paid off. Fourth try we got through. As we gained the high ground, I muttered, “I was beginning to think my magic gizmo was working backwards.”

“Your what?”

“Uh . . . I have this amulet thing. Somebody uses a tracing spell on me, I can steer them off.”

“Oh?” Morley eyed me suspiciously.

I don’t tell him everything. And he keeps things from me. You just don’t share everything, friends or not.

As we neared that grim gray canyon of a Hilltop street we grew cautious. I found myself feeling nervous in a premonitory way. And Morley said, “I have a strange feeling about this.”

“It is quiet. But it’s always quiet up here. These people want it that way.”

“You feel it, too.”

“I feel something.”

But we saw no one, sniffed out no slightest scent of a patrol ambush.

We approached the Jenn place through the alley. And strolled right on past, pretending we were scouts for the ratmen who would come for the trash.

Someone had employed the balcony route to get inside. Someone not very circumspect. We judged the break-in to be recent because there was no evidence of the patrol having taken corrective action.

I told Morley, “I need to go in there.”

Dotes didn’t argue, but he wasn’t enthralled by the notion. He observed, “The roof hatch is unlatched—if nobody cared how we got out before.”

We’d left it unlatched because the catch couldn’t be worked from outside. “Just what I wanted to do today. Clamber around rooftops.”

“You’re the one can’t leave well enough alone.”

“The firelord is paying me very well not to.”

“All right. Let’s don’t bicker.” Morley looked around. I looked around. We could’ve been surrounded by a ghost city. Other than the buildings, there was no evidence of human presence.

“Spooky,” I muttered, while Morley scampered up a downspout like some pointy-eared ape. I dragged my bulk after, groaned as he helped me roll onto a flat roof. “I thought I was getting back in shape.” Puff puff.

“Tipping a beer stein doesn’t stress your leg muscles nearly enough. Come on.”

Beer stein? I was getting to be a wiseass? Uh-oh.

Starting after Morley, I glanced back into the alley and spotted a housemaid on a balcony down the way, gaping at us. She had come out while we were climbing. “Trouble,” I told Morley. “A witness.”

“Keep low, then. If she doesn’t see where we go, we’ll have enough time.”

But time for what? I had real strong doubts about the wisdom of my approach, now.

As we neared the roof hatch, I noted that Morley seemed to lack confidence, too. But he was a dark elf, partly. He wouldn’t back down without more reason than a growing premonition.