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him my help?"

      She grinned wryly. "I think he would be very relieved. In Aramaya it is considered ill-bred to trouble a sleeping guest, but his party has been taking a long time to get ready and making a remarkable amount of noise in doing so. I've been wondering if I should be helpful and wake you myself."

      I stood up, brushed myself off and peered round in the darkness. It was hard to make out the shapes after the brightness of the fire.

      "So where is he?"

      "Come I'll take you to him."

      She gathered a blanket around her shoulders and moved off easily with her usual quick, sure movements. I stumbled over the tussocks of grass after her, past the bound and guarded wreckers who sat or lay in a huddle near the fire. The staff that had stored the necromantic power they had used had already been burnt in the fire. Had we been a party of ordinary mariners, the staff and the brute force of the wreckers would have overcome us.

      Servants were packing bundles and walking horses round in the grass nearby. I saw immediately what Kitten meant about unnecessary noise and confusion. The night seemed to be full of restless impatient boys nagging servants over their slowness.

      However, the Prince, when we came upon him, was not at all impatient. In fact the air of unhurried calm with which he was sitting cross-legged by a fire drinking kesh out of an exquisite little silver cup and saucer was remarkable. It was a calm not shared by his nephew Alexi, who was standing nearby, tapping his riding crop against the top of his boots and sighing. By the look of the long-necked kesh pot on the fire, Prince Nikoli had been there some time and might well be there longer.

      Prince Nikoli Terzu was a remarkable looking man. His skin was brown and his hair was a black as night. In his black robes and cap the effect was very somber. Although he was tall, he was gracefully slim and light-boned. His face was smooth and soft-looking, as if his cheeks had never been troubled by the roughness of a beard, and he had the most beautiful dark eyes. Yet despite his delicate looks, he seemed very much in command. There was the suggestion of a strong will in the set of his finely chiseled lips and when I came to know him better I discovered that a cynical twinkle was seldom out of his eyes.

      "Lady Dion," he said putting aside his cup, rising and bowing low. "How are you? May I offer you some kesh?"

      "Yes," I said, for kesh was exactly what my sluggish and aching body needed at this moment. But I was not about to be deflected from my aim by someone who I could already see was a master in the art of people management.

      "My friend, the Countess tells me you are planning to try and arrest a necromancer. Would you be interested in my.... May I offer you my services in this?"

      Count Alexi and Prince Terzu looked startled. Kitten turned her head away from them and winked at me which reassured me that I had not committed a serious social blunder. Later she told me that no Aramayan would have come to the point of the conversation so quickly and without a proper exchange of niceties.

      The Prince smiled as he poured steaming kesh into a cup held out for him by a servant.

      "I would be more than delighted, my Lady." After handing me the cup, he ushered me gently onto one of the folding stools that the servants had set out for Kitten and myself. "But do you feel yourself strong enough? You fought the storm all yesterday. Are you not tired and at a low ebb in your magic?"

      I remembered then that Aramayans liked all things polite and so I tried to phrase my answer with this in mind.

      "Thanks to your kind hospitality, I am feeling much refreshed in body. As for my magic, I cannot with certainty say, but I do not feel myself very close to being drained. I beg of you to allow me to come."

      "Lady Dion has always been remarkably strong and quick to recover her magic," said Kitten. "You need not have any fears on her account, Prince."

      "Then I would be honored to accept your company," said the Prince. He dropped his voice. "In fact you have taken a great load off my mind. Many of my companions are very gifted, but they none of them have any practical experience."

      He turned suddenly and clapped his hands.

      "Yuri! What is taking you all so long?" he cried "Get those boys to their horses. We have no time to waste. And you, Alexi my dear boy, why are you standing about like this? Can't you see we are in a hurry?"

      Count Alexi bowed and disappeared into the darkness with a grin that showed he suddenly understood his uncle's procrastination. It made him seem terribly young. Oh dear! I hoped Prince Nikoli and myself would be enough. Though somehow I never doubted that the Prince knew what he was doing.

      The Prince's servants offered me food and water while the Prince strode about giving orders, suddenly all action. He set some servants to take care of the imprisoned wreckers and see that they were handed over to the proper authorities and organized a guard for our ship.

      In a few minutes saddled horses were waiting for Kitten and I to mount.

      "You’re coming?" I said to Kitten.

      "What? Stay here and miss all the fun? Certainly I’m coming. Who will see you don't tire yourself out if I don't come? The Simonettis will see to our bags."

      This was just like Kitten and there would be no arguing with her. If I had had some of the experiences she had had with necromancers I would have been too scared to go anywhere near them. But for Kitten fear would be the thing that was driving her to come now. For her, fear was a thing to face head on and conquer.

      As we mounted up there was a muffled cheering from the young men, and several of them bobbed their heads at me as they walked their horses past to form into a column behind us. They did seem very pleased with me. And I had done nothing particular to deserve it.

      "You’re a celebrity here," said Kitten. "Count Alexi and I were talking when you were asleep. All these boys have studied a report of your activities that was made for the Emperor by that mage Rosinsky. I remember you writing to me about him."

      "Oh," I said uncomfortably. "Yes an extremely flattering report. But they don't even know me. Why, they can't even be sure I am who I say I am!"

      "Come now. Who else could you be? 'A beautiful young woman fair of skin and hair with powers as mighty as a demons' as they say in the report. Such things do not grow in every cabbage patch. You forget the Prince felt the measure of your power on the beach. He told me he had begun to wonder if you were the Demonslayer even before you gave your name." She poked me in the side with her finger. "Evidently he knows 'a beautiful young woman' when he sees one."

      I pulled a face at her. I knew full well that "beautiful" was no more than the illuminating effect of fame on a face and figure that were perfectly ordinary.

      A couple of serving men were also mounted up and carrying torches to light our way. It is a sensible precaution not to use magic when trying to take any kind of mage by surprise.

      At a shouted command from Count Alexi, the column moved off.

      We took a path that lead across the tussocky heath land along the cliff top. I could hear the crashing of surf and from horse back I could just make out the bulk of the Eagle, that gallant ship, lying on the beach below. A chill wind blew around us making our shadows dance and sway in the flickering torch light. I was glad I had brought one of the blankets to wrap around my shoulders.

      I had begun wonder if Aramayans and Morians fought necromancers in the same way, but I need not have worried. Immediately after we started, the Prince brought his horse up beside mine and we began to discuss tactics. To my relief they were not very different from what I was used to. This was not so surprising. Four hundred years ago the Peninsula I came from had been conquered by people from Aramaya who had brought with them the discipline of magic that I had studied. In effect Aramaya was still the centre of the Peninsula's intellectual and magical world.

      "I would not even consider this expedition were it not for various things that lead me to believe that our opponent is not very dangerous," said Prince Nikoli. "For a start, his operating so close to the estate of a known demon-hunter smacks of both carelessness and inexperience. One

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