I'm going to put death in all their food and watch them die. -- Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

At some point in their life every person would become far too well acquainted with the feeling of utter despair. Hailanyu felt it now. He'd felt it many times over the mission. Each time it grew steadily worse. Now he felt so awful he might as well be staring a horrible death in the face with no escape.

Why are teenagers such idiots? he wondered. He was so absorbed in his complaints he completely forgot he himself had been a teenager less than two years ago.

He couldn't see their faces in the dark, but the whole group appeared to be experiencing the same misery as he was. Their anguished groans and incoherent mutterings suggested that it was just as well for Kiroshnoy that she wasn't around to hear what they would say to her.

Nimetath swore creatively and at length in five different dialects. "That little imbecile! She'll ruin the entire mission!"

Someone -- it sounded like Qiyuan, though Hailanyu couldn't tell for sure -- just had add her two pence worth to cheer everyone up. "If she's captured or killed it'll start a war with Nirne."

For one awful spine-chilling moment Hailanyu pictured how the queen of Nirne would react to her daughter's disappearance. All sorts of questions would be asked. She'd demand to know how Kiroshnoy ended up in Malish in the first place. Would she believe their story about the princess's magic powers? She would certainly blame them for not sending Kiroshnoy back home as soon as they found her. She might even accuse them of kidnapping her. And if Malish captured her, they would get dragged into the whole sorry mess. Hailanyu's mind conjured up a scene of horror: Nirne, Carann and Malish all going to war against each other, and battlefields where no one knew who their real enemy was. Worst of all, he and the other assassins would get the blame for all of it. Tinuviel might even order their execution!

If he had thought it through logically he would have known his imagination was running away with him. But it was late at night, he was tired, he was right outside an enemy stronghold, for weeks now he'd been under intense stress, and he was here to assassinate an empress. Logic was the last thing on his mind.

"She can't have gone far," someone suggested. "If we all search for her we can find her before she gets into the palace."

That sounded like wishful thinking to Hailanyu. After all they were talking about the girl who had travelled to a different country and hadn't even realised it until it was pointed out to her. If she wanted to get into the palace she was probably already in the throne room by now.

Everyone else jumped on the suggestion with the desperation of people at their wits' end. Any idea sounded like a good one when it was the only one put forward.

Nimetath immediately started giving orders. In the midst of her alarm she forgot the place and time and spoke at a normal volume. Perhaps above a normal volume, in fact. "Right, we know she hasn't gone back. So let's all go on ahead. Search any corners or crevices you see; anywhere she might be hiding. And hurry!"

They all set off at as close to a run as they could manage in the darkness. It was a very uncomfortable, crowded sort of run. You were never sure when someone was about to crash into you or when you'd trip over an unexpected stone.

After being elbowed in the ribs and buffeted around the head for the eighth time, Hailanyu began to reconsider the wisdom of this method of searching. He jumped to the side of the path. In the process he only narrowly avoided kicking someone in the ribs. He stumbled against the outside of the palace wall. The ground here was raised above the level of the path. Grass grew on it, muffling the sound of his footsteps. Something stung his leg through his (by now somewhat threadbare) trousers. He yelped and revised his earlier opinion. Grass and nettles grew on it. There went his idea of walking along here and avoiding all the crowds.

A series of collisions, falls, and accidental punches taught everyone else the foolishness of a headlong dash under cover of darkness on unfamiliar terrain. They forgot about the search for the missing princess in the face of their injuries. Hailanyu found he was able to walk along the path without difficulty now. He just had to weave his way through the assassins sitting on the ground and grumbling.

"Help! Help! I've broken my leg!" someone wailed. They were hastily shushed by their neighbours.

"My nose is bleeding," an assassin complained as Hailanyu passed them. "Don't suppose you've got a hankie, whoever you are?"

He took out his handkerchief. After a moment of holding it out in every direction but the right one, he managed to get it into their hand without hitting their head.

As he continued he realised that the vast majority of the assassins were either injured or just sitting down and joining in the general complaints. Only a handful were still on their feet and hunting for Kiroshnoy.

"This is hopeless," Nimetath said somewhere to his right. "I've never had to deal with such incompetence before in my life. They're all idiots."

Hailanyu winced. It was true and he knew it, but he couldn't help feeling uncomfortable to hear it when he was part of the group she was describing.

Oh well. There was nothing he could do about everyone else's antics now. All he could do was try to find Kiroshnoy. If he succeeded maybe Nimetath would have to admit not every member of the group was completely hopeless.

~~~~

Despite what she wanted her servants to think Jalakanavu rarely slept the entire night through. At some point in every night she would wake up, check her room was secure, make sure no one had broken in, and glance in at the child Iqui. Hadurman slept in a nursery adjoined to Jalakanavu's bedroom, accompanied by his nursemaid one night and his birth mother the next. It wasn't traditional, of course. But Jalakanavu had argued it was safest. For once she'd won an argument against tradition. Give her time and she'd win all the others too.

Tonight as usual she checked the toddler was asleep and still alive. Then she looked over at the bed where the boy's birth mother lay. She was fast asleep too, the fool. An enemy could sneak up on her and she'd never know a thing.

Until now Jalakanavu had kept the woman alive because she had no reason yet for killing her. It wasn't wise to kill too many enemies all at once. People would start to make connections. But the Iqui was growing up. He would have his fourth birthday soon. His birth mother was becoming a nuisance, something that divided his loyalty when he needed to be absolutely dependent on Jalakanavu.

She mulled this over as she closed the nursery door. There was nothing else for it. The girl would have to die. And she would have to die in circumstances that couldn't possibly be traced back to the Empress Regnant. Perhaps Zafadin would have some suggestions.

Jalakanavu made her way to her husband's rooms. She knew he often awoke in the middle of the night too. With any luck he would be awake now and they could come up with a plan before morning. She pushed open the door without bothering to knock. What she saw made her stare. He was gone.

~~~~

What a ridiculously long path, Kiroshnoy thought. She stopped to rub her eyes. All this peering in pitch blackness was giving her a headache. Who designed this stupid thing?

It wound on and on with no end in sight. The walls on her right-hand side had ended by now. When she looked over there she gazed down on the roofs and gardens of many smaller palaces and mansions. Not a single light shone in any of their windows. Beyond them she looked down even further to the river, an inky black snake winding through the city. On the other side was a blaze of lights, orange and yellow and cold white. They illuminated small lines that must be wide streets to the people on them. Most of the city was like a torch. It made the darkness of the unlit parts seem even darker in contrast. None of that light reached this far up, to show her where she was going on this far-too-long road. The moons and stars still glowed overhead. They gave only a faint light that showed nothing.

She shook her head in exasperation. Couldn't go back, couldn't go up, couldn't go down; all she could do was carry on and put up with her headache.

Wait. Wait. How could she be so stupid? She didn't have to stumble along in the dark after all!

I want a light, she thought.

At once a dim glow lit up her surroundings. She looked around for its source. Nothing. It took her a minute to realise where it was coming from. When she figured it out she got a nasty shock. She was glowing. Her hair, her clothes, her hands, even her shoes emitted a faint yet unmistakable light.

This was not what she had in mind. Good grief. I can't sneak in looking like a walking candle!

Of all the times for her powers to start malfunctioning again... She made a mental note to be as specific as possible in future. It was just as well she hadn't made the entire wall light up.

Kiroshnoy shrugged helplessly. Nothing she could do about it now. At least she wouldn't trip over any more rocks.

She trudged on and on. How long could this path possibly be? This hill must be a small mountain. From the ground it hadn't looked nearly as large.

When she finally reached the end of the path it came upon her with no warning. Right in front of her a sheer drop down into someone's garden far below. To the left the road turned and ran up to the wall. A gate was set there, a very large gate that from the looks of things could only be opened by ropes.

At least there aren't any guards, she thought.

She stepped up to the gate and eyed it in the light she cast. It opened into the garden and was held closed with an enormous metal bar. Attached to the bar were two ropes thrown over a pulley. No one could open it from the outside. To get hold of the ropes you had to reach right through the gate and part-way around the wall.

If the assassins had come this way without a reality warper they would have found it impossible to get through. Kiroshnoy merely looked at it, made sure she couldn't open it the ordinary way, and willed it to open anyway. She took the precaution of telling it to open quietly.

The gate obediently slid open. It didn't make a sound. Kiroshnoy skipped through it, leaving it wide open. She would have to get out, after all. No point in cutting off her own escape route.

Then she heard a sound that would strike terror into most intruders' hearts. The distinctive shing of someone pulling a sword out of a scabbard.

She turned. A guard advanced towards her, sword in hand. He looked as if he'd seen a ghost. His hand shook so much he couldn't hold his weapon straight. It took her a minute to realise why. Then she laughed aloud. Of course! He thought she was a ghost!

"You don't see me," she ordered. "No one is here. No one at all. Go to sleep."

The guard's eyes glazed over. He resheathed his sword. To her astonishment he promptly lay down on the grass and began to snore lightly. Kiroshnoy stared at him. He made no move to get up.

I did tell him to sleep, she thought, scratching her head, but I didn't mean right here!

Once again her powers didn't care what she had in mind. The guard remained peacefully asleep. She shrugged and moved on. He was no threat to anyone there.

Within five minutes she had come to a most unwelcome conclusion. These gardens were a maze. Everything looked exactly the same even with her light. Hedges. Pathways. Statues. Fountains. She wasn't even sure if she was getting closer to the palace or just walking around in circles. In the darkness both the palace in the distance and the wall behind her were shapeless masses of black. A few lights burned on the far side of one mass. Was that the palace? Was it a torch at another guard's post along the wall? Or was it just a decoration in part of the gardens?

The obvious solution was to use her powers to clear a path. Yet Kiroshnoy hesitated this time. She'd already used them twice, and neither incident had gotten exactly the result she wanted.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she forgot two crucial details. One, any light can be seen in the darkness. It doesn't matter how small, how faint, or how oddly-shaped. Two, she was currently a walking torch. An intruder in a dark garden would normally be overlooked, but not one who shone like a beacon. The grass rustled softly behind her. The princess hardly even heard it.

Should I turn left or right? I can't go straight on because that hedge is in the way. And I'm sure I've seen that statue on the right before. If I go left--

Cold, sharp metal pressed against her throat.