James Wyatt: Dragon war

The killer paused in the doorway, looking up the street after the rushing palace guard. Aunn stepped behind the trunk of the old maple, hoping to avoid his gaze. The killer's eyes swept across him as he turned to look toward the palace, and then came back to linger on the line of bare trees that divided the wide street. Aunn couldn't tell if he'd been seen or not, but the killer stepped onto the street and walked briskly in the direction of the palace.

Aunn waited a moment and stepped out after him. Between the Tower of Eyes and the great Crown's Hall at the heart of the palace grounds was only a wide courtyard cobbled in faded blue stone. The courtyard was not thickly crowded, but the eclipse and the shouts of soldiers added significant elements of chaos to the crowd as people stopped dead and pointed to the sky or looked frantically about them. Aunn couldn't find the killer at first, and he quickened his pace as he scanned the crowd for the man he'd seen.

Then he saw a woman with long, fair hair, trailing an overlong black cloak. Now certain that he was following Vec, Aunn slowed his pace and tried to melt back into the crowd, keeping his eyes fixed on the changeling's blond hair.

Vec led him on a path circling Crown's Hall, staying close to the outer edge of the courtyard. She slowed her pace and lingered at a shop window just past the garrison building, pretending to check the wares while she actually watched the reflections of people passing. Aunn continued past her, rounding the corner of the courtyard, turning his face away from her view. He started to regret buying the expensive purple cloak that made him stand out in the crowd.

He made his way to the royal museum and ducked inside. Smiling at the obsequious attendants, he pulled the cloak from his shoulders and handed it to one of them, along with a gold galifar. The attendant bowed and smiled, then pressed a ticket into his hand that would allow him to reclaim the cloak when his visit to the museum was concluded. Aunn changed then, ignoring the gasps of the attendants, taking the first face and name that sprang to his mind.

Who are you?

As he tightened his belt and adjusted his clothes, he caught a glimpse of himself in glass-long brown hair, soft and curved. I am Caura Fannam, he thought. You were very kind.

As the attendants protested, he strode back out of the museum, scanning the people on the street, looking for Vec. His thoughts were a jumble, thinking of Jenns Solven and the green dragon in the forest.

Vec had changed as well-Aunn saw a burly man, dressed in the same gray and black, looking closely at his face as he walked past. When their eyes met, Vec flashed him a grin like a hungry wolf, then hurried ahead of him.

Crown's Hall loomed across the courtyard. Aunn loosed his belt and changed again, ignoring the gawks and gasps of the people who witnessed the transformation.

Who are you?

He felt solid and strong in his dwarf body. I am Auftane Khunnam, he thought, and Dania ir'Vran called me friend. He touched the silver torc he wore, which was not tight despite the thickness of his dwarf neck, and felt its fire course through him.

The burly Vec glanced over his shoulder and scanned the crowd, and he seemed not to see Aunn. Then Aunn lost sight of him in a knot of people gawking at the darkened sky.

Someone screamed, and many of the people around Aunn pointed down the wide avenue leading south from Crown's Hall. Aunn glanced down that street and saw a few squads of minotaur warriors marching toward him. He looked back at the hall, where lines of the palace guard were forming up to meet the attackers. The crowd was in full panic, racing in every direction to get out from between the two forces of soldiers before they clashed.

A slender elf in gray darted around the palace guard toward Crown's Hall, and Aunn ran toward him, changing his face again as he ran.

Who are you?

He was tall and strong, his shirt tight across his chest, with a thick neck and crooked nose. I am Kauth Dannar, he thought, a hard man for hard work. His long strides helped him gain on Vec.

Vor's face, lying dead on the Labyrinth's floor, haunted him. Why didn't you come back? Aunn asked the dead paladin. Was it my lack of faith? Or was it because you had found peace and were content to stay dead?

Crown's Hall was an enormous structure the size of an arena, consisting of the central audience chamber surrounded by four wings jutting out in the cardinal directions, symbolizing Aurala's willingness to hear petitions from every quarter of her nation. Four towers rose up at the corners of the structure, containing the rich historical archives of the Royal Collection in one tower, the Courts of Justice and its prison in another, and the residences of the queen and her brothers with their families in the remaining two towers.

Vec darted into a short and narrow alley between one of the wings and towers. At the end of the alley, he threw open a door and disappeared inside. Aunn hesitated-the door was one way into the heart of the palace, but it would ordinarily be heavily guarded with both soldiers and magical wards, easily defensible. Was Vec counting on the distraction of the soldiers in the courtyard, or were there agents on the inside-unwitting Royal Eyes, or soldiers loyal to Janna Tolden-who were responsible for removing both guards and wards?

Aunn reached the door and leaped over the body of a palace guard slumped on the floor. Vec was fast.

I have to catch him before he gets to the queen, Aunn thought.

Who are you? Tira Miron asked him.

Aunn let Kauth's face fade and didn't replace it, reverting to the blank gray and white of his true face. "I am Aunn," he said aloud, "and I'm yours."

Aunn heard footsteps racing up a staircase through an archway ahead of him, and ran after them.

"Stop!" someone cried.

Aunn reached the stairs and saw Vec, now back in his unremarkable killer's face, raced up toward a soldier of the palace guard who pointed a spear down the stairs at the approaching assassin. Vec dodged around the soldier's thrust and knocked the spear out of his hand, but Aunn noted with satisfaction that the soldier already had a sword in his free hand, and he swung a strong, accurate blow at Vec. The palace guard was a cut above the rank-and-file soldiery of Fairhaven.

Vec parried the guard's blow, slowing enough for Aunn to gain a few steps on him. If the guard could just hold him another moment-

Vec's blade sliced across the soldier's neck, and his other hand pulled the man forward so he tumbled down the stairs toward Aunn. Aunn couldn't get out of the way fast enough, and the soldier's foot caught him in the face, pulling him back down to the foot of the stairs, with a few hard collisions on the way.

Aunn pulled himself back to his feet and looked up the stairs. Vec was out of sight. Ordinarily, three or four guards would have blocked the stairway, with the two in the back thrusting spears around their comrades in front. Someone-perhaps a traitor in the palace guard, perhaps just someone who viewed the attacking mercenaries in the courtyard as a greater threat than someone sneaking through less obvious passages-had diverted the bulk of the palace guard to deal with the minotaurs.

Aunn raced up the stairs and found himself in a guard post, now deserted. The room stretched ahead a few paces and then bent around the wall of the adjacent tower. He crept to a point where he could see around the corner, expecting Vec to leap out at him as he drew near. He saw another soldier bleeding out her life at the top of another staircase, but no sign of the assassin. A door of heavy darkwood engraved with arcane sigils stood closed beside each stairway. It didn't seem that either seal had been broken.

Where did he go? Aunn wondered.