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even through his boots.
    Somehow he managed to heave himself onto the sooty rooftop. His heart was thumping wildly in his chest, and his breath came in searing, ragged gasps. “What in the Abyss did I ever see in this battling evil business?” he groaned as he dragged himself to his feet. He saw that the Harper had reached the rooftop across the narrow alley, no more than ten feet away. The three magical hounds circled below, snarling and growling. Hot, sizzling spittle drooled from their maws, pitting the cobblestones where it dripped.
    “What now, scoundrel?” Mari called across the gap, hands on her hips.
    Caledan saw a large oaken barrel perched on the rooftop a few feet away from him. It was a rain barrel, filled to the brim with cool, dark water. An idea struck him. “Harper, is there anything over there that holds water?”
    Mari frowned in confusion, but she looked around the rooftop all the same. “There’s a trough here with some sort of swill in it,” she called across the alley. “But I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re thirsty. I think more than a few pigeons have been using it as their personal bath.”
    “It’ll do. Drag it to the edge of the rooftop, and when I tell you, dump it into the alley.”
    Mari glared at him. “You want to give the dogs a bath?”
    “Just do it, Harper,” Caledan growled.
    She muttered something under her breath but did as he asked all the same. The fiery mastiffs were scrabbling at the walls, getting higher with each jump. It was only a matter of moments before one of them successfully made the leap.
    “Now, Harper!”
    Caledan pushed over the heavy rain barrel. At the same moment Mari grunted, heaving the wooden trough onto its side. Cold water rained down on the three mastiffs. There was a deafening hissing sound as a thick cloud of steam billowed up from the alley. The hounds yelped as their flaming auras were doused and extinguished.
    Caledan readied himself for a dash along the rooftops. He hoped the trick with the water would give him and the Harper a few moments’ head start before they were forced to climb back down and take to the streets. Suddenly Caledan halted. He watched the magical beasts in fascination.
    The mastiffs were continuing to yelp and whine, but their movements were growing slower, stiff and jerky. Steam ceased to rise from their sodden pelts. Abruptly the hounds froze in their tracks. They stood motionless for a heartbeat, and then, with a sound like breaking glass, the beasts collapsed into three heaps of jagged black shards.
    Caledan shook his head in amazement. The magical beasts were dead, shattered like hot crockery immersed in cold water.
    The Harper arched an eyebrow. “Not bad, scoundrel. Did you know that was going to happen?”
    “Of course,” he lied.
    The two climbed back down into the alley. With his boot Caledan kicked apart the piles of broken shards. They rang like chimes as they skittered across the cobbles. He found his dagger and stuffed it back into its sheath in his boot.
    “Well, it looks like this time it’s farewell for good, Harper,” Caledan said thankfully. He had forgotten how much trouble Harpers could be.
    “And good riddance, scoundrel,” Mari replied, her eyes blazing. “Let’s make certain we never—”
    The Harper didn’t get the chance to finish. She cried out as a crackling bolt of crimson brilliance streaked out of a shadowed doorway and struck her in the shoulder. The force of the blow threw her hard against the opposite stone wall. Her eyes fluttered shut as she slumped, motionless, to the ground.
    Without hesitating, Caledan reached down, grabbed his dagger, and threw it spinning into the darkened doorway. There was a soft moan, and then a sharp-faced man clad in red robes stumbled out of the doorway and sank to the cobbles, the dagger buried deep in his chest.
    Caledan swore under his breath. It seemed he had grown stupid as well as rusty with the years. After an attack by enchanted beasts,