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commander than they’d expected. With great skill and a little luck he prevailed, and the acclamation of the newly enfranchised in Tassasen has made it difficult for anybody else in the old Kingdom or indeed anywhere in the old Empire to oppose him directly.’
    ‘There must be a “but” or a “however” about to make its appearance here,’ Perrund said. ‘I can tell it.’
    ‘Indeed. But there are those who have greeted UrLeyn’s coming to power with every possible expression of enthusiasm and who have gone out of their way to support him in most public ways, yet who secretly know that their own existence or at the very least their own supremacy is threatened by his continued rule. They are the ones I’m worried about, and they must have made their plans for our Protector. The first few attempts at assassination failed, but not by much. And only your bravery stopped the most determined of them, lady,’ DeWar said.
    Perrund looked away, and her good hand went to touch the withered one. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I did tell your predecessor that as I had stepped in to perform his job he ought to do the decent thing and attempt to fulfil mine one day, but he just laughed.’
    DeWar smiled. ‘Commander ZeSpiole tells that story himself, still.’
    ‘Hmm. Well, perhaps as Commander of the Palace Guard, ZeSpiole does such a good job keeping would-be assassins away from the palace that none ever achieve the sort of proximity that might call for your services.’
    ‘Perhaps, but either way they will be back,’ DeWar said quietly. ‘I almost wish they had been back by now. The absence of conventional assassins makes me all the more convinced there is some very special assassin here, just waiting for the right time to strike.’
    Perrund looked troubled, even sad, the man thought. ‘But come, DeWar,’ she said, ‘is this not too gloomily contrary? Perhaps there are no attempts on the Protector’s life because no one of moment any longer wishes him dead. Why assume the most depressing explanation? Can you never be, if not relaxed, then content?’
    DeWar took a deep breath and then released it. He replaced the Protector piece. ‘These are not times when people in my profession can relax.’
    ‘They say the old days were always better. Do you think so, DeWar?’
    ‘No, lady, I do not.’ He gazed into her eyes. ‘I think a lot of nonsense is talked about the old days.’
    ‘But, DeWar, they were days of legends, days of heroes!’ Perrund said, her expression indicating she was not being entirely serious. ‘Everything was better, everybody says so!’
    ‘Some of us prefer history to legends, lady,’ DeWar said heavily, ‘and sometimes everybody can be wrong.’
    ‘Can they?’
    ‘Indeed. Once everybody thought the world was flat.’
    ‘Many still do,’ Perrund said, raising one brow. ‘Few peasants want to think they might fall out of their fields, and a lot of us who know the truth find it hard to accept.’
    ‘Nevertheless, it is the case.’ DeWar smiled. ‘It can be proved.’
    Perrund smiled too. ‘With sticks in the ground?’
    ‘And shadows, and mathematics.’
    Perrund gave a quick, sideways nod. It was a mannerism that seemed to acknowledge and dismiss at the same time. ‘What a very certain, if rather dismal world you seem to live in, DeWar.’
    ‘It is the same world that everyone inhabits, if they but knew, my lady. It’s just that only some of us have our eyes open.’
    Perrund drew in a breath. ‘Oh! Well, those of us still stumbling around with our eyes tightly shut had best be grateful to people like you then, I should think.’
    ‘I’d have thought that you at least, my lady, would have no need of a sighted guide.’
    ‘I am just a crippled, ill-educated concubine, DeWar. A poor orphan who might have met a terrible fate if I had not caught the eye of the Protector.’ She made her withered arm move by flexing her left shoulder towards him. ‘Sadly I later caught a blow as well