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And we'll inspect all the rooms on this floor for evidence of cutting through from above." Sarnax nodded. "That's sense, Lord Virzal. How about the lifter tubes?" "We'll have to barricade them. Sarnax, you and Dirzed know the layout of this place better than the Lady Dallona or I; suppose you two check the rooms, while we cover the tubes and the well," Verkan Vall directed. "Come on, now."
Sarnax continued: "Well, last evening, Tarnox of Fastor used his recall outfit, and what do you think? It seems that thirty years ago, in his last reincarnation, he was Jirzid of Starpha, Jirzyn's older brother. Jirzid was betrothed to the Lady Annitra of Zabna.
Suddenly, from behind the barricade, a blue-white gun flash leaped into being, and a pistol banged. He sprayed the opening between a couch and a section of bookcase from whence it had come, releasing his trigger as the gun rose with the recoil, squeezing and releasing and squeezing again. Then he jumped to his feet. "Come on, the other place; hurry!" he ordered. Sarnax swore in exasperation.
I was surprised that an Assassin would desert his client; I should have thought of that," Sarnax said. "Well, even if he got down carnate, and if Girzad didn't catch him, he'd still be afoot ten miles from the nearest city unit. That gives us a little chance about one in a thousand." "Is there any way they can get at us, except by those tubes?" Dalla asked.
"What force have they, and why did they turn against us?" "Lord Virzal!" Dirzed objected, scandalized. "You have no right to ask Sarnax to betray confidences!" Sarnax spat against the door. "In the face of Jirzyn of Starpha!" he said. "And in the face of his zortan mother, and of his father, whoever he was! Dirzed, do not talk foolishly; one does not speak of betraying betrayers."
The working of major changes in out-time social structures was not viewed with approval by the Paratime Commission on the First Level. "If we get home," he added. Then an idea occurred to him. "Dirzed, Sarnax; this place must have been used by the leaders of the Volitionalists for top-level conferences. Is there a secret passage anywhere?" Sarnax shook his head. "Not from here.
The upper-servant's face was bloody, and his jaw seemed to be broken. Sarnax followed, carrying a long hunting pistol in his hand. "Here he is!" he announced. "He fired during Assassins' Truce; he's subject to Assassins' Justice!" He nodded to the others. They threw the gamekeeper forward on the floor, and Sarnax shot him through the head, then tossed the pistol down beside him.
"I and my colleagues, Erarno and Kirzol and Harnif, offer our apologies for the barbarity of the servants of the family of Starpha, in attacking without declaration of cessation of friendship. Was anybody hurt or discarnated?" "None of us," Olirzon said. "How about Marnik?" "He was warned before hostilities were begun against him," Sarnax replied. "We will allow five minutes until "
He fired another burst, and swore. "Missed him!" "Assassins' Truce! Assassins' Truce!" a voice howled out of the descent tube. "Hold your fire, we want to parley." "Who is it?" Dirzed shouted, over Olirzon's shoulder. "You, Sarnax? Come on out; we won't shoot."
Then Sarnax hooked fingers and clapped shoulders with his companions. "See you in the next reincarnation, brothers," he told them, walking toward the gun-room door, where Verkan Vall, Dalla and Dirzed stood. "I'm joining you people. You had two Assassins when the parley began, you'll have two when the shooting starts." Verkan Vall looked at Dirzed in some surprise. Hadron Dalla's Assassin nodded.
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