‘Can we make it back to the monastery by then?’
‘We have to.’ Sparhawk stopped just before they reached an intersection and peered around the corner of a house. A man wearing a short cape and carrying a spear and a small lantern was shuffling sleepily along the street. ‘Watchman,’ Sparhawk breathed, and he and Kurik stepped into the shadows of a deeply recessed doorway.
The watchman plodded on past, the lantern swinging from his hand casting looming shadows against the walls of the buildings.
‘He should be more alert,’ Kurik growled disapprovingly.
‘Under the circumstances your sense of what’s proper might be a little misplaced.’
‘Right is right, Sparhawk,’ Kurik replied stubbornly.
After the watchman was out of sight, they crept on up the street.
‘Are we just going to walk up to the gate of the consulate?’ Kurik asked.
‘No. When we get close to it, we’ll go in over the roof tops.’
‘I’m not a cat, Sparhawk. Leaping from roof to roof isn’t my idea of entertainment.’
‘The houses are all built up against each other in that part of town. The roof tops are just like a highway.’
‘Oh,’ Kurik grunted. ‘That’s different then.’
The consulate of the Kingdom of Elenia was a fairly large building surrounded by a high, white-mortared wall. There were torches set on long poles at each corner, and a narrow lane running alongside the wall.
‘Does that lane run all the way around it?’ Kurik asked.
‘It did the last time I was here.’
‘There’s a significant hole in your plan then, Sparhawk. I can’t jump all the way from one of these roof tops to the top of that wall.’
‘I don’t think I could either.’ Sparhawk frowned. ‘Let’s go around and look at the other side.’
They crept through a series of narrow streets and alleys that wound along the back sides of the houses facing the consulate wall. A dog came out and barked at them until Kurik shied a rock at him. The dog yelped and ran off on three legs.
‘Now I know how a burglar feels,’ Kurik muttered.
‘There,’ Sparhawk said.
‘There where?’
‘Right over there. Some helpful fellow is doing some repairs on his roof. See that pile of beams stacked up against the side of that wall? Let’s go see how long they are.’
They crossed the alley to the stack of building material. Kurik studiously measured the beams off with his feet. ‘Marginal,’ he observed.
‘We’ll never know until we try,’ Sparhawk told him.
‘All right. How do we get up to the roof?’
‘We’ll lean the beams against the wall. If we slant them up right, we should be able to scramble up and then pull them after us.’
‘I’m glad you don’t have to construct your own siege engines, Sparhawk,’ Kurik observed sourly. ‘All right. Let’s try it.’
They leaned several beams against the wall, and Kurik, grunting and sweating, hauled himself up to the roof. ‘All right,’ he whispered down over the edge, ‘come on up.’
Sparhawk climbed up the beam, picking up a large splinter in his hand in the process. Then he and Kurik laboriously hauled the beams up after them and carried them one by one across the roof to the side facing the consulate wall. The flickering torches atop the wall cast a faint glow across the roof tops. As they were carrying the last beam, Kurik stopped suddenly. ‘Sparhawk,’ he called softly.
‘What?’
‘Two roofs over. There’s a woman lying there.’
‘How do you know it’s a woman?’
‘Because she’s stark naked, that’s how.’
‘Oh,’ Sparhawk said, ‘that. It’s a Rendorish custom. She’s waiting for the moon to rise. They have a superstition here that the first rays of the moon on a woman’s belly increase her fertility.’
‘Won’t she see us?’
‘She won’t say anything if she does. She’s too busy waiting for the moon. Press on, Kurik. Don’t stand there gawking at her.’
They struggled manfully to push a beam out over the narrow lane, a task made more difficult by the fact that their leverage diminished as they shoved the beam out farther and farther. Finally the stubborn beam clunked down on top of the consulate wall. They slid several more beams across along its top, then rolled them to one side to form a narrow bridge. As they were shoving the last one across, Kurik suddenly stopped with a muttered oath.
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