A group of Stepsons walked their horses by, not even looking at the assembled watchers.
Though he would never admit it openly, the withdrawal of the Step- sons as well as the Rankan 3rd Commando from Sanctuary concerned Hakiem much more than the disappearance of a few common laborers. He wondered how much of what was happening in town Hort was aware of and simply not commenting on and how much he was actually oblivi- ous to.
There was a fight brewing. A contest of wills, if not swords, between the town and the Rankan Empire. He did not for a moment believe that it was coincidence that the Stepsons were being pulled out of town just when the tax issue was reaching a head. The question was, would they be back? If the empire tried to enforce its orders by force, would the Step- sons be the whip for the empire or the shield for the town? Or would they stay away, maintaining a mercenaries’ neutrality, and not return until the matter was resolved … if they returned at all?
The old man studied faces, but could not find a clue to the future written anywhere: neither a hint of the future in the faces of the merce- naries, nor a glimmer of realization of the stakes that were being played for in those of the townsfolk.
CADE
Mark C. Perry
In another time, in another place, he could have been something else. He could have been a hero, or a general, a pnest, or a king But he was born in Sanctuary and that made him a killer.
Cade stood on a low hill looking down on the city. Sanctuary. He turned his head and spat Sanctuary, the capital of hell He had left the city eleven years ago, after killing a man, his first Now he was back, to kill again Somewhere in that cesspit his brother’s body lay rotting, all his bones cracked by some torturer It was that someone whom Cade was going to kill