[Danny]

Selten slowly came around, not remembering at first what had happened. He felt a tingling in the fingers of his left hand, and his back was quite sore, but it was a few seconds before he remembered the events of a few hours ago...

He opened his eyes, slowly. The light wasn't too bright. He'd been expecting bright lights, although he couldn't say why. With effort, he turned his head to one side. He saw several pieces of expensive-looking medical equipment, and remembered seeing similar equipment in Olm's cellar. He wondered where Olm was, and turned his head again, to take in the rest of the room. He was surprised to see the Mayor sitting on a chair beside his bed.

"We weren't sure if you'd make it for a while..."

Selten tried to speak, but his throat was too dry. The Mayor reached over, and held out a glass of water. Selten tried to sit up, so he could drink it, but was unable to lever himself off the bed, and just fell over onto his left side. Something felt wrong, and his left hand was hurting badly. Looking down, he saw nothing but a bandaged stump where his left arm had been...

"Selten, lie down. Your arm was badly infected, and the doctors were forced to amputate it... You've lost a lot of blood, so try to relax..."

Selten opened his mouth to speak, but all that escaped was a low moan, and he sank back down onto the bed. Reaching over with his right hand, he took the glass of water, and downed it, spilling quite a bit across the pillow. "Where...?"

"It doesn't matter where you are, the important thing is that you're going to be okay." The Mayor paused, looking down at Selten. "Can you tell us anything about the thing that attacked you? Jagger and Trey have told me some things, but it was dark. They said it'd been following you, so I thought maybe you'd got a better look at it..."

Selten shook his head, slowly. "Armour... Couldn't see it clearly..."

The Mayor looked thoughtful for a second, then called out. "Two!" A very pale green mudokon with an absent expression entered through a door behind the Mayor, and stood behind him. The Mayor turned back to Selten. "Get some rest. We'll talk some more when you've recovered..." He slid backwards, and Selten realised that he was sitting in a wheelchair. As the mudokon turned the chair around and began to wheel it from the room, Selten levered himself up with his arm. "Wait!"

The mudokon froze, and (at a signal from the Mayor) turned the wheelchair to face Selten again. "Make it quick," the Mayor said, "You're not ready for too much exertion yet..."

"I spoke with Spider!"

The Mayor's face went stony. "Leave us, Two." The mudokon left again, and the Mayor wheeled himself closer to Selten. "When was this?"

"Before the attack... I was with them in the forest outside Pyke."

"Them?"

Selten swallowed. "Spider and Olm and a couple of others."

"Where are they now?"

Selten half-turned away. He couldn't bring himself to lie to his oldest friend, but he knew that Olm and Spider were considered criminals, and would be arrested if they were caught. In the end, he told what was technically the truth. "I don't know. They were on the move in the forest when I left to come and see you..."

The Mayor seemed disappointed, but gestured to Selten to go on. "What did you talk about?"

Selten licked his lips. What if it isn't true? he thought What will he think of me? "They said that you'd been... That you'd been conducting business with a Vykker..."

The Mayor seemed to relax, but looked puzzled. "Is that all? Yes, I hired the sligs from a Vykker. The sligs that are, as we speak, keeping this town safe. That's all."

Could that be it? Could this all be just a misunderstanding? "They also said that you were, well, power-hungry... That you just cared more for your own power than for Pyke..."

The Mayor smiled, his expression one of tolerance, but also sadness. "Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?"

"What?"

The Mayor sighed. "They are on the run. It is only natural that they will try and make themselves appear to be in the right..." He put a hand on Selten's shoulder. "I know they're essentially good people, but the Law is the Law. We can't make exceptions whenever we want..."

"You can!" Selten heard himself sounding like a petulant child, but didn't care. "You're in charge! You can change the Law!"

"If I did that whenever I felt like it, what would be the point in having the Law?"

Selten remembered himself uttering this self-same argument to Spider, and nodded. "Okay, yes. The Law is the Law..."

The Mayor smiled and turned to wheel himself out. "Good boy."

Selten was silent until the Mayor was almost out of the room, when he spoke up one more time. "So it's not true, then?"

"No, old friend. It is not."

Selten smiled and sank back into the pillow...

************

"Maybe it would have been better if he had, ehe, 'died in surgery'..."

The Mayor turned to the Vykker beside him. "Selten is an old friend, and I will not kill him unless it is absolutely necessary."

Coombes sighed. "I just hope you're right about him..."

"Of course I'm right." The Mayor turned back to look at Selten's sleeping form. "Selten is still on our side, whatever those criminals tell him. He wouldn't want to believe what they said, even if it was true..."

"Either way, it is clear that it is no longer safe for me here." Coombes strolled from the room, the Mayor following, pushed by the pale mudokon. "I am wasting my time here anyway. I had hoped that Malice would show up here again, but it looks unlikely. I will return to Carthag, and resume my search from there." He turned to the Mayor. "Thank you for your assistance."

"You are most welcome. What will happen to the garrison?"

"They are yours now, it's not up to me. If they choose to stay, then they shall."

The Mayor smiled. "Thank you. If I catch Spider, I'll be sure to send him to you."

It was Coombes's turn to smile. "I'll leave at once. Two, inform One and Three to gather my belongings and meet me at the west gate in fifteen minutes. Farewell, mayor..." He left the room. The mudokon known as Two closed its eyes for a second, then followed the Vykker. The Mayor was left to his thoughts...