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It was so much a meeting of chance that it was almost embarrassing. Varmen laid a small fire, as on each night previously, but by the time he had it going they had all spotted another fire through the trees, a hundred yards away or so, and the makers of that fire had by now surely spotted theirs. There followed a hasty discussion about the virtues of fleeing further into the woods at night, of awaiting whatever might befall them, or of confronting the other fire and its owners. In the end, Che was the only one amongst them advocating anything other than confrontation, so she gave in with bad grace.

After a little preparation, they set off in that direction, knowing that their opposite numbers had been given ample time to prepare.

Che, Maure and Thalric proceeded first, approaching the campfire as obviously as they could, finding just two men there, neither of them locals, and with three horses tied nearby. One was a squat Scorpion-kinden, and a loaded crossbow lay beside him as he ostentatiously burned a hunk of bread in the flames. The other was a solid-looking Wasp-kinden man with dark hair, who was watching their approach bright-eyed.

‘I swear I’m meeting more Wasps here in the Commonweal than I ever did in the Empire,’ Che murmured.

Thalric stopped within range of their firelight, having counted the horses, and Maure leant in to say to him, ‘The third is in the trees to your right. He has a bow.’

He nodded, then announced, ‘We seem to be neighbours for this night, so perhaps it would make sense if we shared the same fire.’ They had already discussed this, and it seemed marginally safer to have their opposite numbers where they could see them, rather than out in the dark planning who-knew-what.

‘There’s logic to that,’ the dark Wasp conceded. ‘You have food?’

‘Some,’ Thalric returned. ‘We’re no danger to you, so perhaps your friend could come and join us.’

The two men exchanged glances, and the Scorpion shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘Come on out, Soul,’ he said. A moment later a tall, angular man glided out of the darkness, his face expressionless. He was Grasshopper-kinden and, tall as he was, his bow was taller, an arrow fitted to the string, but pointing towards the ground.

‘They’ve a friend also, a big man still out there in the dark,’ said the Grasshopper.

The Wasp raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that so?’ He reached down beside him, retrieving something from under a blanket. It took Che a moment to recognize that the object now resting across his knees was a nailbow, a weapon she would not have expected to find in the Commonweal.

Thalric nodded, recognizing this game of escalation when he saw it. He opened his mouth to call out, but Varmen was already responding to his cue and strode out of the darkness to back up his fellows. They had decked him out in all his armour, and for a moment the three strangers just stared at him. Probably the nailbow bolts could have pierced his mail, some of them at least, but it was clear that the dark-haired Wasp knew a Sentinel when he saw one, and he reacted in almost superstitious awe.

‘Well,’ the man said at last. ‘I reckon you won that round.’ He set the nailbow back down, though still within easy reach. ‘I’ve not seen one of your kind since the Twelve-year War.’

‘Not since you deserted, you mean?’ asked Thalric, sitting down by their fire as though he had just taken possession of it.

The Wasp’s face showed that he was about to make a retort, but the Scorpion’s sudden snicker took the wind out of him. ‘I reckon we’re none of us here with the Emperor’s orders in our packs,’ he stated.

Che had been watching the three carefully, and something tugged at her notice: nothing she could put a name to, but she was abruptly sure that there was a fourth one somewhere. It was hinted in the way that they sat, something implicit in their placement.

‘Your other friend might as well come out,’ she said pleasantly, ‘now that we’re all getting on so well.’ She saw the Scorpion-kinden’s eyes shift and she drew her sword smoothly, pointing it behind