Dak pulled herself over the parapet and sat at the top of the broken battlements, her breath rasping in her chest, and her heart hammering at her ribs.

"I was not made for this," she puffed, though she could not help feeling a sense of pride at the achievement of her climb.

"It took you long enough," snapped Grifford.

Dak looked about her as she heaved in her breaths.

"What is this place?" asked Grifford, looking around at the empty battlements, whose cracked stones were thick with weeds.

"It is part of the old fortress fortifications," said Dak. "From a time before the Workshops were here."

"I was not asking you."

Dak did not move. She sat looking up at Grifford's back, a seldom felt emotion pushing at her skull. It was the feeling she would sometimes get when her father returned to their home drunk, after he had promised that he would not.

"So where do we go now?" Grifford asked.

"This way," said Tahlia, and she went to the end of the battlements, where they joined a tall tower that stood against the shield-bastion's wall. It was completely shrouded in the krodillis vine they had climbed. Dak took a deep shuddering breath and got to her feet. She was not looking forward to the recommencement of their journey, but Tahlia was not climbing. Instead, she was tugging at the vine at the tower's base.

When Dak reached her, Tahlia had pulled back a thick section of the krodillis to reveal the tower's doorway, leading through to darkness beyond. Without a word, Tahlia ducked through the narrow gap and disappeared. Grifford pushed through afterwards. Dak contemplated the doorway and its surrounding vine for a few seconds, than crouched on her hands and knees and crawled after them.

She could see nothing in the room beyond, but she could hear the sounds of frantic rummaging from somewhere close by, then there was a click and suddenly a rippling glow revealed the place they were in. It was the size of the tower, and a stone stair climbed one wall before spiralling upwards into the darkness above. The tower was empty, except for a thick slab of metal leaning against the wall beside the doorway.

"Do we climb?" asked Grifford, looking upwards.

"No," said Tahlia.

She shone the hand-light she was holding at the room's far end, where there was another doorway. It had been blocked up with thick cut stones, but as Tahlia played the light up and down it, Dak could see a square of deeper darkness at its base, where the stones had been removed.

Tahlia went and knelt beside it to shine the hand-light down the narrow passage beyond the hole.

Dak frowned, looking first at the hole, then at the door sized slab of metal leaning against the wall.

"Someone has purposefully done this," she said.

"Well I did not think that the stones jumped out of the wall themselves," said Tahlia, then she crouched and crawled through the dark hole, taking the light with her. The room was left in gloom, lit only by the meagre light coming through the krodillis veiled doorway, but it was enough for Dak to see Grifford crouch at the wall and follow after his sister.

"Did it not occur to you to tell someone about this, sister?"

Grifford's words faded as he crawled away. Dak followed quickly after, and as she pulled herself through the blocked up door, she found that the passageway beyond was high enough for her to stand. It led away through the thickness of the bastion wall. She could see Tahlia and Grifford ahead, silhouetted against the hand-light.

"... want to give up such a useful escape route," Tahlia was saying when she caught up with them.

"That is exactly why someone should have been told about it."

"I am in agreement with your brother," said Dak. "People should not be having the ability to enter the Workshops at will."

"I am more concerned about the security of the fortress," Grifford snapped back.

Tahlia sighed.

"Oh, I suppose if I must, I will tell someone when we are out. Now come on."

She led them along the corridor, and it opened out into a space of deeper darkness on either side that the small hand-light could not penetrate. All Dak could see was another stretch of battlements spanning the emptiness. She leant out between two of the fortification's merlons and stood peering down into the darkness, until she suddenly realised that the other two had not stopped. The light was dwindling, and she could barely see the parapet she was standing on. She hurried quickly after them, and found them at a doorway that led through yet another wall of thick stone.

"This is one of the early shield-bastions," she said, looking up at the wall. "From the time we were building the first star fortress. The new bastions were built around and over the old ones, so each now has two walls. My father has shown me them before..."

Dak's words trailed away as the other two disappeared through the doorway into the old bastion. She hurried after, and found them standing in another abandoned room, with high doorways to the left and right that had both been blocked up with heavy stones. The hand-light cast long jagged shadows up to the ceiling, thrown by the debris littering the room.

Dak looked around with worried interest.

"Father told me that all these old rooms had been sealed off. It would once have been a guard room."

Tahlia was on the other side of the chamber, dragging a stool over to the rear wall.

"Whatever it was it is not used anymore," she said as she clambered onto the stool. "It is a great place to hide out though. That is how I found this."

About a meter up the wall there was a deep groove in the stone that ran the length of each wall. One meter above, there was a second groove that ran parallel to the first.

"Here, take this," said Tahlia, handing Dak the hand-light.

She then reached up, grabbed the lip of the highest channel with both hands and brought one foot and then the other up, so that she stood with knees bent in the lower channel.

"I was trying to see how far around the room I could get without touching the ground," she explained, and moved one foot along the lower channel, then felt carefully with a hand along the top channel. "When suddenly..."

There was a heavy clunk, and suddenly a section of wall between the two channels, with a scrape and a low ominous grind, swung upwards to reveal a square of darkness. Then there came another strained grinding rumble, and the section of wall below the bottom channel slid ponderously into the floor, so that a large dark rectangle of emptiness stood before them.

Tahlia jumped down.

"There is a switch up there," she said.

Grifford came over, kicking the broken rubbish out of his way. He looked at the door with deep suspicion.

"Where does it go?" he asked.

"Just up," replied Tahlia. "It comes out in an old storeroom in the cellars."

Dak crouched on the floor to study the top face of the stone block that had slid down to reveal the doorway.

"Father has shown me this sort of system before. It is very old and it would surprise him that we have found one working after this many hundred years."

"Is it really that old?" asked Tahlia.

"With a certainty. There have been a few such things built into Klinberg's walls over the centuries, to allow those in charge of the fortress a route of escape should the fortress be captured."

"A Pride-commander of Klinberg would never flee," scoffed Grifford.

"Not a Commander of the Order," said Dak. "But these were built before the Orders were being formed. When the knights of Fortak took command of the fortress, their decommissioning was ordered." Dak stood, and shone the hand light upwards to inspect the stone panel above. She ran her fingers along its edge. "This should not still be working."

"Well it is," said Tahlia, and she took the hand-light from her and clicked it to quarter globe. She shone the resulting beam of light through the doorway to reveal a set of high steps, which disappeared into the darkness above.

Dak peered upwards.

"How many have we to climb?" she asked.

"I do not know. I have never counted. The height of the shield bastion, I would think." Tahlia stepped through the doorway and up the first few steps. "It is not that far."

Dak rolled her eyes and groaned.

"I do not mind a walk of leisure at times. I like a journey with my father with walking involved, but this is turning into too much of a day."

Grifford stepped past her and followed his sister up the stairs.

"So stay here," he said.

The words would have brought another flush of irritation, but Dak hardly heard them. She was looking down at her fingers, where she had wiped them along the secret panel's edge. They were slick with a layer of new grease.

A feeling of disquiet was rising in her chest.

The light quickly faded as the other two climbed away into the darkness. Dak took a deep shuddering breath to calm herself, and followed.

* * * * *

When Karek finished talking, Master Tzarren smiled, but there was no mirth in his face.

"That girl could have saved everyone a good deal of trouble if she had spoken of all this to someone last night."

"She could have stopped our brother nearly getting his head ripped off for a start," said Yohef, then he straightened himself up and looked embarrassed. "Sir! Sorry, sir."

Master Tzarren waved the apology away.

Karek's brothers had joined him when they had seen Master Tzarren leading him from the Arbiter's tent, and now the four of them stood beside the walls of the arena, watching the activity in the Field.

"Where are Commander Kralaford's children now?" asked Master Tzarren.

"I left them at the Infirmary."

"Maybe not so wise, with a nadidge on the loose and the girl holding so many secrets in her head. I would prefer it if they were under guard." Master Tzarren shook his head in frustration. "You found nothing untoward in Merchant Dres' tent?"

"Nothing. There was no sign of this Vlambra person, and certainly no evidence of Sir Kralaford's son. Although there was..."

Karek's words trailed off.

"Go on, Unit-leader."

"It might be nothing, but there was a baby in there. One of his dancing girls claimed it was her own, but..." In the face of his superior, Karek was uncertain of his next words, but Master Tzarren simply raised an eyebrow, and he felt compelled to continue. "Sorry, Sir. It is just that I have seen the girl dance, and her body did not look as though it had recently birthed a child. You know how women are after ..."

Master Tzarren held up a hand to silence him.

"I have a wife and she has given me children. You do not have to detail the changes."

"Sir!"

"So if the child was not hers, then whose was it?" asked Larrad.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Yohef.

"Is it?" replied Master Tzarren.

Karek looked from the old Lance-master to his brother.

"Have you forgotten that the Commander's son is not the only one who is missing?" said Yohef.

"Kralmir's nursemaid?"

"So your brain does still work, brother. The woman must have a baby of her own. What's the point of a nursemaid without milk?"

"And Kamantha would have been ideally placed to remove Commander Kralaford's son from his chambers."

"But why would she do that?" asked Larrad, clearly lost.

"What is the one thing that could persuade one mother to take another's child from her?"

"What?"

"The safety of her own."

"That is sound speculation," said Master Tzarren. "Though quite how the boy was spirited through the fortress after Kamantha had played her part we can only guess."

"What if he has not been taken from the fortress?" said Karek.

Master Tzarren frowned.

"What are you thinking, Unit-leader?"

"Why are they still keeping her child? It must be for a reason. I'm guessing that the duty they are forcing on her is not finished."

"What duty?" asked Larrad.

"If you wish to keep a new born baby hidden somewhere," said Karek. "What is the best way to make sure it stays quiet?"

"Ah," said Larrad. "Stick a tit in its mouth."

"It worked well enough with the two of you," said Yohef.

Karek looked at Master Tzarren and folded his arms.

"And if the Commander's son is being kept hidden, where is the last place the Order would think of looking?"

High Lance-master Tzarren turned to look up at the bulk of the fortress, his fingers scratching at the grey stubble of his chin.