He must have taken half a dozen wounds and fallen into the fire. The guard had dragged him forth. That was what the smell of burning was.

It could have been worse, Kormak thought. When the stink had hit his nostrils, he had expected torture. The old man’s words came back to him. Dead is dead. It does not matter how you got that way.

All this had happened when he had been standing in the wood debating with the moonchild. And Telurion had known. This was the news he had been brought. He had sworn his oath knowing that it was already past the point where he would ever have to keep it.

The city guards noticed him then. Their leader looked up from where he sprawled in the chair. “I knew they had hidden you somewhere,” he said. “You were stupid to come out of hiding but no matter. We would have found you in the morning.”

“You should not have come here,” said Kormak. “You should not have done this.”

“And you should not have killed our Mayor- he was a fat greedy bastard but we can’t have people going around murdering whoever they like. It sets a bad example.”

“One it seems you have followed.”

The captain had the grace to look ashamed for a moment. “Things got out of hand.”

He glanced at the rest of the guard and they too looked ashamed, and Kormak knew that their shame was his death warrant. They would not want to leave anyone alive who had witnessed this.

“Who killed the girl?” Kormak asked. "Who started this?"

“What does it matter?” asked the captain. He stood up and drew his sword from his scabbard. He was a big man and he wore chainmail.

“It matters to me.”

“I did then, if it will make you happy. Consider your last request granted before we take you out and hang you. She gave us some cock and bull story about you going off to save her from monsters in the dark. She would not change even when I cut her."

Kormak looked at the small corpse. I am sorry, he thought. The monsters came from the dark and I could not save you. They came looking for me and I was not here so they killed you instead. The man with the wounded arm interrupted his train of thought.

“Hanging’s too easy for this bastard. He almost killed me today. He should pay for that in blood."

"I was trying not to kill you," said Kormak softly.

They laughed as if he had made a joke. They were still laughing as the first of them died, still amazed by the speed with which the blade had appeared in Kormak’s hand.