Chapter 13: The Hooks

The torch landed on the tarred thatch, and the roof above the lower square went up with a roar.

Heat hit my face from forty feet away.

Pups screamed.

Mothers grabbed them and ran, and the whole crowd of Dawn Watch surged toward the one narrow lane that led out.

"Don't run!" I shouted. "You'll crush the little ones! Walk!"

Nobody heard me.

The fire jumped to the next roof, and the next.

Corvin let go of me.

"The lane," he said. "Hold it open."

"You can barely stand."

"I can stand long enough."

He went toward the lane at a limp, with the bolt still in his thigh, and the mark on my wrist dragged me after him.

At the mouth of the lane the crowd was jammed shoulder to shoulder, and burning thatch was falling on their heads.

Corvin put his back against the corner post of the nearest house and set his hands on a roof beam.

His arms swelled.

His shirt split down the seam, and his shoulders went huge and dark with fur.

He roared and pulled the beam down.

The whole front of the house came with it, and the burning roof slid into the street on the far side, away from the people.

Smoke rolled over us.

Above, on the east walkway, Joss was shouting orders.

"Shoot the ones who run!" he called. "Tobin! Now!"

Tobin's two hundred stood in a line on the wall with their crossbows in their hands.

I still had the silver ring in my fist.

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