The city was silent -- save for the distant roar of a crowd declaring revolution upon the burning palaces. Smoke trickled along the streets, mixing with blood and demon-ash.

On the tower, another bolt was notched.

With Ronken ready and in-tow, Meryn dashed for the statue, across a narrow gap between buildings that would have been easy for anyone with two working legs and half a wit to cross -- but unfortunately, at the moment Ronken had neither.

He tripped on the roof's edge, cracked his head on the opposite wall, and tumbled and wrenched out of Meryn's grip; he dropped like a stone three stories, and landed with a sickening crack that echoed up the alley.

A bolt whizzed past Meryn's ear, cutting her hair and drawing blood. Another, a split second later, would embed itself into the roof where she had been standing. The statue -- a stylized gargoyle in the shape of a horned cat with a disturbingly human face -- offered her momentary shelter, but the archer was not the type to give up.

Above her were the open arches of a bell tower, and inside the great dark bells hung still and cold. Something small glittered among them, and came to rest on the ledge of one of the arches: a golden mechanical bird.

The tower had a view of the city: the fires that dotted the streets, the greater inferno that had once been the government office, and the explosion-pocked wasteland that extended beyond the walls. The demons were all gone, soaked up by the now-vanished portal-in-the-sky -- there was no sign of Spook, either.

Night was falling; stars glinted behind a cool violet sky to show the way -- between Meryn and the north wall was a labyrinth of unwieldy structures, whirring turbines, rattling boilers and plumes of smoke. Within the bell tower, a spiraling staircase led down into the rooms below.

A bolt whizzed by her, from the opposite direction; there were two marksmen now, both aimed for her head.

[hr]

"You're not very good at this, are you?"

The same hooded woman who had given Ronken the sealed letter knelt in front of his still-alive form with a small smile; with a pastel pencil in her gloved hand, she drew a bright rune on his forehead. She pulled a necklace out of the collar of her cloak, and she touched the small silvery pendant against the newly drawn rune.

A surge of energy coursed through Ronken's veins and repaired his bones and his injuries; in a moment, the effects of his fall were completely gone, his ankle was completely healed, and even the lingering effects of his earlier drug habit had left him.

The woman dropped the silver bell back down her collar, and she smiled at him with humor. She had dark hair, her skin was the color of acorns, her eyes almost glowed a bright green, and she was covered in dark patches of crystalline stone. "Good morning, Sunshine. I owe you a payment. You can call me Switch. You're welcome."

A shimmer of light glowed just inside her cloak; the fairy was recovering, curled in a pocket.

A flicker of a shadow passed overhead; more people were jumping the rooftops in pursuit of Meryn. The woman glanced upward, but was confident they would not be seen.