Now Leth pulled his knife and ran at the woman, striking her in the arm. As the blade pierced her flesh, she let forth a loud cry and hurling herself against the window pane, shattered the glass. Then before Nasidda’s astonished eyes she turned to mist and streamed out through the gap.

“ . . . Gremla’s the one I watch out for. She told me to thrash you, and thrash you I will, and when I’ve done, you’ll wish that you were dead!”

Gerrad heard a scuffle, a crack of bone on rock, then boots receding rapidly. Dregg’s great pudgy face hung over him. “Up, boy. Gremla wants to see you. Now.”

[Essie] was gone but a moment before she came scurrying back upstairs red-faced and flustered. “As if things aren’t bad enough there are redcoats coming. Lord Lugen’s just received a ransom note and there’s a warrant out for Leth!”

“Listen: I’m going after Master Gerrad . . . Tell Essie to get you four good men and bring them to the old smokehouses, they’ll know the way. Come quick and quiet, for Master Gerrad’s sake,” Carrick warned, then raced away. Comments on Gerrad’s Quest from a Young Reader.

For a moment, he was falling, chill air fanning his face. Then with a shock that snatched his breath and numbed his thought, he hit the icy waters of the lake.

“. . . .My hat off to him for breaking free of that place and coming here on his own. But we both know that right now the Quarter is a dangerous place for anyone, let alone Leochtor’s son and heir.”

In the doorway stood a woman: tall, masses of black hair, thin red mouth unsmiling, deep-shadowed eyes. Gerrad went cold. She was looking right at him.

Then, as the man seized Pioter and swung him around, Gerrad called out again at the top of his voice: “Hey! Let go! Let go of him I say!”

"The brat’s not here." . . . .