The heart of the jungle was dense and dark, vines and creepers hanging down on all sides of the narrow path. The four horses trotted along quickly in a tight line. Dorm Harkaway, today Dorm Rendell; newest member of Blake’s Blades held tightly onto the handle of his six-shooter as he rode. It was in jungle like this that that he had been attacked by those savage half-men Degens. He’d never considered himself a coward, someone who was afraid when there was no need to be and could not conquer that fear, but right now he was frightened. It certainly wasn’t cowardice, cowards didn’t survive thirteen years in the army and six as an undercover agent, and besides his fear was more than justified. His last encounter with Degens had seen a woman rent sunder before his very eyes. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to seeing that again, or to being the next one to have his throat eaten.

He tried not to think about it, while at the same time neither relaxing or letting down his guard. He was in The Blades, they had done the job, Ceran had accepted him and every second he drew closer to Saffron. There was a lot to be content about, but it never paid to be content. Being content led to being relaxed and being relaxed led to being dead. And Dorm had never fancied being dead.

Suddenly the jungle gave way to a huge grey building, overgrown with creepers and plants. Dorm started and drew his horse to a halt, tugging back sharply on the reigns. Behind him the two fistmen, Jon and Philip, stopped with curses and irritated noises.

Ceran turned and grinned back at them, “Impressive, ain’t it? Welcome to the Hideout - we hope your stay here is a pleasant one.”

Dorm laughed in amazement and followed Ceran as she rode towards the front of the building. He had had no ides this was out here so this came as something as a shock. He’d studied maps of the area for hours and never seen anything like this on any of them. It wasn’t as though a building this size could be easily over looked. There were other abandoned buildings in th