I was a good soldier, but I was no spy. This cloak and dagger stuff wasn't my comfort zone and it was more than likely that there was someone - or someones - in the room already watching us and I'd never notice.

I knocked back the last dregs of my ale and stood up.

'Are you -?' Thenum began.

'Where do you take a piss around here?' I asked him.

'Oh, um...' He nodded towards the view. 'Off the edge.'

I looked and, sure enough, a couple of guys were in the traditional position as they stared out at the scenery beyond.

'Please tell me you don't shit off there as well.'

'What? No!' laughed Thenum.

For the first few days I had taken him for a younger man than he was. He had one of those faces. He was probably almost my age and not much younger than Anthelion. He had a dry wit and, although he was Anthelion's servant, the pair had a constructive relationship. It was Anthelion's magical power that earned him the exclusive use of the tower and a stipend of food and drink. But it was Thenum's hard work that turned that into actual meals and an orderly life amidst the chaos of the Citadel.

'Most of us do our shitting at home. But there are communal drops. Do you need me to show you where they are?'

'Nah, I'm good,' I chuckled. 'Good to know, though.'

I wandered over to the view. Night was drawing in fast. As far as I could tell, the small sun orbitted the big one, and days were about the length I was used to. I had a self-winding watch on and had been trying to set it to dawn, but I hadn't managed to be awake in time, yet. Plus, I was still trying to decide what constituted dawn here, anyway. First sun over the horizon or only when the big sun came up?

In any case, by this time, both suns were gone and the lingering glow on the horizon was dying away, too. The stars were coming out and, my god, it was a sight to behold. I had seen some spectacular nights, out in a desert or two, tens of miles from the nearest artificial light besides the torch in my pocket. But the nights here were... just unspeakably gorgeous. The planet had three small moons that I had seen - all noticeably smaller than the one I'd grown up with. But Anthelion had told me there was a fourth one - larger and slower than the others - that wasn't visible at this time of year.

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So standing at the stone wall between me and a sheer drop of hundreds of feet, with the mountains ahead of me across the valley, the stars over my head, and my dick in my hand... It was a surprisingly profound experience.

'Hey, what's that?' I asked the guy next to me, gesturing along the valley to where it opened up with a narrow view of the land beyond - Planio's mostly flat interior that I was yet to really see.

My neighbour seemed surprised to be addressed, as I suppose you usually are when someone interrupts your, um, flow. But he glanced up in the direction I was pointing.

'What's what?' he asked.

'I can see a light. Long way away, I reckon. Could be a fire?'

I might not be much of a spy, but my eyesight was beyond twenty-twenty. I could read a newspaper on the other side of quite a large room, and pick out a poorly-disciplined sentry lighting a cigarette over a mile away.

Judging the horizon - still just visible in that direction in the last dregs of the setting suns - and assuming this world had about the same diameter as mine, I estimated that whatever it was was about twenty miles away.

'Yes,' I confirmed. 'Definitely a fire. Something big?'

'Val Namur,' said my companion, quietly.

'Val Namur?'

'The forest is alight. Gazenthlion comes.'

He immediately tied himself up and hurried away in alarm, although I noticed he made no effort to tell anyone else. I returned to our table and found Thenum chatting amicably with a woman. I leaped to the conclusion that she was a prostitute on the basis of the eye-catching cut of her dress and the way she was obviously attempting to sidle into Thenum's lap. Perhaps that was just me being prejudiced.

'For two favours, Master Thenum,' she was saying, but as he saw me return, Thenum blushed in the gloom and pushed her off the table.

'Later, Hyana,' he told her, glancing at me. 'I have business to do.'

She spared me an appraising glance before sauntering away.

'He'll hear nothing from me,' I promised.

'I... have no idea what you're referring to,' he smiled back. 'Relieved?'

'Possibly the opposite,' I replied. 'Is Val Namur a wooded area about a day's travel from here?'

'Um, yes,' he agreed. 'If one were traveling by cart. Why?'

'It's on fire.'

'What!?' he cried in alarm. 'But that means...!'

I gestured him to quiet and said in a low voice:

'I'm not sure, but I think I just identified at least one of the men watching us and he seemed very keen on not alarming the patrons of this establishment by yelling anything stupid, like "Gazenthlion is coming!".'

'What do we do?'

'Come to the balcony with me and see if you can see it. If not, I'll describe it and we can work out what I'm looking at. Then we'll go and tell Anthelion.' I paused to pick up his leather cup and toss back the last of his ale, too. 'We might need to adjust people's timetables a bit.'