A soft scraping sound came from the shadows to the right and he turned in time to catch sight of a huge, elongated body uncoiling from one pillar to wrap itself around another. The snake, surely the most monstrous of the Mad God’s pets, had kept pace with them since claiming Player. Book, speaking in tones of forced, near-hysterical humour, had wondered aloud if the demon had failed to sate its appetite, but they all knew that what drove the beast was not hunger, but malice. They had greeted its first few appearances by brandishing their shards of kraken bone, to which it appeared indifferent, although it hadn’t yet chosen to make another attack.

“What will you pray for?” Maisha asked him, raising her half-lidded gaze with a weak smile before subsiding into another bout of coughing. This time he saw blood on her lips when the hacking finally abated.

“Stay with us,” he murmured, putting his lips close to her ear, “and I’ll pray for you.”

“No.” Her head lolled from side to side. “Don’t waste it. Without my husband, I have no reason to pray for life. A life without him…” Her gaze grew distant and she rested her head on his chest once more. “We risked all coming here, but then our love had always been a risk. Do you know of the Allied Ports? The castes that bind them?”

“I know alchemists are of the second highest caste,” he said. “Only the Treasurers stand higher.”

“A well-travelled man, I see.” She shuddered and he feared another trial of coughs but she settled and spoke on. “Yes, I was born to a family of alchemists. Great was our renown and our wealth. Great enough to require a small army of guards, men of the Sword Caste. It’s a middle rank in the ports, but well respected. Still, they are only permitted to talk to the higher ranks when spoken to.” Her smile became wistful, but also sad. “And, from the moment I set eyes on the man my father had set to guard my workshop, I took every opportunity to make him talk to me. Caste may have bound us, but love breaks all bonds. Love between castes is forbidden on pain of death, but we feared separation more. And so we fled. Even though it dishonoured our families, disgraced us for all time. We fled as far as we could, all the way to the eastern shore of the Fifth Sea. My family, however, has a very long reach.”

His gaze roamed over her face, seeing only a faint echo of statuesque beauty beneath the waxy, hollowed mask. “They did this to you,” he said.

Her shoulders moved in a shrug. “Honour required it.”

“Did you take vengeance?”