'You will share the responsibilities. Goyle is the more experienced man, so he will be the senior partner, and continue running the department. For you I will find some tasks suited to your particular talents. I'm hoping that a little healthy competition will bring out the best in you both.'

More than likely it will end with one of us dead, and we can all guess who the favourite is. Sult gave a thin smile, as though he knew precisely what Glokta was thinking. 'Or perhaps it will simply demonstrate that one of you is superior to the other.' He barked a joyless laugh at his own joke, and Glokta gave a watery, toothless grin of his own.

'In the meantime, I need you to deal with this envoy. You seem to have a way of handling these Kantics, though you might avoid beheading this one, at least for the time being.' The Arch Lector allowed himself another minuscule smile. 'If he's after anything more than peace, I want you to sniff it out. If we can get anything more than peace from him, then of course, sniff that out too. It would do no harm if we could avoid looking like we got our backs whipped.'

He stood awkwardly and manoeuvred himself out from behind the table, all the while frowning as though the tightness of the room was an intentional affront to his dignity. 'And please, Glokta, find yourself some better quarters. A Superior of Adua, living like this? It's an embarrassment!'

Glokta humbly bowed his head, causing an unpleasant stinging right down to his tailbone. 'Of course, your Eminence.'

The Emperor's envoy was a thickset man with a heavy, black beard, a white skull-cap, and a white robe worked with golden thread. He rose and bowed humbly as Glokta hobbled over the threshold. As earthy and humble-seeming as the last emissary I dealt with was airy and arrogant. A different kind of man, I suppose, for a different purpose.

'Ah. Superior Glokta, I should have guessed.' His voice was deep and rich, his mastery of the common tongue predictably excellent. 'Many people on our side of the sea were very disappointed when your corpse was not among those found in the citadel of Dagoska.'

'I hope you will convey my sincere apologies to them.'

'I will do so. My name is Tulkis, and I am a councillor to Uthman-ul-Dosht, the Emperor of Gurkhul.' The envoy grinned, a crescent of strong white teeth in his black beard. 'I hope I fare better at your hands than the last emissary my people sent to you.'

Glokta paused. A sense of humour? Most unexpected. 'I suppose that would depend on the tone you take.'