Monza’s shoulders seemed to slump a little lower. “The ideal situation for a mercenary, no?”

“You’d have thought. But there’s such a thing as too much chaos, even for a man like me. I swear, the Thousand Swords are the most coherent and orderly body of troops left up here. Which should give you some idea of the utter disorder that has struck your allies.” He stretched his legs out in front of him, one boot crossed over the other. “I thought I might take the brigade down towards Visserine, and press my claims there. I very much doubt Rogont will be honouring our agreement now—”

“Stay,” she said, and fixed her eyes on his.

“Stay?”

“Stay.”

There was a long pause while they watched each other. “You’ve no right to ask me that.”

“But I am asking. Help me.”

“Help… you? It’s coming to something when I’m anyone’s best hope. What of your loyal subjects, the good people of Talins? Is there no help to be had there?”

“They aren’t as keen for a battle as they were for a parade. They won’t lift a finger in case they get Orso back in charge and he hangs every man of them.”

“The fickle movements of power, eh? You’ve raised no soldiers while you had the throne? That hardly seems your style.”

“I raised what I could, but I can’t trust them here. Not against Orso. Who knows which way they’ll jump?”

“Ah, divided loyalties. I have some experience with them. An unpredictable scenario.” Cosca stuck his finger in his other ear, to no greater effect. “Have you considered the possibility of… perhaps… leaving it be?”

She looked at him as if he was speaking in a foreign tongue. “What?”

“I myself have left a thousand tasks unfinished, unstarted or outright failed across the whole breadth of the Circle of the World. In the end, they bother me considerably less than my successes.”

“I’m not you.”

“No doubt a cause of constant regret for us both. But still. You could forget about revenge. You could compromise. You could… be merciful.”

“Mercy and cowardice are the same,” she growled, narrow eyes fixed on the black gate at the far end of the blasted gardens.

Cosca gave a sad smile. “Are they indeed?”

“Conscience is an excuse not to do what needs doing.”

“I see.”

“No use weeping about it. That’s how the world is.”

“Ah.”

“The good get nothing extra. When they die they turn to shit like the rest of us. You have to keep your eyes ahead, always ahead, fight one battle at a time. You can’t hesitate, no matter the costs, no matter the—”

“Do you know why I always loved you, Monza?”

“Eh?” Her eyes flickered to him, surprised.

“Even after you betrayed me? More, after you betrayed me?” Cosca leaned slowly towards her. “Because I know you don’t really believe any of that rubbish. Those are the lies you tell yourself so you can live with what you’ve done. What you’ve had to do.”