‘Go on,’ said Kargrin gently. ‘I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t necessary. I had a rat there, looking through a crack in the wall, but its view was very limited.’

‘Mother touched a goblet Aronzo made, or said he made,’ said Clariel. ‘Sparks flew, white sparks … Mother said it wasn’t made by any mortal hand but by Free Magic … Kilp tried to talk about it, but Mother … she wouldn’t talk. She just never compromised, it was always her way and nothing else mattered –’

Clariel burst into tears, full-blown crying, her breath coming in racking sobs that shook her whole body. But in just a few moments she had it under control again, was forcing her breathing into a regular pattern and wiping her eyes.

‘She was an Abhorsen again, in the end,’ said Kargrin gravely. ‘I hate to ask you … but are you sure both your father and mother were killed?’

Clariel nodded once, then hesitated.

‘I … ah … I saw Father, and I felt him die,’ she said slowly. ‘He was hit by a quarrel, in the chest. Mother was charging at least half a dozen guards, flames in her hands, they were hacking at her … She made me run, I didn’t see … but she must have been killed.’

‘You felt your father die?’ asked Kargrin. ‘You have the Abhorsen’s death sense?

‘I suppose so …’ faltered Clariel. ‘I never realised before that’s what it is …’

‘But you didn’t feel your mother die,’ said Kargrin. His forehead was crinkled with concern, and his voice showed he was trying to be kind, but was desperate to know the answer.

‘No,’ said Clariel. ‘But I was already on the stair. Her spell forced me to go. Otherwise I would have stayed to fight. I would have!’

‘I’m sure you would,’ said Kargrin. ‘But better you didn’t.’

‘Is there … Could Mother have survived?’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Kargrin heavily. ‘Kilp was ever a master of misdirection. He’s put out a broadsheet claiming the King is dead, killed by insurrectionists, which is false of course. It also says that the King named Jaciel as his heir, with Kilp as “Lord Protector”, his name for an all-powerful regent. The coronation of the new Queen will take “some time” due to the “rebellion”, which is being suppressed by “loyal forces” under the Governor’s direction.’

‘So Mother might be alive,’ said Clariel wonderingly.

Kargrin shook his head. ‘I very much doubt it. No one has seen her, supposedly because she’s grief-stricken over the King’s death. I think she was killed with your father. I am sorry, Clariel.’

‘I still can’t … It doesn’t seem real,’ whispered Clariel. ‘But how can Kilp say the King is dead?’