‘I’m sure he would if he could,’ Heboric muttered, not un-sympathetically. A moment later he looked up in surprise, as if he had not intended to voice aloud that thought. His toadlike face twisted in dismay.

Felisin waited to regain control of her breathing, then she swung to face the thug.

Baudin’s small eyes were like dull coins, revealing nothing.

‘Bodyguard,’ Kulp said, with a slow nod. His voice was cold as he addressed Heboric. ‘Out with it. I want to know who our companion is, and where his loyalties lie. I let it slide before, because Gesler and his soldiers were on hand. But not now. This girl has a bodyguard – why? Right now, I can’t see anyone caring a whit for a cruel-hearted creature like this one, meaning this loyalty’s been bought. Who is she, Heboric?’

The ex-priest grimaced. ‘Tavore’s sister, Mage.’

Kulp blinked. ‘Tavore? The Adjunct? Then what in Hood’s name was she doing in a mining pit?’

‘She sent me there,’ Felisin said. ‘You’re right – no loyalty involved. I was just one more in Unta’s cull.’

Clearly shaken, the mage spun to Baudin. ‘You’re a Claw, aren’t you?’ The air around Kulp seemed to glitter – Felisin realized he’d opened his warren. The mage bared his teeth. ‘The Adjunct’s remorse, in the flesh.’

‘Not a Claw,’ Heboric said.

‘Then what?’

‘That’ll take a history lesson to explain—’

‘Start talking.’

‘An old rivalry,’ the ex-priest said. ‘Dancer and Surly. Dancer created a covert arm for military campaigns. In keeping with the Imperial symbol of the demon hand gripping a sphere, he called them his Talons. Surly used that model in creating the Claw. The Talons were external – outside the Empire – but the Claw were internal, a secret police, a network of spies and assassins.’

‘But the Claw are used in covert military operations,’ Kulp said.

‘They are now. When Surly became Regent in the absence of Kellanved and Dancer, she sent her Claws after the Talons. The betrayal started subtly – a string of disastrous botched missions – but someone got careless and gave the game away. The two locked daggers and fought it out to the bitter end.’

‘And the Claw won.’

Heboric nodded. ‘Surly becomes Laseen, Laseen becomes Empress. The Claws sit atop the pile of skulls like well-fed crows. The Talons went the way of Dancer. Dead and gone ... or, as a few mused now and then, so far underground as to seem extinct.’ The ex-priest grinned. ‘Like Dancer himself, maybe.’

Felisin studied Baudin. Talon. What’s my sister got to do with some secret sect of revivalists still clinging to the memory of the Emperor and Dancer? Why not use a Claw? Unless she needed to work outside anyone else’s knowledge.

‘It was too bitter to contemplate from the very start,’ Heboric was saying. ‘Throwing her younger sister into shackles like any other common victim. An example proclaiming her loyalty to the Empress—’