Yet the power was sufficient to make her quiet words a clear whisper in the ears of everyone present – including those of the three High Mages who now stood beneath the parade-ground archway – who stood, who did not kneel. ‘Rise, my faithful ones.’

She felt the three distant men flinch at that, as they were meant to. Oh yes, I know where you stand, you three . . . ‘The Holy Desert Raraku lies protected within the Whirlwind circle, ensuring the sanctity of my return. While beyond, the rebellion’s claim to dominion – to rightful independence from the Malazan tyrants – continues its spreading tide of blood. My servants lead vast armies. All but one of the Seven Holy Cities have been liberated.’ She was silent a moment, feeling the power building within her, yet when she spoke again it was in a low whisper. ‘Our time of preparation is at an end. The time has come to march, to set forth from this oasis. The Empress, upon her distant throne, would punish us. A fleet approaches Seven Cities, an army commanded by her chosen Adjunct, a commander whose mind I hold as a map within my own – she possesses no secrets I do not know ...’

The three High Mages had not moved. Felisin was gifted with knowing them, a sudden rush of knowledge that could only be Sha’ik Elder’s. She could see their faces as if she stood but a pace from each of them, and she knew that they now shared that sense of sudden, precise proximity – and a part of her found admiration in their refusal to tremble. The eldest of the three was ancient, withered Bidithal, the one who had first found her, no more than a child, in answer to his own visions. His filmy eyes were fixed on her own. Bidithal, remember that child? The one you used so brutally that first and only night, to scourge from her all pleasures of the flesh. You broke her within her own body, left scars that felt nothing, that were senseless. The child would not be distracted, no children of her own, no man at her side who could wrest loyalty away from the goddess. Bidithal, I have reserved a place for you in the fiery Abyss, as you well know. But for now, you serve me. Kneel.