He laid a hand against the wood. The dark-stained planks were sweating. There’s sorcery on the other side. Powerful sorcery. He stepped back, met Minala’s eyes where she stood ten paces back, and slowly shook his head.

She shrugged, lifting the crossbow in her hands.

He faced the doors again and gripped the latch of the one to his left. It lifted silently.

Kalam pushed the door open.

Inky darkness flowed out, bitter cold.

‘Step within, Kalam Mekhar,’ a woman’s voice invited.

He saw little option. He had come for this, though the final shaping was not as he would have liked. The assassin strode into the dark, the stallion following.

‘That is close enough. Unlike Topper and his Claw, I do not underestimate you.’

He could see nothing, and the voice seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. The door behind him – slightly ajar – offered a slight lessening of the gloom, but that reached but a pace or two before the blackness absorbed it entirely.

‘You’ve come to kill me, Bridgeburner,’ Empress Laseen said in a cool, dry voice. ‘All this way. Why?’

The question startled him.

There was wry amusement in her voice as she continued, ‘I cannot believe that you must struggle to find your answer, Kalam.’

‘The deliberate murder of the Bridgeburners,’ the assassin growled. ‘The outlawing of Dujek Onearm. The attempted murders of Whiskeyjack, myself and the rest of the Ninth Squad. Old disappearances. A possible hand in Dassem Ultor’s death. The assassination of Dancer and the Emperor. Incompetence, ignorance, betrayal...’ He let his litany fall away.

Empress Laseen was silent for a long time, then she said in a low tone, ‘And you are to be my judge. And executioner.’

‘That’s about right.’

‘Am I permitted a defence?’

He bared his teeth. The voice was coming from everywhere – everywhere but one place, he now realized, the corner off to his left, a corner that he estimated was no more than four strides away. ‘You can try, Empress.’ Hood’s breath, I can barely stand upright, and she’s most likely got wards. As Quick Ben says, when you’ve got nothing, bluff. . .

Laseen’s tone hardened. ‘High Mage Tayschrenn’s efforts in Genabackis were misguided. The decimation of the Bridgeburners was not a part of my intentions. Within your squad was a young woman, possessed by a god that sought to kill me. Adjunct Lorn was sent to deal with her—’

‘I know about that, Empress. You’re wasting time.’