He grinned. ‘Simple – straight down their Hood-damned throat.’

‘A foolish belief if ever I’ve heard one ...’

‘Aye. Come on.’

Leading the stallion, they went down the hallway.

The unnatural darkness slowly dissipated in the old Main Hall. Revealed in one corner was a chair on which was seated a withered corpse. Wisps of hair fluttered lightly in a faint draught, the lips were peeled back, the eye sockets two depthless voids.

A warren opened near the back wall and a tall, lean man draped in a dark-green cloak stepped through. He paused in the centre of the chamber, cocked his head towards the double doors opposite, then turned to the corpse on the chair. ‘Well?’

Empress Laseen’s voice emerged from those lifeless lips. ‘No longer a threat.’

‘Are you sure, Empress?’

‘At some point in our conversation, Kalam realized that I was not here in the flesh, that he would have to resume his hunt. It seemed, however, that my words had an effect. He is not an unreasonable man, after all. Now, if you would kindly call off your hunters.’

‘We have been over this – you know that is impossible.’

‘I would not lose him, Topper.’

His laugh was a bark. ‘I said I cannot call off my hunters, Empress – do you take that to mean you actually expect them to succeed7. Hood’s breath, Dancer himself would have hesitated before taking on Kalam Mekhar. No, better to view this disastrous night as a long-overdue winnowing of the brotherhood’s weaker elements ...’

‘Generous of you, indeed.’

His smile was wry. ‘We have learned lessons in killing this night, Empress. Much to ponder. Besides, I have a victim on which to vent my frustration.’

‘Pearl, your favoured lieutenant.’

‘Favoured no longer.’

A hint of warning entered Laseen’s tone. ‘I trust he will recover from your attentions, Topper.’

He sighed. ‘Aye, but for the moment I will leave him to sweat.. . and consider Kalam’s most pointed lesson. A certain measure of humility does a man good, I always say. Would you not agree, Empress?

‘Empress?’

I have been talking to a corpse. Ah, Laseen, that is what I love most about you – your extraordinary ability to make one eat one’s own words . . .

The captain of the Guard literally stumbled on them as they edged their way alongside the old keep’s outer wall. Minala raised the crossbow and the man cautiously held his hands out to the sides. Kalam stepped forward and dragged him into the shadows, then quickly disarmed him.

‘All right, Captain,’ the assassin hissed. ‘Tell me where the Hold’s unwelcome guests are hiding.’

‘I take it you don’t mean yourselves,’ the man said, sighing. ‘Well, the gatehouse guard’s been muttering about figures on the stairs – of course, the old bastard’s half blind. But in the grounds here ... nothing.’

‘You can do better than that, Captain ... ?’