“No.” The Fury made a cutting motion with his free hand. “Not any more.”

“We were sent here to guard the contents of the Objects. Our mission—”

“Your mission was to prevent anyone else discovering the existence or nature of those contents before we could send a fully equipped expedition.” The Fury drew itself up. “And in that, you have spectacularly failed.”

Adalwolf uncrossed his arms. Standing there in his black robe, he seemed like the yin to the Fury’s yang, the darkness to the other’s light. “We intercepted the Outward scout ship that made the original discovery, and crashed it before it could make a full report.”

“But then you took it upon yourselves to take down a liner carrying nine hundred foreign citizens. Did you really think nobody—” he inclined his head in my direction, “—would come looking for it?”

Adalwolf glanced at me. His expression was one of contempt. “You appeared just as I was about to neutralise this… this… traitor.”

“Then it is a good thing I stopped you,” the Fury rumbled, “considering this ship numbers among its crew the only child of Admiral Menderes.”

“Menderes?” The wind blew across the top of the tower. High above, a bird called out with a lonely and desolate caw. For the first time, the Adalwolf looked shaken. The fire flickered in his eyes. “I was not aware.”

The Fury stood against the wind, as solid and immoveable as the tower beneath its sandalled feet. “The crew manifest was freely available. All you had to do was check.” He flicked his thick-fingered hand, dismissing the matter. “But all that pales into insignificance,” he said, “compared to your other folly.”

Adalwolf’s own hands were at his sides, bunched into almost skeletal fists. “What folly?”

He glanced at me again, and I realised his natural exasperation at being rebuked was being immeasurably heightened by having it happen in front of me—a ship he no longer considered worthy of his respect or association. I allowed a smile to dance across my lips. It served the arrogant bastard right.

The Roman god ignored this byplay. He banged the butt of his trident against the stone floor and thunder shook the skies. “You almost killed Ona Sudak.”

Adalwolf, braced for something else, seemed taken aback by this revelation. He opened and shut his mouth a few times. “The poet?”

“Yes.”

He gave a mystified shrug. “So what?”

An unpleasant smile spread across the Fury’s face, revealing teeth like ivory monoliths. “Sudak is only her cover identity. When she was in the Fleet, you two morons—” for the first time, he included me in the conversation, “—knew her as Captain Deal, commander of the Conglomeration Fleet, and your direct superior at the Battle of Pelapatarn.”

Adalwolf put a hand to his chest. He had firm control of his avatar’s expression, but I could hear the surprise in his voice. “Captain Deal’s alive?”