Urusander turned, with something like delight in his eyes. ‘A sound argument, Sheltatha Lore. I will give your words some thought.’ He turned to Renarr. ‘She is your student? You have many talents indeed, Renarr, to awaken such a lively mind.’

Sheltatha snorted. ‘This lively mind, milord, was forged in neglect and abuse, long before I crossed paths with Renarr. Isn’t that always the way? Isolation hones the inner voice, the unspoken dialogue between the selves – and surely there are many selves within each of us. Some uglier than others.’

There was something of the challenge in Sheltatha’s tone.

‘I see little that is ugly in you,’ Urusander said quietly.

‘Youth is the soul’s disguise, milord. It serves, until it is used up. For now, sir, you are seduced by what you see. What if I told you that a vicious, venal demon hides within me? A thing of scars remembering every wound?’

‘Then, perhaps,’ said Urusander, turning once more to the window, ‘I would welcome you to our company.’

Sighing, Renarr settled back in her chair. ‘Your soldiers don’t want restitution, Father. What they lost can’t be returned to them. No, they want wealth, and land. They want to carve up the holdings of the nobles. They want titles. And see how, for all their simple greed, they are now painted white, as if their every squalid want has been blessed. Is it any wonder they grow bold?’

‘I am subjected to their demands daily, Renarr,’ Urusander replied. ‘If this not be a burden I accept, then someone else surely will.’

‘Hunn Raal,’ said Sheltatha Lore, leaning over to refill her goblet. ‘Now there’s an ugly man.’

‘The Legion readies to march,’ Urusander said, eyes still on whatever had caught his attention through the window. ‘Hallyd Bahann’s delay in returning will no longer hold us back.’

Renarr studied her adoptive father for a moment, and then said, ‘Not by your command? Not in answer to your will? Will you simply be pulled along, swept up in this flood of self-serving indignation?’

‘You advise I defy the wishes of my soldiers?’

‘I advise nothing,’ she replied.

‘No,’ murmured Sheltatha Lore, ‘she’s much too subtle to do that.’