She grimaced. ‘I admit to cruel curiosity. But there is so little left of you, Tulas, that the game palls in the deed. I was as much the fool here as you, I fear. So, let us smooth the sands between us and begin anew, if you will have that.’

His nod was understandably cautious.

She went on. ‘If friends have left you, then I will be your companion. If companionship stings too much, then nod to my occasional smile, the meeting of my gaze. With me you can speak, on any matter, and I in turn avow myself a secure repository of your secrets.’

‘And what of your secrets, Sharenas Ankhadu?’

‘Alas, mostly venal, I admit. But if you enquire, you shall have them in abundance.’

To her astonishment, the weathered face creased in a smile. ‘It is said that among the three, you are the cleverest.’

She snorted. ‘Among the three that’s hardly a triumph of wit.’

‘Will you side with Urusander?’

‘You waste little time, Tulas.’

Tulas made a strange sound, and then said, ‘Time? In abundance it is no more than preparation. In short supply it is every necessary deed. We are hoarders of time’s wealth, yet worshippers of its waste.’

‘You have spent years now, preparing to die, Tulas. A waste? Most assuredly.’

‘I’ll bear the cut of your tongue and wipe away what blood may flow.’

She looked ahead through the grainy gloom. Another day was past and the time of failing light was upon them. ‘Calat Hustain was a wall, against which Hunn Raal flung arguments. Stone after stone, shattering, raining down. His words were futile as dust. It was glorious.’

‘Ilgast Rend was a bear among wolves, yet the wolves saw it not.’

‘You knew his purpose?’

‘I surmised. He is a conservative man, and only grows more hardened in his ways. Whatever he said to Calat was all the bulwark the commander needed and as you say: the walls did not so much as tremble.’

‘My sister and cousin will back Urusander, if only to wound Draconus. Better a husband than a consort, if she is to rule us all.’

‘Children cleave to the security of a formal union in the matter of parents,’ said Tulas. ‘It is in their nature to dislike their mother’s lover, if that is all he is. There is a way among the Jheleck, when they have veered into their wolf form, that males are taken by a fever of violence and they set out to slay the pups of their rivals.’

Sharenas thought about that, and then smiled. ‘We do the same and call it war.’

‘No other reasons serve?’

She shrugged. ‘Forms and rules serve to confound what is in essence both simple and banal. Now, you ask which way I will fall. I have thought about it, yet am still undecided. And you?’

‘I shall side with peace.’

‘Who among any of us would claim otherwise?’