The thought brought a low rumble of laughter to him.

Alas, the hare had no reason to join in the amusement.

Before dusk descended into night, he had seen a lone figure walking up from the east. While it was true that chance could not be measured, this meeting to come was by no means accidental, and so in his mind he measured it out most carefully. Well to the west, a Thel Akai queen had been stirred from her eternal slumber, and her mood was still foul, no matter the efforts at placation.

The old so disliked the young, and at the extremes of both, why, the dislike stretched into genuine distaste. Regard as foul the fresh-born; see as crêped the laggard ancients, with disgust the mutual regard and well earned, too.

And now here, from the east, heavy footsteps drawing ever closer, came an old friend who would kneel to a child. These details did not so much balance out as wink at one another.

‘So much to muse on,’ he now said, loud enough to be heard by the one who approached. ‘Yet all the ale is gone. I was never one to ration my gifts, poor me.’

‘In words alone, Grizzin Farl, you could fill casks.’

‘Ah, but mine own fill never tastes as sweet. Join me, old friend. I would wring from you a thousand confessions this night, till I nod drunk on wisdom. If not yours, then mine.’

His guest was nearly of matching bulk and girth. A cloak of silver fur rode his broad shoulders, shimmering in the starlight. ‘I have come from a place of tribulation and dire portent.’

‘In leaving did you, by chance, raid a wine cupboard?’

‘The Tiste do well by wine, it’s true. So much, then, for gifts carried a great distance.’ With that he drew out from a satchel a fired jug.

Grizzin Farl smiled. ‘Caladan Brood, I would kiss you if I were blind and only a smidgen more desperate than I am.’

‘Hold the sentiment until you are well and truly drunk, but think not of me.’

‘Who, then?’

‘Why, your wife, of course. This wine was meant for her.’

‘Thief of her heart! I should have known not to trust you! Her sloven’d gratitude, which I easily envision here in my skull, has the rank stench of a distillery. Truly you know the secret path to her bed!’

‘Not so secret, Grizzin, but I shall say no more and thus protect your innocence.’

‘By title I was named Protector and in said cause I now stopper my ears and shut my eyes. Come then, pass me this bottle and let’s know the sting of portent.’

‘My freedom,’ Brood said, ‘has been wrested away from me.’

Grizzin swallowed down three quick mouthfuls, and then gasped. ‘You fool – how much did you pay for this? Your firstborn? Never have I tasted better! Upon my wife’s tongue the shock of quality – she’ll know not what to make of it.’