Discomforted, struggling to keep his eyes from the woman’s nakedness, Arathan set down his helm and concentrated on unsaddling Hellar and Besra.

‘We also met your sister in spirit, if not blood,’ Draconus said.

Kilmandaros made a hissing sound. ‘I leave her to grow fat on superstitions. One day the Forulkan will hunger for Dog-Runner land, and we will resume our war and, perchance, end it.’

‘You would make weapons of your followers?’

‘What other good are they, Suzerain? Besides, the Forulkan do not worship me. They have made illimitable law their god, even as they suffer its ceaseless corruption at their own hands. At some point,’ she said, moving close to stand directly behind Arathan, ‘they will deem manifest their right to all that the Dog-Runners own, and make of this law a zealotry to justify genocide.’

‘Foolish,’ Draconus pronounced. ‘I am told that there are Jaghut among the Dog-Runners now, assuming thrones of godhood and tyranny. Did the Forulkan not suffer sufficient humiliation against the Tiste, that they would now make bold claims against both Dog-Runner and Jaghut?’

‘That depends,’ she said, ‘on what I whisper in their ears.’

Feeling the breath of her words on the back of his neck, Arathan quickly went to the other horse and began removing the tack.

She came close again.

‘Tyranny breeds,’ Draconus said from across the room, ‘when by every worthy measure it should starve.’

‘Scarcity begets strife, Suzerain, is what you meant. It was hunger that sent my children against the Tiste—’

‘Hunger for iron. The need was manufactured, the justification invented. But this is a stale argument between us. I have forgiven you, but only because you failed.’

‘And so I weigh your magnanimity, Suzerain, and find it light on the scales. But as you say, this is behind us now.’

When her hand slipped round, over Arathan’s left hip, and slid down to his crotch, Draconus said, ‘Leave off, Kilmandaros.’

The hand withdrew and Kilmandaros moved away. ‘The night is young,’ she said, sighing. ‘I know his desires and would satisfy them. This is between him and me, not you, Suzerain.’

‘I have words that will drive you away,’ Draconus said.

‘You would do that to me? And to him?’

‘Arathan will cease to concern you, I’m afraid. But that is a consequence of what I must tell you, not its purpose.’

‘Then leave it until the morning.’

‘I cannot.’

‘You never did understand pleasure, Draconus. You make love fraught when it should be easy, and fill need with intensity when it should be gentle. Perhaps one day I shall proclaim myself the goddess of love – what do you think of that, O Suzerain? Would not this aspect welcome you, as love welcomes the night and as a caress welcomes the darkness?’