‘She is.’ Then he snapped his mouth shut. A damned miserable thing to say—

‘I made them good at hiding,’ Cotillion went on, eyes still on the woman lying in the bloody, trampled grass. ‘Good enough to hide even from me, it seems.’

‘What do you think she was doing here?’

Cotillion flinched slightly. ‘The wrong question, Cutter. Rather, why was she with Traveller? What is the Talon up to? And Traveller ... gods, did he know who she was? Of course he did – oh, she’s aged and not well, but even so ...’

‘You could just ask him,’ Cutter murmured, grunting as he shifted Apsalar’s weight in his arms. ‘He’s in the courtyard behind us, after all.’

Cotillion reached down to the woman’s neck and lifted into view something strung on a thong. A yellow-stained talon of some sort. He pulled it loose, studied it for a moment, then twisted round and flung it towards Cutter.

It struck his chest, then fell to lie in Apsalar’s lap.

The Daru stared down at it for a moment, then looked up and met the god’s eyes.

‘Go to the Edur ship, Cutter. I am sending you two to another ... agent of ours.’

‘To do what?’

‘To wait. In case you are needed.’

‘For what?’

‘To assist others in taking down the Master of the Talon.’

‘Do you know where he or she is?’

He lifted Hawl into his arms and straightened. ‘I have a suspicion. Now, finally, a suspicion about all of this.’ He turned, the frail figure held lightly in his arms, and studied Cutter for a moment. A momentary, wan smile. ‘Look at the two of us,’ he said, then he swung away and began walking towards the forest trail.

Cutter stared after him.

Then shouted: ‘It’s not the same! It’s not! We’re not—’

The forest shadows swallowed the god.

Cutter hissed a curse, then he turned to the trail that led down to the shoreline.

The god Cotillion walked on until he reached a small glade off to one side of the path. He carried his burden into its centre, and gently set her down.

A host of shadows spun into being opposite, until the vague, insubstantial form of Shadowthrone slowly resolved itself. For a change, the god said nothing for a long time.

Cotillion knelt beside Hawl’s body. ‘Traveller is here, Ammanas. In the Edur ruins.’

Ammanas grunted softly, then shrugged. ‘He’ll have no interest in answering our questions. He never did. Stubborn as any Dal Honese.’

‘You’re Dal Honese,’ Cotillion observed.

‘Precisely.’ Ammanas slipped noiselessly forward until he was on the other side of the corpse. ‘It’s her, isn’t it.’

‘It is.’

‘How many times do our followers have to die, Cotillion?’ the god asked, then sighed. ‘Then again, she clearly ceased being a follower some time ago.’

‘She thought we were gone, Ammanas. The Emperor and Dancer. Gone. Dead.’