She heard boots crunching on potsherds behind her and turned. No welcoming smile for this one – not this time. ‘L’oric. I am delighted you deigned to acknowledge my request – you seemed to have grown out of the habit of late.’ Oh, how he hides from me, the secrets now stalking him, see how he will not meet my gaze – I sense struggles within him. Things he would tell me. Yet he will say nothing. With all the goddess’s powers at my behest, and still I cannot trap this elusive man, cannot force from him his truths. This alone warns me —he is not as he seems. Not simply a mortal man ...

‘I have been unwell, Chosen One. Even this short journey from the camp has left me exhausted.’

‘I grieve for your sacrifice, L’oric. And so I shall come to my point without further delay. Heboric has barred his place of residence – he has neither emerged nor will he permit visitors, and it has been weeks.’

There was nothing false in his wince. ‘Barred to us all, mistress.’

She cocked her head. ‘Yet, you were the last to speak with him. At length, the two of you in his tent.’

‘I was? That was the last time?’

Not the reaction she had anticipated. Very well, then whatever secret he possesses has nothing to do with Ghost Hands. ‘It was. Was he distressed during your conversation?’

‘Mistress, Heboric has long been distressed.’

‘Why?’

His eyes flicked momentarily to hers, wider than usual, then away again. ‘He ... grieves for your sacrifice, Chosen One.’

She blinked. ‘L’oric, I had no idea my sarcasm could so wound you.’

‘Unlike you,’ he replied gravely, ‘I was not being facetious, mistress. Heboric grieves—’

‘For my sacrifices. Well, that is odd indeed, since he did not think much of me before my ... rebirth. Which particular loss does he mark?’

‘I could not say – you will have to ask him that, I’m afraid.’

‘Your friendship had not progressed to the point of an exchange of confessions, then.’

He said nothing to that. Well, no, he couldn’t. For that would acknowledge he has something to confess.

She swung her gaze from him and turned once more to regard the potential field of battle. 1 can envision the armies arrayed, yes. But then what? How are they moved? What is possible and what is impossible? Goddess, you have no answer to such questions. They are beneath you. Your power is your will, and that alone. But, dear Goddess, sometimes will is not enough. ‘Korbolo Dom is pleased with this pending ... arena.’

‘I am not surprised, mistress.’

She glanced back at him. ‘Why?’