This morning, though, the soldiers loitered nervously by the outer door, as if keeping an eye out for someone they expected to come along at any moment. Anna had a clean bucket in one hand as she reached the head of the steps that cut down into the gloom. The sergeant on duty glanced back into the chamber and saw her.

“Here, now,” he said, lifting a hand to get her attention.

But she was already descending along the curve of the stair with the cold stone wall brushing her shoulder and the bucket dangling over air as soon as she cleared the plank flooring. It was quite dark, but she knew the feel of the wall and the angle of each step by now. She could have gone down with her eyes closed, and indeed she paused partway down, in the shadows, and closed her eyes, because she heard voices.

The tower rose in levels, with the deepest chamber dug out of the earth and markedly colder than the ground floor and the other rooms stacked above. The space below was used to store beans and onions, and here also three small cells had been bricked in. From her place on the stairs, with the dampening of sound and the lack of any footsteps clomping above, she heard them speaking in low voices. One of those voices was familiar to her; the other had a strange, enchanting timbre that seemed to stick her feet right where they were so that she didn’t dare, or want, to move.

“You cannot escape because Antonia controls the galla.”

“I do not fear the galla.”

“You should.”

“Perhaps.”

“Then why do you not escape? If you can, why don’t you?”

“Is that not obvious? I have those to whom I am responsible. If they cannot run, then 1 cannot run.”

“Thus meaning, you cannot protect them from the galla. Is it Princess Blessing, or Conrad’s daughter, who holds you here?”

“Why can it not be both?”

“I heard the story once that you tried to drown Prince Sanglant, when he was an infant.”

“It’s a story that has been told many times, and on occasion in my hearing.”

‘An interesting tale, and if true, a shame you did not succeed. Although it might make a man wonder what allegiance holds you to Princess Blessing. Is it her father you seek to serve? Her mother? Anne’s tangled weaving, still to be obeyed? Or do you merely have a weakness for these caged birds?”

“It’s true I do not like to see such bright creatures imprisoned by cruel masters.” Wolfhere sounded bored beyond measure, tired of the game. “What do you want, Lord Hugh?”

“Where did you come from? How did you get here?”

Wolfhere sighed.

“You were seen last in the company of Brother Marcus and Sister Meriam. You ran from them. Yet now you appear here, with Meriam’s granddaughter in your care. Where were you? How did you escape the cataclysm?”

“Fortune favored us,” said the old man dryly.