'Yes, yes! Please continue.'

Glokta found, to his surprise, that he was greatly enjoying himself. He was almost tripping over his own tongue in his eagerness to blurt it all out. Now I begin throwing away the secrets I have hoarded for so long, I find I cannot stop. I feel like a miser on a spending spree. Horrified, yet liberated. Agonised, yet delighted. Something like cutting your own throat, I imagine—a glorious release, but one you can enjoy only once. And like cutting my own throat, it will very likely end in my ugly death. Ah well. It has been coming some time, has it not? And not even I could claim I don't deserve it ten times over.

Glokta leaned forwards. Even here, even now, I somehow need to speak it softly. 'Arch Lector Sult is not happy with our new king. Most particularly, he is not happy with the influence that Bayaz exerts over him. Sult finds his powers much curtailed. He believes, in fact, that you are somehow behind the whole business.'

Marovia frowned. 'Does he now?'

He does, and I am not entirely sure that I discount the possibility. 'He has asked me to find some means of removing Bayaz…' His voice dropped almost to a whisper. 'Or removing the king. I suspect, should I fail, that he has other plans. Plans which somehow involve the University.'

'You would seem to be accusing his Eminence the Arch Lector of high treason against the state.' Marovia's eyes were bright and hard as a pair of new nails. Suspicious, and yet terribly eager. 'Have you uncovered anything to use against the king?'

'Before I could even consider doing so, Valint and Balk quite forcibly dissuaded me.'

'They knew so quickly?'

'I am forced to concede that someone close to me may not be as reliable as I have always hoped. The bankers not only demanded that I disobey his Eminence, they also insisted that I investigate him. They want to know his plans. I have only a few days to satisfy them, and Sult no longer trusts me enough to share the contents of his latrine with me, let alone the contents of his mind.'

'Oh dear, dear.' Marovia slowly shook his head. 'Oh dear, dear.'

'To add to my woes, I believe that the Arch Lector is considerably less ignorant of what occurred in Dagoska than he at first appeared. If somebody is talking, it may well be that they are talking to both sides.' If you can betray a man once, after all, it is not so very difficult to do it twice. Glokta gave a long sigh. And there we are. The secrets are all spilled. The turd-pit is emptied. My throat is slashed from ear to ear. 'That is the whole story, your Worship.'

'Well, Superior, you certainly find yourself in quite a pickle.' Quite a fatal one, in fact. Marovia got up and wandered slowly around the room. 'Let us suppose, for the moment, that you truly have come for my help, and not to lead me into some manner of embarrassment. Arch Lector Sult has the means to cause a most serious problem. And the towering self-obsession necessary to try it at a time like this.' You'll get no argument from me there. 'If you could obtain compelling evidence, I would, of course, be willing to present it to the king. But I cannot move against a member of the Closed Council, and the Arch Lector in particular, without firm proof. A signed confession would be best.'