'Don't worry. I am glad that you brought it. I think it would be best if you used it to stab your friend.'

'Him?' Dogman squinted at Grim.

Grim grinned and nodded back at him. 'Aye, definitely!'

'Right, right, good idea.' Dogman lifted up the knife, seeming to weigh a ton. 'Er… anywhere you'd like him stabbed, in particular?'

'In the heart will do nicely.'

'Right you are. Right. The heart it is.' Grim turned front on to give him a better go at it. Dogman blinked, wiped some sweat from his forehead. 'Here we go, then.' Damn it but he was dizzy. He squinted at Grim's chest, wanting to make sure he got it right first time, and didn't embarrass himself again. 'Here we go…'

'Now!' she hissed at him. 'Just get it—'

The axe blade made a clicking sound as it split her head neatly down the middle, all the way to her chin. Blood sprayed out and spattered in Dogman's gawping face, and the witch's thin body slumped down on the stones like it was made of nothing but rags.

Dow frowned as he twisted the haft of his axe this way and that, until the blade came free of Caurib's ruined skull with a faint sucking sound. 'That bitch talks too much,' he grunted.

The Bloody-Nine felt the change. Like the first green shoot of spring. Like the first warmth on the wind as the summer comes. There was a message in the way the Feared held him. His bones were no longer groaning, threatening to burst apart. The giant's strength was less, and his was more.

The Bloody-Nine sucked in the air and his rage burned hot as ever. Slowly, slowly, he dragged his face away from the giant's shoulder, felt the metal slide out from his mouth. He twisted, twisted until his neck was free. Until he was staring into the giant's writhing face. The Bloody-Nine smiled, then he darted forward, fast as a shower of sparks, and sank his teeth deep into that big lower lip.

The giant grunted, shifted his arms, tried to drag the Bloody-Nine's head away, tear the biting teeth out of his mouth. But he could more easily have shaken off the plague. His arms loosened and the Bloody-Nine twisted the hand that held the Maker's sword. He twisted it, as the snake twists in its nest, and slowly he began to work it free.