'No need to rise, I do not have all day.' Glokta found himself frozen in the most painful possible position, bent somewhere between sitting and standing, and had to sag back into his chair with little grace as Sult swept into the room, three of his huge Practicals looming silently in the doorway behind him. 'You may ask your freak of nature to leave us.'

Frost's eyes narrowed, flickered over the other Practicals, then back to Sult. 'Very good, Practical Frost,' said Glokta hastily. 'You may remove our prisoner.'

The albino unlocked Farrad's manacles and dragged the dentist from his chair with one white fist, hauled him gasping by his collar to the door at the back of the room and ripped back the bolt with his free hand. He gave one pink glare over his shoulder and Sult glared back. Then he slammed the door behind him.

His Eminence slid into the chair opposite Glokta. No doubt still warm from the sweating arse of the brave and righteous Master Farrad. He brushed some of the teeth from the table-top before him with the side of one gloved hand and sent them clicking onto the floor. And he could not have seemed to care less had they been breadcrumbs. 'There is a deadly conspiracy afoot within the Agriont. Have we made progress in unmasking it?'

'I have interviewed most of the Kantic prisoners, extracted a suitable number of confessions, there should not be—'

Sult gave an angry wave of his hand. 'Not that, halfwit. I refer to that bastard Marovia and his pawns, the so-called First of the Magi and our so-called King.'

Even now, with the Gurkish knocking at the gates? 'Your Eminence, I had assumed the war would take precedence—'

'You have not the wit to assume,' sneered Sult. 'What evidence have you collected against Bayaz?'

I stumbled upon something I shouldn't have at the University, then was almost drowned in my bath. 'So far… nothing.'

'What of the parentage of King Jezal the First?'

'That avenue too appears… a dead end.' Or an avenue with my own death at the end, if my owners at Valint and Balk were to hear of it. And they hear of everything.

The Arch Lector's lips twisted. 'Then what the hell have you been doing lately?'

For the last three days I have been busy tearing meaningless confessions from the mouths of innocent men, so that we could appear effective. When was I supposed to find time to bring down the state, precisely? 'I have been occupied with seeking Gurkish spies—'

'Why do I never get anything from you but excuses? I have begun to wonder, since your effectiveness has so sharply declined, how you were able to keep Dagoska out of Gurkish hands so long. You must have needed a tremendous sum of money to strengthen the city's defences.'