Jezal watched in solemn silence, his hands bunched into numb fists on the parapet of the Tower of Chains. There was no sound up here but for the wind fumbling at his ears and, just occasionally, the slightest hint of distant battle. A war cry, or the screams of the wounded. Or perhaps only a sea-bird calling, high on the breeze. Jezal wished for a maudlin moment that he were a bird, and could simply fly from the tower and off over the Gurkish pickets, away from this nightmare. But escape would not be so easy.

'Casamir's Wall was first breached three days ago,' Marshal Varuz was explaining in a monotonous drone. 'We drove back the first two assaults, and held the Three Farms that night, but the next day there was another breach, and another. This damn fire-powder has changed all the bloody rules. A wall that would have stood a week they can bring down in an hour.'

'Khalul always loved to tinker with his dust and his bottles,' muttered Bayaz, unhelpfully.

'They were in the Three Farms in force that night, and carried the gates into the Arches soon afterwards. Ever since, the whole western part of the city has been one running battle.' The tavern where Jezal had celebrated his victory over Filio in the Contest was in that district. The tavern where he had sat with West and Jalenhorm, Kaspa and Brint, before they went away to the North, and he to the Old Empire. Was that building now burning? Was it already a blackened shell?

'We're fighting them hand to hand in the streets by daylight. We're mounting raids in the darkness, every night. Not a stride of ground is given up without it being soaked with Gurkish blood.' Perhaps Varuz hoped to be inspiring, but he was only succeeding in making Jezal feel sick. The streets of his capital soaked in blood, whoever's blood it might have been, was hardly his first aim as king of the Union. 'Arnault's Wall still stands firm, though there are fires burning in the centre of town. The flames almost reached the Four Corners last night, but the rain doused them down, at least for now. We're fighting for every street, every house, every room. Just as you said we should, your Majesty.'

'Good,' Jezal managed to croak, but he almost choked on the word.