It looked like nothing more than an uneven chunk of dark stone the size of a big fist. But this was no stone, and Ferro knew it. She felt something leaking from it, pouring from it, flooding out in thrilling waves. Something that could not be seen, or touched, and yet filled the whole space to its darkest reaches. Invisible, yet irresistible, it flowed tingling around her and dragged her forwards.

Ferro's heart thumped at her ribs as her footsteps drew close. Her mouth flooded with hungry spit as she knelt beside it. Her breath clawed in her throat as she reached out, palm itching. Her hand closed around its pocked and pitted surface. Very heavy, and very cold, as if it were a chunk of frozen lead. She lifted it slowly up, turning it in her hand, watching it glitter in the darkness, fascinated.

'The Seed.'

Bayaz stood in one of the archways, face trembling with an ugly mixture of horror and delight. 'Leave, Ferro, now! Take it to the palace.' He flinched, raised one arm, as if to shield his eyes from a blinding glare. 'The box is in my chambers. Put it inside, and seal it tight, do you hear me? Seal it tight!'

Ferro turned away, scowling, not sure now which of the archways led out of the Maker's House.

'Wait!' Quai was padding across the floor towards her, his gleaming eyes fixed on her hand. 'Stay!' He showed no trace of fear as he came closer. Only an awful kind of hunger, strange enough that Ferro took a step away. 'It was here. Here, all along.' His face looked pale, slack, full of shadows. 'The Seed.' His white hand crept through the darkness towards her. 'At last. Give it to—'

He crumpled up like discarded paper, was ripped from his feet and flung away the whole width of the vast room in the time it took Ferro to drag in one stunned breath. He hit the wall just below the lowest balcony with an echoing crunch. She watched open-mouthed as his shattered body bounced off and tumbled to the ground, broken limbs flopping.

Bayaz stepped forward, his staff clenched tightly in his fist. The air around his shoulders was still shimmering ever so slightly. Ferro had killed many men, of course, and shed no tears. But the speed of this shocked even her.

'What did you do?' she hissed, the echoes of Quai's fatal impact with the far wall still thudding about them.

'What I had to. Get to the palace. Now.' Bayaz stabbed at one of the archways with a heavy finger, and Ferro saw the faintest glimmer of light inside it. 'Put that thing into the box! You cannot imagine how dangerous it is!'