'Out of my way!' she screamed, and started to force a path through. 'Move!' The story Bayaz had told on the endless plain nagged at the back of her mind. How the soldiers had found the Seed in the ruins of Aulcus. How they had withered and died. She pushed and kicked and shouldered her way through the press. 'Move!' She tore free of them and sprinted off down the empty street, her broken arm held against her body, against the thing inside her shirt.

She ran across the park, leaves fluttering down from the trees with each chilly gust. The high wall of the palace rose up where the lawns ended and Ferro made for the gate. The two guards still flanked it just as they always did, and she knew they were watching her. They might have let her out, but they were not so keen on letting her in, especially filthy, bloody, covered in dirt and sweat, and running as if she had a devil at her heels.

'Wait, you!' Ferro made to duck past them but one grabbed hold of her.

'Let me go you fucking pink fools!' she hissed. 'You don't understand!' She tried to twist away, and a gilded halberd fell to the ground as one of the guards wrapped his arms around her.

'Explain it, then!' snapped out from behind the visor of the other. 'Why the hurry?' His gauntleted fist reached out towards the bulge in her shirt. 'What have you got—'

'No!' Ferro hissed and squirmed, stumbled against the wall bearing one guard clanking back into the archway. The halberd of the other swung down smoothly, its glittering point levelled at Ferro's chest.

'Hold still!' he growled, 'before I—'

'Let her in! Now!' Sulfur stood on the other side of the gates, and for once he was not smiling. The guard's head turned doubtfully towards him. 'Now!' he roared, 'in the name of Lord Bayaz!'

They let her free and Ferro tore away, cursing. She ran through the gardens, into the palace, boots echoing in the hallways, servants and guards moving suspiciously out of her way. She found the door of Bayaz' rooms and fumbled it open, stumbled through. The box sat open on a table near the window, an unremarkable block of dark metal. She strode across to it, unbuttoned her shirt and pulled out the thing inside.

A dark, heavy stone, the size of a fist. Its dull surface was still cold, no warmer than when she had first picked it up. Her hand tingled pleasantly, as if at the touch of an old friend. It made her angry, somehow, to even think of letting go.