'Huh.' Glokta gripped his cane hard and leaned down to whisper in Goyle's ear. 'There's a little bit of flesh, between your fruits and your arsehole. You never really see it, unless you're a contortionist, or unnaturally fond of mirrors. You know the one I'm talking about. Men spend hours thinking about the area in front of it, and almost as long on the area behind, but that little patch of flesh? Unfairly ignored.' He scooped up a few nails and jingled them gently in Goyle's face. 'I mean to set that right, today. I'm going to start there, and work outwards, and believe me, once I'm done, you'll be thinking about that patch of flesh for the rest of your life. Or you'll be thinking about where it used to be, at least. Practical Cosca, would you be kind enough to help the Superior out of his trousers?'

'The University!' bellowed Goyle. He had a sheen of sweat all over his balding head. 'Sult! He's in the University!'

So soon? Almost disappointing. But then few bullies take a beating well. 'What's he doing there, at a time like this?'

'I… I don't—'

'Not good enough. Trousers, please.'

'Silber! He's with Silber!'

Glokta frowned. 'The University Administrator?'

Goyle's eyes darted from Glokta, to Cosca, and back again. He squeezed them shut. 'The Adeptus Demonic!'

There was a long pause. 'The what?'

'Silber, he doesn't just run the University! He conducts… experiments.'

'Experiments of what nature?' Glokta jabbed sharply at Goyle's bloody face with the head of the hammer. 'Before I nail your tongue to the table.'

'Occult experiments! Sult has been giving him money, for a long time! Since the First of the Magi came calling! Before, maybe!'

Occult experiments? Funding from the Arch Lector? It hardly seems Sult's style, but it explains why those damn Adepti were expecting money from me when I first visited the place. And why Vitari and her circus have set up shop there now. 'What experiments?'

'Silber… he can make contact… with the Other Side!'

'What?'

'It's true! I have seen it! He can learn things, secrets, there is no other way of knowing, and now…'

'Yes?'

'He says he has found a way to bring them through!'

'Them?'

'The Tellers of Secrets, he calls them!'

Glokta licked at his dry lips. 'Demons?' I thought his Eminence had no patience with superstition, when all this time… The nerve of the man!

'He can send them against his enemies, he says. Against the Arch Lector's enemies! They are ready to do it!'