'To serve you?' I would sooner spend two years in the stinking darkness. I would sooner have my leg chopped to mincemeat. I would sooner have my teeth pulled from my head. But since I have done all those things already…

'You will take the task that Feekt once had. The task that a score of great men bore before him. You will be my representative, here in the Union. You will manage the Closed Council, the Open Council, and our mutual friend the king. You will ensure him heirs. You will maintain stability. In short, you will watch the board, while I am gone.'

'But the rest of the Closed Council will never—'

'Those that survive have been spoken to. They all will bow to your authority. Under mine, of course.'

'How will I—'

'I will be in touch. Frequently. Through my people at the bank. Through my apprentice, Sulfur. Through other means. You will know them.'

'I don't suppose I have any choice in the matter?'

'Not unless you can repay the million marks I leant you. Plus interest.'

Glokta patted at the front of his shirt. 'Damn it. I left my purse at work.'

'Then I fear you have no choice. But why would you refuse me? I offer you the chance to help me forge a new age.' To bury my hands to the elbow in your dirty work. 'To be a great man. The very greatest of men.' To bestride the Closed Council like a crippled colossus. 'To leave your likeness set in stone on the Kingsway.' Where its hideousness can make the children cry. Once they clear away the rubble and the corpses, of course. 'To shape the course of a nation.'

'Under your direction.'

'Naturally. Nothing is free, you know that.' Again the Magus flicked his hand and something clattered spinning across the squares board. It came to rest in front of Glokta, gold glinting. The Arch Lector's ring. So many times I bent to kiss this very jewel. Who could have dreamed that I might one day wear it? He picked it up, turned it thoughtfully round and round. And so I finally shake off a dark master, only to find my leash in the fist of another, darker and more powerful by far. But what choice do I have? What choices do any of us truly have? He slid the ring onto his finger. The great stone shone in the lamplight, full of purple sparks. From a dead man to the greatest in the realm, and all in one evening.

'It fits,' murmured Glokta.

'Of course, your Eminence. I always knew it would.'

The Wounded

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