'But you played your part, and admirably.' Hoff raised his goblet. 'Given the unfortunate absence of Marshal Varuz, I feel confident his Majesty will soon wish to confer a promotion upon you.' He glanced towards the king, and Luthar grunted his unenthusiastic assent.

'I am honoured to serve in whatever capacity his Majesty should decide, of course. The prisoners are a more urgent matter, however. We have many thousands of them, and no food with which to—'

'We have not enough food for our own soldiers, our own citizens, our own wounded,' said Hoff, dabbing at his wet lips.

'Ransom any men of quality back to the Emperor?' suggested Torlichorm.

'There were precious few men of quality among their entire damn army.'

Bayaz frowned down the table. 'If they are of no value to the Emperor they are certainly of no value to us. Let them starve.'

A few men shifted uncomfortably. 'We are talking of thousands of lives, here—' began Kroy.

The gaze of the First of the Magi fell upon him like a great stone and squashed his objections flat. 'I know what we are talking of, General. Enemies. Invaders.'

'Surely we can find a way?' threw in the king. 'Could we not ship them back to Kantic shores? It would be a shameful epilogue to our victory if—'

'Each prisoner fed is one citizen that must go hungry. Such is the terrible arithmetic of power. A difficult decision, your Majesty, but those are the only kind we have in this room. What would your opinion be, Arch Lector?'

The eyes of the king, and the old men in the high chairs, all turned towards Glokta. Ah, we know what must be done, and we do not flinch, and so forth. Let the monster pronounce the sentence, so the rest can feel like decent men. 'I have never been a great admirer of the Gurkish.' Glokta shrugged his aching shoulders. 'Let them starve.'

King Jezal settled further into his throne with an even grimmer frown. Could it be that our monarch is a touch less house-broken than the First of the Magi would like to believe? Lord Chancellor Halleck cleared his throat. 'Now that victory is ours, our first concern, without question, is the clearing of the ruins, and the rebuilding of the damage caused by…' his eyes shifted nervously sideways to Bayaz, and back. 'Gurkish aggression.'

'Hear, hear.'

'Rebuilding. We are all agreed.'

'The costs,' and Halleck winced as if the word caused him pain, 'even of clearing the wreckage in the Agriont alone, may run to many tens of thousands of marks. The price of rebuilding, many millions. When we consider the extensive damage to the city of Adua besides… the costs…' Halleck scowled again and rubbed at his ill-shaved jaw with one hand. 'Difficult even to guess at.'