'They speak of locks, and gates, and doors, and the opening of them. Always they talk of opening them. They ask about the Seed. Where is it?'

'Safe.' Bayaz gazed blankly at her. 'Remember, if you truly hear the creatures of the Other Side, that they are made of lies.'

'They are not alone in that. They ask me to break the First Law. Just as you did.'

'Open to interpretation.' Bayaz had a proud twist to the corner of his mouth. As if he had achieved something wonderful. 'I tempered Glustrod's disciplines with the techniques of the Master Maker, and used the Seed as the engine for my Art. The results were…' He took a long, satisfied breath. 'Well, you were there. It was, above all, a triumph of will.'

'You tampered with the seals. You put the world at risk. The Tellers of Secrets…'

'The First Law is a paradox. Whenever you change a thing you borrow from the world below, and there are always risks. If I have crossed a line it is a line of scale only. The world is safe, is it not? I make no apologies for the ambition of my vision.'

'They are burying men, and women, and children, in pits for a hundred. Just as they did in Aulcus. This sickness… it is because of what we did. Is that ambition, then? The size of the graves?'

Bayaz gave a dismissive toss of his head. 'An unexpected side-effect. The price of victory, I fear, is the same now as it was in the Old Time, and always will be.' He fixed her with his eye, and there was a threat in it. A challenge. 'But if I broke the First Law, what then? In what court will you have me judged? By what jury? Will you release Tolomei from the darkness to give evidence? Will you seek out Zacharus to read the charge? Will you drag Cawneil from the edge of the World to deliver the verdict? Will you bring great Juvens from the land of the dead to pronounce the sentence? I think not. I am First of the Magi. I am the last authority and I say… I am righteous.'

'You? No.'

'Yes, Ferro. Power makes all things right. That is my first law, and my last. That is the only law that I acknowledge.'

'Zacharus warned me,' she murmured, thinking of the endless plain, the wild-eyed old man with his circling birds. 'He told me to run, and never stop running. I should have listened to him.'

'To that bloated bladder of self-righteousness?' Bayaz snorted. 'Perhaps you should have, but that ship has sailed. You waved it away happily from the shore, and chose instead to feed your fury. Gladly you fed it. Let us not pretend that I deceived you. You knew we were to walk dark paths.'