He tugged at his goatee. “Never is a very long time. And you and I are here for all of it. Take my advice: don’t over-invest in ephemerals, no matter how sweetly they smile or how readily they laugh. Eternity is better unsoured by grief.”

“I’ll do as I choose.”

“Why of course you will. Haven’t you been listening?”

The lamplight flickered, and he was gone.

Viktor stepped into the room. A glance confirmed that Lady Kiradin was indeed as alone as she appeared. Heavy drapes and scattered furnishings offered little scope for concealment.

“Ebigail.”

“Can I offer you a drink, young Viktor?” She waved a lazy hand at a decanter on the mantelpiece. “The Rothlin ’78. There’s so little of it left. But greatness has ever been finite.”

He inclined his head. “I must refuse.”

“Hah.” She arched an eyebrow. “Afraid I’ll poison you?”

“The thought is unthinkable. But then, you’ve laboured hard to re-define that word.”

She took a sip. Maudlin eyes gave way to close-lipped bitterness, and thence to furrowed anger. “You really are nothing like your father. His fire faded so long ago. Yours, I think, will burn as long as you draw breath. Maybe longer. The desire to change the world, and the will to see it through. If only you hadn’t chosen the wrong cause.”

“I might say the same to you.”

She brushed his words aside. “We are lions, you and I. Lions among bleating sheep. I wish I’d realised that long ago. A wasted opportunity.”

“To have me killed?”

The corner of her mouth twitched. “Not so foolish, are you? Tell me, do you suppose the bleating masses would cheer for you if they knew you’ve one foot in the Dark? Oh yes, I know your secret. Tailinn whispered it to me months ago. She’d have made it public herself, but for the price it would have cost that foolish old proctor.”

Viktor forced a studiously neutral expression. So his father hadn’t given him up? It shouldn’t have been a surprise. Betrayal took courage. How had he wronged Tailinn that she’d found that courage? How had she known? Perhaps Elzar had spoken more freely than was wise, or had she simply seen or heard more than she should. It was easy enough to imagine – in hindsight, he and Elzar aught to have been more circumspect. Viktor supposed it was pointless to speculate, and even more so to distress Elzar by speaking of it with him. Tailinn was dead, and the matter done.

“Secrets don’t make one evil, Ebigail. Only the cause to which they are harnessed.”

“Hah.” She shook her head in derision. “Have you come to kill me?”

“You’d deserve it. No trial. No podium from which to spit your venom.”

“So you haven’t come to kill me?” She snorted. “You should.”