It was the wrong answer. The tasseled silk curtains shook as Silth raged insanely.

“Of course you haven’t, because you’ve been sleeping on duty and idling your time away! Athrak, tell my protectors of the skies to remove this worthless heap of offal from Castle Marl! He shall answer for his laziness to the Teeth of the Deeps!” The rat gave a pitiful moan as Athrak’s magpies seized him with wicked joy and bore him off.

*

At an upstairs window the curtains of the palanquin parted slightly. Silth watched the scene below on the lakeshore. Blazing torches had been spiked in a semicircle into the rock at the water’s edge. The head of the Guard Command chopped a dead fish into chunks and hurled them into the dark waters. There were no shallows; the island was a massive, steep-sided mountain, its bottom resting on the lake bed, unfathomable depths below. The water rats stood watching the surface, their stomachs knotted in terror, mouths dry with fear, as the waters began to thrash and churn. Dorsal fins and gold-green scales, hooked jaws and curved sets of ripping teeth flashed in the torchlights. Pike! The great freshwater predators set up bow waves as they stormed to the spot, whipping themselves into a feeding frenzy as they fought for gobbets of the dead fish. The condemned water rat screeched as Athrak’s ruthless birds lifted him out over the depths. “No, no, I lied. I’ve seen the White Ghost! Eeeeeeyaaaagh!”

Silth listened to the splash as the rat’s body was dropped to the waiting pike shoal. She shut the curtains with a triumphant chuckle. “I knew he was lying all along. If I’ve seen the White Ghost, then others have. Right, Lantur?”

The vixen Marlfox smiled slyly. “It is as you say, O Great One!”

Two water rat Guard Commanders unspiked the torches and extinguished them, sizzling, in the lake.

“Is she still up at the window watchin’?”

“I dunno. Keep yer eyes front, mate, unless you wants ter feed the fish. You know ’tis death to look upon the Queen.”

“Huh, ’tis death to do anythin’ on this cursed rock. In fact ye can get slain fer nothin’. Lookit pore ole Rigglent, all he did was drop his shield. That ole Queen was just lookin’ for a chance to pick on somebeast. This place gets worse!”

The other rat finished stacking the torches in a pile. “Don’t tell me, cully. Why don’t yer leave? Lake full o’ pike an’ the sky guarded by magpies, wot’s to stop yer, eh?”

In the slave pens there was speculation over what had taken place at the lakeside. An ancient mouse rubbed the area above his footpaw, where the manacles had worn through his fur, causing a sore. “Sounded like one o’ the water rats bein’ fed to the Teeth o’ the Deeps. Better one o’ them than a slave, that’s what I say.”