‘Half our soldiers are drunk and the rest are well on their way. Paran and his cronies disappearing into that tent and not coming out ain’t been taken as a good sign. We won’t be in any shape to do a damned thing come the dawn.’

Picker glanced over to Humbrall Taur’s tent. The silhouetted figures within had not moved in some time. After a moment she nodded to herself. ‘All right, Spin. Stop worrying about it. Go have some fun.’

The man gaped. ‘Fun?’

‘Yeah, remember? Relaxation, pleasure, a sense of well-being. Go on, she’s out there somewhere and you won’t be around nine months from now either. Of course, you might have a better chance if you took off that hairshirt – for this night at least—’

‘I can’t do that! What will Mother think?’

Picker studied the mage’s fraught, horrified expression. ‘Spindle,’ she said slowly, ‘your mother’s dead. She ain’t here, she ain’t watching over you. You can misbehave, Spindle. Honest.’

The mage ducked down as if an invisible hand had just clouted him and for a moment Picker thought she saw an impression of knuckles bloom on the man’s pate, then he scampered away, muttering and shaking his head.

Gods . . . maybe all our ancestors are here! Picker glared about. Come near me, Da, and I’ll slit your Hood-damned throat, just like I did the first time . . .

Grainy-eyed with exhaustion, Paran stepped clear of the tent entrance. The sky was grey, faintly luminescent. Mist and woodsmoke hung motionless in the valley. A pack of dogs loping along one ridge was the only movement he could see.

And yet they’re awake. All here. The real battle is done, and now, here before me – I can almost see them – stand the dark godlings of the Barghast, facing the dawn . . . for the first time in thousands of years, facing the mortal dawn . . .

A figure joined him. Paran glanced over. ‘Well?’

‘The Barghast Elder Spirits have left Mallet,’ Quick Ben said. ‘The healer sleeps. Can you feel them, Captain? The spirits? All the barriers have been shattered, the Old Ones have joined with their younger spirit kin. The forgotten warren is forgotten no more.’

‘All very well,’ Paran muttered, ‘but we’ve still a city to liberate. What happens if Taur raises the standard of war and his rivals deny him?’

‘They won’t. They can’t. Every shoulderman among the White Faces will awaken to the change, to the burgeoning. They’ll feel that power, and know it for what it is. More, the spirits will make it known that their masters – the true gods of the Barghast – are trapped in Capustan. The Founding Spirits are awake. The time has come to free them.’

The captain studied the wizard at his side for a moment, then asked, ‘Did you know the Moranth were kin to the Barghast?’