‘But then they came to their senses.’

‘With a little prodding.’

‘So now you’ve got all the help you need in keeping that insane eunuch from playing doorman to Hood’s gate. Good. Can’t have panic in the streets, what with a quarter-million Pannions laying siege to the city.’

Buke’s eyes thinned on Gruntle. ‘Thought you’d appreciate the calm.’

‘Now that’s much better.’

‘I still need your help.’

‘Can’t see how, Buke. Unless you want me to kick down the door and separate Korbal Broach’s head from his shoulders. In which case you’ll need to keep Bauchelain distracted. Set him on fire or something. I only need a moment. Of course, timing’s everything. Once the walls have been breached, say, and there’s Tenescowri mobbing the streets. That way we can all go hand in hand to Hood singing a merry tune.’

Buke smiled behind his tankard. ‘That’ll do,’ he said, then drank.

Gruntle drained his own cup, reached for the new one. ‘You know where to find me,’ he said after a moment.

‘Until the wave comes.’

The cat leapt down from the crossbeam, pounced forward, trapping a cockroach between its paws. It began playing.

‘All right,’ the caravan captain growled after a moment, ‘what else do you want to say?’

Buke shrugged offhandedly. ‘I hear Stonny has volunteered. Latest rumours have it the Pannions are finally ready for the first assault – any time now.’

‘The first? Likely they’ll only need the one. As for being ready, they’ve been ready for days, Buke. If Stonny wants to throw away her life defending the indefensible, that’s her business.’

‘What’s the alternative? The Pannions won’t take prisoners, Gruntle. We’ll all have to fight, sooner or later.’

That’s what you think.

‘Unless,’ Buke continued after a moment as he raised his tankard, ‘you plan on switching sides. Finding faith as a matter of expedience—’

‘What other way is there?’

The old man’s eyes sharpened. ‘You’d fill your belly with human flesh, Gruntle? Just to survive? You’d do that, would you?’

‘Meat is meat,’ Gruntle replied, his eyes on the cat. A soft crunch announced that it had finished playing.

‘Well,’ Buke said, rising, ‘I didn’t think you were capable of shocking me. I guess I thought I knew you—’

‘You thought.’

‘So this is the man Harllo gave his life for.’

Gruntle slowly raised his head. Whatever Buke saw in his eyes made him step back. ‘Which Camp are you working with right now?’ the caravan captain calmly asked.

‘Uldan,’ the old man whispered.

‘I’ll look in on you, then. In the meantime, Buke, get out of my sight.’