At street level, the grand entrance consisted of a thick bronze door set in a stone frame, the hinges recessed. A broad pediment overhung the entrance, held up by twin marble columns, its ceiling crowded with the carved heads of demons, their mouths open and now dripping with the last of the boiling water that had gushed down on the screaming Scalandi who had been hammering on the door.

Gruntle and his troop, still reeling from a savage clash with fifteen Urdomen that had seen most of the militia chopped to pieces – before Gruntle had personally cut down the last two Pannions – had come upon the Scalandi mob from behind.

The engagement was swift and brutal. Only the Lestari sergeant revealed any mercy when he slit the throats of those Scalandi who had been badly scalded by the boiling water. The cessation of their shrieks brought sudden silence to the scene.

Gruntle crouched beside a body and used its tunic to clean the blades of his cutlasses. The muscles of his arms and shoulders were leaden, trembling.

The night’s breeze had strengthened, smelling of salt, sweeping the smoke inland. Enough fires still raged on all sides to drive back the darkness.

‘Look at that, will you?’

The caravan captain glanced over at the Lestari sergeant, then followed the man’s gaze.

The Thrall loomed to the southeast, only a few streets away. The entire keep was faintly glowing.

‘What do you figure?’ the grizzled soldier muttered.

Sorcery of some kind.

‘I’d guess that’s ritual magic,’ the sergeant went on. ‘Probably protective. Hood knows, we could do with some of that ourselves. We’re cut to pieces, sir – I ain’t got much left and as for the rest...’ Eyeing the dozen battered, bleeding Capanthall crouched or kneeling, or leaning against the house’s walls, he shook his head. ‘They’re done for.’

Sounds of fighting neared from the southwest.

The scraping of armour from the roof of Lestari House drew Gruntle’s attention. A half-dozen Capanthall regulars were looking down on them. ‘Nicely done, whoever you all are!’ one shouted.

‘What can you see up there?’ the sergeant called up.

‘We’ve retaken the North Gate! Grey Swords, damn near a thousand of them. The Pannions are reeling!’

‘Grey Swords,’ the Lestari muttered under his breath. He glared across at Gruntle. ‘We was the ones who retook that gate—’

‘But we’re not holding it, are we?’ Gruntle growled, straightening. He faced his meagre troop. ‘Look alive, you spineless Capans. We ain’t finished.’

Dull, disbelieving eyes fixed on him.