‘Try wending unseen through that press, Wizard,’ Talamandas murmured. ‘We’ll have to go round, assuming you still cling to your bizarre desire to slink like a mouse in a hut full of cats. In case you’ve forgotten, those are my kin—’

‘Be quiet,’ Quick Ben commanded under his breath. ‘Consider this another test of our partnership – and the warrens.’

‘We’re going straight through?’

‘We are.’

‘Which warren? Not D’riss again, please – these cobbles—’

‘No no, we’d end up soaked in old blood. We won’t go under, Talamandas. We’ll go over. Serc, the Path of the Sky.’

‘Thought you’d exhausted yourself back at the estate.’

‘I have. Mostly. We could sweat a bit on this one.’

‘I don’t sweat.’

‘Let’s test that, shall we?’ The wizard unveiled the warren of Serc. Little alteration was discernible in the scene around them. Then, slowly, as Quick Ben’s eyes adjusted, he detected currents in the air, the layers of cold and warm flowing parallel to the ground, the spirals coiling skyward from between the tarps, the wake of passing figures, the heat-memory of stone and wood.

‘Looks sickly,’ the sticksnare muttered. ‘You would swim those currents?’

‘Why not? We’re almost as insubstantial as the air we see before us. I can get us started, but the problem then is keeping me afloat. You’re right – I’ve no reserves left. So, it’s up to you, Talamandas.’

‘Me? I know nothing of Serc’

‘I’m not asking you to learn, either. What I want is your power.’

‘That wasn’t part of the deal!’

‘It is now.’

The sticksnare shifted and twitched on Quick Ben’s shoulder. ‘By drawing on my power, you weaken the protection I offer against the poison.’

‘And we need to find that threshold, Talamandas. I need to know what I can pull from you in an emergency.’

‘Just how nasty a situation are you anticipating when we finally challenge the Crippled God?’ the sticksnare demanded. ‘Those secret plans of yours – no wonder you’re keeping them secret!’

‘I could have sworn you said you were offering yourself up as a sacrifice to the cause – do you now balk?’

‘At madness? Count on it, Wizard!’

Quick Ben smiled to himself. ‘Relax, I’m not stoking a pyre for you. Nor have I any plans to challenge the Crippled God. Not directly. I’ve been face to face with him once, and once remains enough. Even so, I was serious about finding that threshold. Now, pull the cork, shaman, and let’s see what we can manage.’

Hissing with fury, Talamandas growled reluctant assent.

Quick Ben rose from the ground, slipped forward on the nearest current sweeping down the length of the street. The flow was cool, dipping down beneath the tarps. A moment before reaching the downdraught, the wizard nudged himself upward, into a spiral of heat from one of the fires. They shot straight up.