‘No, don’t even try, friend. I’ve said it before. I don’t give a damn what Trake wants or expects of me, and the rest of you had best stop seeing me that way. Mortal Sword – I hate titles. I didn’t even like being called captain when I guarded caravans. I only used it so I could charge more.’

‘Do you intend to attempt harm upon these travellers, sir?’

‘You well know who they are.’

‘I do.’

‘I had a friend . . .’

‘Aye, the one named Buke. I recall him. A man broken by sorrow. I once offered to take his burdens, but he refused me.’

Gruntle’s head snapped round at that. ‘You did? He did?’

Itkovian nodded. ‘Perhaps I should have been more ... direct.’

‘You should have grabbed him by the throat and done it no matter what he wanted. That’s what the new Shield Anvil’s done to that one-eyed First Child of the Dead Seed, Anaster, isn’t it? And now the man rides at her side—’

‘Rides unknowing. He is naught but a shell, sir. There was naught else within him but pain. Its taking has stolen his knowledge of himself. Would you have had that as Buke’s fate as well, sir?’

The man grimaced.

Less than a third of a league remained, assuming Stonny’s claim was accurate, but the roll of the eroded beach ridges reduced the line of sight, and indeed it was the sound that the carriage made, a muted clanking riding the wind, that alerted the two men to its proximity.

They crested a ridge and had to rein in quickly to avoid colliding with the train of oxen.

Emancipor Reese was wearing a broad, smudged bandage, wrapped vertically about his head, not quite covering a swollen jaw and puffy right eye. The cat in his lap screamed at the sudden arrival of the two riders, then clawed its way up the servant’s chest, over the left shoulder, and onto the roof of the ghastly carriage, where it vanished into a fold of K’Chain Che’Malle bone and skin. Reese himself jumped in his seat, almost toppling from his perch before recovering his balance.

‘Bathtardth! Why you do tha? Hood’th b’eth!’

‘Apologies, sir,’ Itkovian said, ‘for startling you so. You are injured—’

‘In’ured? Tho. Tooth. B’oke ith. Olib pith.’

Itkovian frowned, glanced at Gruntle.

The Mortal Sword shrugged. ‘Olive pit, maybe?’

‘Aye!’ Reese nodded vigorously, then winced at the motion. ‘Wha you wanth?’

Gruntle drew a deep breath, then said, ‘The truth, Reese. Where’s Buke?’

The servant shrugged. ‘Gone.’

‘Did they—’

‘Tho! Gone! Thlown!’ He jerked his arms up and down. ‘Thlap thlap! Unnerthan? Yeth?’

Gruntle sighed, glanced away, then slowly nodded. ‘Well enough,’ he said a moment later.

The carriage door opened and Bauchelain leaned out. ‘Why have we stop- ah, the caravan captain ... and the Grey Sword, I believe, but where, sir, is your uniform?’