Toc frowned down at him. This was no Tenescowri, nor a Grey Sword. If anything, he looked, from his faded, tattered leathers and furs, to be Barghast.

Covered in scars – more scars of battle than Toc had ever seen on a single person before. Despite this, there was a comfort, there in his face – a gentleman’s face, no more than twenty years of age, the features pronounced, heavy-boned, framed in long black hair devoid of any fetishes or braids. His eyes were a soft brown as he looked up at Toc.

Toc had never met this man before. ‘Hello. Is there something you wish?’ he asked, impatient to be away.

The man shook his head. ‘I only sought to look upon you, to see that you were well.’

He believes me to be Anaster. A friend of old, perhaps – not one of his lieutenants, though – I would have remembered this one. Well, I’ll not disappoint him. ‘Thank you. I am.’

‘This pleases me.’ The man smiled, reached up and laid a hand on Toc’s leg. ‘I will go, now, brother. Know that I hold you in my memory.’ Still smiling, he turned and strode away, passing through the midst of curious Grey Swords, heading north towards the forest.

Toc stared after him. Something . . . something about that walk . . .

‘Mortal Sword—’

The Shield Anvil was approaching.

Toc gathered the reins. ‘Not now,’ he called out. ‘Later.’ He swung his horse round. ‘All right, you wretched hag, let’s see how you gallop, shall we?’ He drove his heels into the beast’s flanks.

His sister awaited him at the edge of the forest. ‘You are done?’ she asked him.

‘I am.’

They continued on, under the trees. ‘I have missed you, brother.’

‘And I you.’

‘You have no sword ...’

‘Indeed, I have not. Do you think I will need one?’

She leaned close to him. ‘Now more than before, I would think.’

‘Perhaps you are right. We must needs find a quarry.’

‘The Barghast Range. A flint the colour of blood – I will invest it, of course, to prevent its shattering.’

‘As you did once before, sister.’

‘Long ago.’

‘Aye, so very long ago.’

Under the impassive gaze of the two brothers, Lady Envy relinquished the sorcery that kept Mok from returning to consciousness. She watched as the Third slowly regained awareness, the eyes within the mask dulled with pain. ‘There, now,’ she murmured. ‘You have suffered of late, haven’t you?’

Mok struggled to sit upright, his gaze hardening upon finding his brothers.

Lady Envy straightened and glanced over at Senu and Thurule with an appraising eye. After a moment, she sighed. ‘Indeed, they are a sight. They suffered in your absence, Third. Then again,’ she noted brightly, ‘you’ve not fared much better! I must inform you, Mok, that your mask has cracked.’

The Seguleh reached up, probed tentatively, finding then following the hairline fissure running two-thirds of the length on the left side.