I felt the stub of my forearm, jammed into the tin sleeve of my false hand. I felt the glowy itching through my skin, and pushing inquisitive little tendrils into my skull. I thought of Morcenx and Quindar, the men I had left behind on Mazarile, yelping and screaming on the ground, pawing at their sightless eyes.

‘It’s a little late to keep me out of harm’s way.’

We closed contact, but only after we had found a time in our respective duties when we would both be on the bones in the same watch. I knew there was much left to be said, and much that could never be said, at least not until we were together again. Inside, I was a turmoil of stirred-up feelings, and none of them were good. I felt all shivery and sick, as if for the first time I grasped what I was setting myself up for. Bosa Sennen was real, and if I’d begun to let the fact of that slip from my attention, now it had been rammed home. She was real and cruel, and her dark phantom of a ship was somewhere out there, sending through the superloom, and I was stupid enough to think I could take on both Bosa and the Nightjammer.

Prozor saw me when I spun the wheel on the bone room, locking the door from the outside.

‘Somethin’ changed,’ she said, looking at me harder than I liked. ‘Don’t know what, but somethin’ did.’

‘My face is that easy to read?’

‘You ain’t a bauble, Fura. You don’t cloak your secrets too well.’ Prozor took my tin fingers in her own. ‘I figured it was a matter of time, assuming she was still alive. You two being such naturals, when it comes to the bones. How’s she?’

‘Alive. Beyond that, I’m not sure.’

‘What did you tell her?’

‘That I’m coming.’

Prozor looked away sharply. ‘And it never occurred to you she might not be your sister any more? Not in any way that matters?’

‘It was her.’

‘Ain’t saying it wasn’t. Just that her loyalties might have shifted.’

I almost slapped her. She must have seen the spite in my eyes, because she tightened her grip on my hand.

‘I know her,’ I said, squeezing the words out between my teeth.

‘Thought I knew you, too,’ Prozor said. ‘But you changed. You became something you wasn’t, and it didn’t take months and months. You think your sister can’t change the same amount? Adrana’s strong, but then, so was Illyria.’

‘She became the new Bosa. I know. But that can’t happen to Adrana. You said it yourself: Bosa uses drugs and surgery, and she wouldn’t risk either of those things with a Bone Reader.’