Tears leaked from Josi’s eyes and slid down the sides of her face, into her silver-black hair. She’d always been so strong. Invincible. Seeing her like this was a punch to the stomach.

‘Where’s Dad?’

‘Right here,’ she croaked, trying to turn.

Joe froze. What he’d thought was a pile of blankets was another person, lying next to his mother.

He clambered over, pulling wildly at the closed drapes to let more light into the room. His father lay on his back, very still, the cold light falling on his face now. His skin looked waxen and grey, apart from the dried blood by one ear and in his white beard.

Joe felt all the air leave his body. He heard a ringing noise, tasted iron. The next thing he knew, he was bending over 199Nestan’s body, gently patting his face, whispering, ‘Dad? Dad, can you hear me?’

His father’s breath was barely there; it had dwindled to a feather-light whisper.

‘What happened?’ Joe lifted the blankets to see how badly he was injured, then wished he hadn’t. ‘No!’ he bawled, shaking his head. ‘No. No. No.’ His father’s shirt was soaked through. The bandages were leaking crimson, low down, round his middle. Joe knew enough to under­stand you didn’t survive a wound like that.

This couldn’t be happening.

‘It was early this morning,’ Matteo was saying. ‘They pulled everyone out into the street, giving Norlanders a chance to join them. I think they targeted Nestan. If he’d joined them, a man of his standing, they’d have more authority.’

‘Your father refused,’ Josi said proudly, shifting her body round so she could face Joe and Nestan, hissing softly at the pain as she did so. ‘Of course. Yes, he’d served the old duke, once. But he knows what’s right. He would never betray Tarya and Vigo like that. Or me.’

‘We fought them off,’ Matteo said. ‘I’m no soldier, but I have my knives. We tried as hard as we could, but there were more of them.’

‘The Brotherhood are cowards!’ Joe hated them so much. He hated what they’d done. He hated his powerlessness.

‘They think they’ve won,’ his mother said grimly. ‘They think they’ve defeated us. But this isn’t over yet.’

‘I should have been here,’ Joe said, seeing nothing but a blurry haze of firelight now. 200

‘I’m glad you weren’t,’ his mother told him. ‘They’d have hurt you too.’ She leaned low over Nestan, stroking his face, checking his forehead, settling the blankets around him.

‘Where are the others?’ Joe whispered softly, trying not to disturb his father. ‘Where’s my sister – is her baby here yet? What about Isak?’

His mother told him that Isak was safe in Sartola with Luca; that Milla and Thom were on an expedition far away; and that no one had seen Tarya or Vigo since before the coup.

So none of Nestan’s family had been there when he needed them.

‘I’m sorry,’ Joe said, bending over his father’s chest. ‘For everything.’ He was overwhelmed with remorse then, unable to catch his breath as he wept, gasping and choking.