‘No, more’s the pity,’ Chetta muttered. ‘But hopefully, Sen Uru is simply trying to save face while limiting the possibility of waking up with a knife in his heart.’ She tapped her chin thoughtfully with her finger. ‘We’ll need to look at our investments. He’ll try to undercut us where he can, even if it means taking a loss himself. He’ll flood markets with goods that our captains transport, so they can no longer afford to run, or buy up the raw materials and stockpile them so they have nothing to ship.’

‘Only if he knows where our interests lie,’ Vittar said. ‘A little misdirection could waste him a lot of time, effort and money, if he targets the wrong things.’

‘The leaks would have to look genuine,’ Chetta mused. ‘I’ll speak to Krane. We’d need to massively increase our counter-espionage resources, but focus on misleading potential moles, not eliminating them…’

‘Speaking of Krane, have you been told about Avomarr?’ Vittar asked. The question sounded innocent, but the hairs were suddenly standing up on Chetta’s arms again.

‘Which one?’ she asked, trying to keep her tone neutral. ‘Avomarr Reli, or Avomarr Du-Choi?’ There were two Avomarrs in the Brobantis family, distinguished by the middle names that indicated to which sub-branch they belonged.

‘Du-Choi.’

‘No,’ Chetta was forced to admit. The context of Krane led to an obvious conclusion as to why Vittar had mentioned him. ‘He’s not been found dead as well, has he?’

‘Missing,’ Vittar said, fiddling with his cuffs and not looking at her. ‘It’s been a week, now.’

Chetta cursed inwardly. She should have been told! How did Vittar know, and not her? Was he insinuating himself with the more distant family branches, seeking to garner support for his claim to becoming Novator? ‘Is it out of character for him?’ she asked, hating herself for having to do so, but she had never known the man well.

‘He has gone off before,’ Vittar admitted. ‘He’s a maudlin type, by all accounts, and prone to wandering. But he’s usually back within a few days, and will often send his siblings some over-dramatic message now and then. This time, they’ve had nothing but silence.’

Chetta glowered at the date-slate. ‘Do you suspect Sen Uru?’

‘I wouldn’t like to say,’ Vittar said quietly. ‘But it seems too much of a coincidence, bearing in mind the previous two deaths, for this to be an isolated incident. And yet, the first two occurred before you so drastically burned our bridges with Dukarr.’

‘Xudine, perhaps?’ Chetta offered, ignoring his accusatory choice of words. ‘How go the negotiations?’

‘Slowly,’ Vittar admitted. ‘Kennevario is long on words and short on content. Tonight’s dinner is more for the sake of form than because we have any great breakthrough to celebrate.’ He eyed her. ‘It’s almost as though he’s stalling. Waiting for something.’