Alcyon looked slowly around, his gaze lingering on the fallen Benothi. ‘I see little evidence of Benothi honour here.’

‘I did what had to be done,’ Uthas snarled. ‘For our future. Yours, mine, all of the clans’. If Nemain had continued to do nothing all of the clans would have faded, become a tale to frighten wayward children.’

‘And instead we will slaughter ourselves to extinction.’

You fool, you do not see the long path, only the next step. His temper was fraying.

‘You would be better served by concentrating on the task set for you.’ Uthas shrugged, feeling the spite rise in him like bile after too much wine. ‘But you were unable to do that, as you could not even hold onto the starstone axe.’

‘Do not judge me, you that have betrayed your kin, your queen.’ Alcyon looked about the room, eyes resting on Nemain’s broken body. ‘And I lost the axe to Balur One-Eye. I feel no shame in that, when I can smell the fear in you at the mere mention of his name.’

Uthas felt the words like a blow across his face. ‘We have both served the same master here,’ he said.

‘Aye, but you out of choice,’ Alcyon glowered.

‘Enough,’ Calidus snapped. He glared at Alcyon until the giant looked away from Uthas. ‘Balur is a problem. I hoped that he would have been slain in the battle.’

As did I. ‘He will do all in his power to see me dead.’ Uthas felt a stab of shame at the tremor in his voice. He gripped his spear tighter, his shame shifting to anger. ‘He could be dead, slain by those that left in the night.’

There had been a disagreement after the battle; one of the Kadoshim had argued with Calidus. It had been unsettling, hearing a voice so alien issuing from the Jehar’s mouth – rasping and sibilant.

‘You have failed Asroth,’ the Kadoshim had accused Calidus, arms jerking. ‘We must regain the axe now, before it is too late, and reopen the pathway.’

Calidus had taken a long shuddering breath, mastering himself. ‘It is too great a risk, Danjal,’ Calidus had said. ‘Battles are still being fought. We must secure the fortress, make sure the cauldron is safe. Would you have us abandon it?’

‘Our great master must be allowed to cross over. For that we need the starstone axe.’

‘Seven Treasures are needed to open the way for Asroth, not just the axe. It will happen, but we must wait. I seized an opportunity, and over a thousand of our brothers are now clothed in flesh. Be content with that. Asroth waits to enter this world wrapped in his own form, not filling someone else’s, as you have done. And, besides, to pursue Meical now would be foolish; it would put the cauldron at risk, and many of you will lose your new skins.’

‘Your body of flesh and bone has made you craven,’ the Kadoshim had snarled. ‘Asroth will reward me when he knows it was I who secured the axe and made his passage possible.’