‘This human objects to my presence,’ the serpentine voice said. Something passing for a smile twisted its face, a tongue licking its lips. ‘It gives good sport.’

Uthas was horrified. He had assumed the souls of the hosts had been displaced, were not still residing trapped within their own bodies, struggling to evict those who possessed them. He shuddered – such a thing would be a living death.

‘He was a master swordsman, all of your new hosts were,’ Calidus said, raising his voice to all the Kadoshim in the great hall. ‘Examine their souls, pick them apart, absorb their skills. Learn the ways of your new bodies. And eat.’

Sibilant laughter echoed about the chamber as Calidus walked away. Uthas saw one Kadoshim drop to the ground, burying its face in the belly of a dead horse, the wet sound of flesh tearing.

‘They are like children,’ Calidus sighed. ‘I have much to teach them in little time, which is why I need Nathair to cooperate.’

They found the King of Tenebral a short way along the road that approached Murias, the tattered bodies of Jehar warriors and their horses scattered around him, shredded to a bloody mess by the raven storm that Queen Nemain had set upon them. He was stood with his great draig, holding its reins loosely in one hand while it feasted on the corpse of a horse. It pulled its snout from a smashed ribcage to regard them with small black eyes, gore dripping from its jaws. As they drew nearer to Nathair, Uthas glimpsed amongst the fern and gorse one of his kin whom he had set to watch the King of Tenebral.

Nathair heard their approach and looked up. He whispered something to the draig, which went back to devouring the horse’s innards. Nathair turned his back to them, looking out over the bleak landscape of moorland, gentle hills undulating into the horizon.

‘He is out there,’ Nathair said quietly.

‘Who do you speak of?’ Calidus asked.

‘The Bright Star. For so long I have believed that title was mine.’ He turned, calm now, Uthas saw, his rage from the cauldron’s chamber gone, spent. His eyes were dark-rimmed and red. A bruise mottled his jaw.

‘You have deceived me, all this time.’ Nathair looked first at Calidus, then past him, to Alcyon. The giant dropped his head, not meeting Nathair’s gaze.

‘You would not have understood,’ Calidus said.

Nathair raised his eyebrows at that. ‘Something we agree on. My first-sword Veradis will have your heads for this. Thankfully he is not here to witness how far we have fallen.’

‘Time will be the judge,’ Calidus said with a shrug. ‘But there is still a future for you. For us.’

‘What, this is not to be my execution, then?’ Nathair’s eyes flickered to Alcyon and Uthas behind Calidus, and then further off, to the Benothi guards lurking in shadows.

‘No. I came to talk.’

‘It seems to me the time for that has passed. But go on . . .’