Eight of the Jehar warhorses were harnessed to the wain. At his signal it moved forwards slowly, the wheels crushing flesh, crunching bone as they rolled across the cavern floor. The Benothi followed, an honour guard.

‘You have done well,’ Calidus said to him as they left the chamber. ‘The cauldron is not of this earth, the fabric it is made from is dense and heavy. But that wain is sturdy enough to carry it a thousand leagues.’

‘The Benothi are skilled craftsmen,’ Uthas said with a hint of pride.

They passed through the wide corridors of Murias, Uthas feeling a blend of melancholy and anticipation growing in his belly. He was leaving Murias, home of the Benothi for two thousand years, possibly leaving it behind forever. I will not look back. It is the destination that is important: the end, not the beginning.

Eventually they reached the entrance hall. A line of wains stood waiting, all loaded – most with huge barrels of brot, enough to provide sustenance for them for a year or more. Though it appears the Kadoshim are acquiring other tastes.

The Kadoshim were spread about the hall, thickest around the wains. Once the wounded Kadoshim, Bune, had been brought back to Murias and the others had heard the disastrous fate of those that had rushed after Meical and his companions, Calidus had managed to introduce a level of order to the Kadoshim. And they were adapting to their new bodies well, suppressing the spirits of their unwilling hosts and learning the way of flesh, as Calidus had taken to calling it. Nathair stood to one side of the open gates, the bulk of his draig making him easy to find. The giant Alcyon stood with him.

‘Come,’ Calidus said to Uthas, ‘it is time to hear Nathair’s answer to my offer.’

‘What will be his choice, I wonder,’ Uthas said as they strode across the wide chamber.

‘He will choose life. He is no fool. He has dreams, delusions of nobility and greatness, but when life or death are only a word apart . . .’ Calidus smiled coldly.

‘Are you sure?’

‘As sure as it is possible to be. But one thing I have learned in this world of flesh – mankind is fickle, and nothing is certain. So I have a rule: prepare for all eventualities. If he says no, then I have a lock of his hair. I need Nathair; we are too few and he has the keys to an empire within his reach. And I have worked hard to make this so; it’s taken a considerable amount of time and effort to bring all of this about.’

‘I can only imagine,’ Uthas grunted.

‘And so I would not like to see it all wasted. Nevertheless, things could go awry.’ Calidus looked behind at the wain emerging into the chamber. ‘Bring Salach and whoever else you think necessary if we need to dispatch Nathair’s draig.’

Uthas raised an eyebrow, not relishing that thought. He remembered the creature carving a way through a mass of wyrms in the cauldron’s cavern. He gestured to Salach, Eisa and another half-dozen of the Benothi. They followed.