Corban found Meical in the great hall, its sheer size making even the Ben-Elim appear small and insignificant. Apart from Meical and Corban the hall was empty, the silence in dawn’s gentle glow almost a physical thing, a silent beauty. Skald’s skeleton in its throne brooded close by, a malignant tumour spoiling the purity of the scene. Meical was standing beside one of the tunnel entrances, the one they had journeyed through, a smaller door within it open – all six of the tunnels were cleared now, a system of runners positioned in each one to relay news of any enemy sightings in Forn. Meical looked as if he was listening to, or for, something.

‘There were no Kadoshim,’ Corban said as he came to stand beside Meical. Storm peered into the small open door of the tunnel and cocked her head.

Meical blinked and looked at Corban, raising a questioning eyebrow.

‘In my dream. In the Otherworld. I climbed the cliff. You told me not to, because of the Kadoshim in the sky. But they were not there.’

‘Ah,’ Meical said, for a brief moment his face shifting with emotions before he stamped his cold face upon them. He turned to face Corban. ‘And what did you see?’

‘An entrance carved with runes, a torchlit corridor. A stone theatre, filled with the Ben Elim. With you.’

Meical breathed in a long, deep breath, pursed his lips, his silver scars wrinkling.

‘Soon, you said. What is it that you and your kin have waited aeons for?’

‘This time. These days. Now,’ Meical said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

‘No. It is more than that, Meical. Brina has read to me from a book – a giant’s book. About how the Treasures must be kept separate, never brought together again.’ He glanced at the spear transfixing Skald’s skeleton.

‘What is going on?’

Meical sighed, a long, sad exhalation. Something flitted across his face.

He looks ashamed. Corban felt his doubt grow, become something firmer.

‘You are hiding something from me,’ he said.

Again the long, cold stare. Eventually Meical turned away.

‘I cannot do this,’ he muttered.

Corban grabbed his wrist and pulled him back.

‘Cannot do what?’

‘Ach, this task I have been given; its cost is greater than I ever imagined.’

‘What do you mean?’ Corban asked.

Meical stared at him long, silent moments. Emotions tore at his cold face like waves against a sea wall, until finally it began to crumble, revealing something else in Meical’s eyes. A depth of sadness and regret that set a spark of fear in Corban’s gut.

‘Tell me,’ Corban whispered and Meical took a deep breath, then began to talk.