But when a few hours is all you can get, you’ll do anything for them. Probably he would’ve done anything for a few more. Had anyone been offering. They weren’t. Like his brilliant ambitions the diamond-bright stars had slowly faded to nothing, crushed out as the first merciless signs of day slunk from the east, behind the Heroes. His last day.

‘How long ’til dawn?’

‘It’ll come when it comes,’ said Shivers.

Calder stretched out his neck and wriggled his shoulders, sore from slumping into twisted half-sleep with his hands tied, twitching through nightmares which, when he jerked awake, he felt faintly nostalgic for. ‘Don’t suppose you could see your way to untying my hands, at least?’

‘When it comes.’

How bloody disappointing it all was. What lofty hopes his father had held. ‘All for you,’ he used to say, a hand on Calder’s shoulder and a hand on Scale’s, ‘you’ll rule the North.’ What an ending, for a man who’d spent his life dreaming of being king. He’d be remembered, all right. For dying the bloodiest death in the North’s bloody history.

Calder sighed, ragged. ‘Things don’t tend to work out the way we imagine, do they?’

With a faint clink, clink, Shivers tapped his ring against his metal eye. ‘Not often.’

‘Life is, basically, fucking shit.’

‘Best to keep your expectations low. Maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.’

Calder’s expectations had plunged into an abyss but a pleasant surprise still didn’t seem likely. He flinched at the memory of the duels the Bloody-Nine had fought for his father. The blood-mad shriek of the crowd. The ring of shields about the edge of the circle. The ring of grim Named Men holding them. Making sure no one could leave until enough blood was spilled. He’d never dreamed he’d end up fighting in one. Dying in one.

‘Who’s holding the shields for me?’ he muttered, as much to fill the silence as anything.

‘I heard Pale-as-Snow offered, and old White-Eye Hansul. Caul Reachey too.’

‘He can hardly get out of it, can he, since I’m married to his daughter?’

‘He can hardly get out of it.’

‘Probably they’ve only asked for a shield so they don’t get sprayed with too much of my gore.’

‘Probably.’

‘Funny thing, gore. A sour annoyance to those it goes on and a bitter loss to those it comes out of. Where’s the upside, eh? Tell me that.’

Shivers shrugged. Calder worked his wrists against the rope, trying to keep the blood flowing to his fingers. It would be nice if he could hold on to his sword long enough to get killed with it in his hand, at least. ‘Got any advice for me?’

‘Advice?’

‘Aye, you’re some fighter.’

‘If you get a chance, don’t hesitate.’ Shivers frowned down at the ruby on his little finger. ‘Mercy and cowardice are the same.’

‘My father always used to say that nothing shows greater power than mercy.’

‘Not in the circle.’ And Shivers stood.

Calder held up his wrists. ‘It’s time?’