"All gone," Ella said. "The prisoners did most of it." She looked out at the smoking ruins and torn fences, at the scene of terrible destruction left behind. "Zavros?"

"I found him," Killian said. "The Primate is definitely in Seranthia. We don't know where Evrin is, so finding the Primate is our next best bet."

"I thought you said he'd never talk."

"He talked."

54

54

A SINGLE flake of snow floated through the sky, twisting first one way then another in the unpredictable gusts of wind that blew in from the ocean nearby.

High in the clouds, the snowflake hovered over the immense city below, careless and unrecognising of the fear pouring from the city's residents. A puff of wind coming from the harbour pushed the snowflake away from the city, past the endless walls and further inland, where the object of the residents' fear straddled the hills around the city.

The snowflake was the first of its fellows to fall down towards the earth. As it passed the endless ranks of horsemen that had encircled the city, an undercurrent tossed it back up again, but its reprisal was short-lived, for it came back down again, and settled on the nose of a dark-skinned warrior.

The warrior brushed the snowflake away from his nose irritably. He rubbed at the thin, perfectly groomed beard on his chin and frowned. His skin was as smooth as a young man's, yet his bearing was regal and his eyes were dark. The man's hair was very long, past his shoulders, and was tied back with a golden clasp. He wore a gold earring set with amber in his left ear, and around his neck was a chain with a curved turquoise triangle.

"Tell the tarn leaders we attack with the dawn," the dark-skinned man said. His eyes blazed as he regarded the huge city below, and anyone who knew him very well would have said he was fearful.

There was only one man present who knew him to that degree, yet he was a man who would never challenge his leader.

"Yes, my prince," Jehral said.

There were two others present, a warrior in loose clothing of green silk, decorated with arcane symbols, and a woman in a rust-red robe with a white cord tied around her waist. The woman in red stood close to the warrior in green, and when he stepped forward she tried to hold him back, but he pushed her away angrily.

"This is madness," Bartolo said. "This isn't Torlac. It isn't even Tlaxor. This is Seranthia. You remember what happened the last time you attacked a fortified city with no siege weapons, don't you? You'll be sending your men to their deaths."