‘I extracted only one thing,’ he went on. ‘A brief, fragmentary impression of an old fortress. It was not a clear mental image, but research had shown that there were several old structures in the Karanine region. Old fortresses from the settlement era. This place, Helter, resembled the vision. It was the only such structure that remained intact within the vicinity of the bodies that were found in situ. So, I transferred my party here to begin an investigation, a thorough search of the surrounding area.’

‘And you brought the bodies too,’ said Drusher.

‘Yes,’ replied Eisenhorn, ‘so I could repeat the auto-séance process with each one. It was a gruelling process. Some were utterly inert. From the rest, I obtained nothing but incoherent pain. So, I widened my search and conducted similar divinations at the sites where bodies were found, as well as other locations in the forest. Again, nothing. As you have demonstrated, convincingly, they were dump sites. No psychometric echo of the victims’ lives or the moments of their deaths would have lingered there anyway.’

The rain was beating hard now. Lightning blinked in the high windows.

‘About today,’ said Drusher. ‘In the woods–’

Eisenhorn cleared his throat.

‘After you made your report,’ he said, ‘I felt an urge to try again. To restage the divination with poor Thea’s body. It was a grim and thankless effort that has left me drained. But I believe it had an unexpected consequence. While I was here, in the cold store, trying to reach Thea Inshabel, the considerable psykanic backwash rippled out into the surrounding forest. It stirred up ghosts, Magos Drusher. Ghosts I was not aware of. Which is how you came to meet Esic Fargul in the woods today. A man thirty years dead. I was conducting my séance in his home, magos, the place where he had lived and the place where he died. It is hardly surprising that it might raise him up into the sunlight.’

‘Not to you, perhaps,’ said Drusher. ‘I have to say, sir, that I am half out of my mind just now. Fear, sir. At what you are telling me. At you. Fear and incredulity. I spoke to the man for ten minutes. He was real. He was solid. I could see him and hear him and smell his hair oil and the sweat of a body that has walked briskly in the sun for a whole afternoon. I… I shook his hand.’

‘We have used the word ghost carelessly, magos,’ said Eisenhorn. ‘A psionic manifestation can be very real. Utterly convincing, especially to one who does not realise that it is what it is.’

‘Or that something like it could even exist,’ said Drusher. ‘May I…? May I have an amasec?’

Eisenhorn made a small nod, and Audla Jaff came over. She handed Drusher a fine old glass filled with amasec.