‘While we wait,’ he said, smiling. ‘I’m scared out of my wits here, Germaine. Talk to me. Tell me something.’

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know. Something. Something from the old days that was good. I still think about the old days, you know? I think about you. I was a useless husband.’

‘I knew exactly what you were when I married you,’ she said.

‘So you should have known better?’ he laughed.

She managed a smile.

‘We both should, Valentin,’ she said. ‘You are an extraordinary man, Valentin. A magos biologis. Your life is driven by your work. As is mine. We both should have known better. We shouldn’t have been such damn optimists.’

‘Optimists or romantics?’ he asked.

‘Both,’ she admitted.

‘When did we stop being optimists, Germaine?’ he asked.

‘About fifteen years ago in Tycho City,’ she said, smiling.

‘It’s a shame,’ he said. ‘I think… I think I should have made more of a life. Made time for things. Been more than a magos. I think we should be optimists again.’

‘Do you?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ he nodded, ‘because then there’s a better chance of this working.’

He bent down and tested the wax blob.

‘Let’s see now,’ he said. He took out the bullet, lined up the word etched on its case and gently pressed it into the wax. When he took the bullet away, a mirror print of the inhuman word was impressed in the blob.

‘Now what?’ Macks asked.

Drusher tried the cage door. It was still locked fast.

‘We wait,’ he said. ‘It may take a moment for the charm to take effect.’

‘You’re just making this up as you go along, aren’t you?’ said Macks.

‘Story of my life,’ he replied. ‘All made up as it goes along. Preposterous and unlikely. Like one of poor Hadeed Garofar’s faerie tales. Everything’s felt like that, especially since you came to the Bone Coast to find me. Fantastical and unnatural and following a set of rules no one has bothered to explain to me.’

‘It could work,’ said Voriet. He had pulled himself up close to the bars of his cage to watch. ‘The charm marking… It could break the word-lock. Enuncia conflicting with Enuncia.’

‘Let’s hope so,’ said Drusher.

Macks rattled the cage door.

‘It doesn’t seem to be,’ she said. He could hear her rising tension.

‘Just be patient, Germaine. Give it a moment.’

‘Easy for you to say,’ she snapped. ‘You’re not in here.’

‘Tell me about True Heart,’ he said, trying to distract her.

‘What?’

‘Did you wear it specially, or do you always wear it?’ Drusher asked. ‘I bought you that bottle years ago. If you used it regularly, it wouldn’t have lasted. Did you keep buying it?’

‘To remind myself of you? You wish.’

‘So you wore it specially?’

She shrugged.

‘It was in a drawer. I just thought–’