‘Will you ever stop?’ asked Drusher. ‘I mean, will you ever know when to stop? When it’s enough… When it is too much…’

‘I hope so,’ said Eisenhorn. ‘I hope at least I will have wise people around me to advise me so. To be honest though, magos, I don’t think a man like me ever retires. That’s not how it works.

‘I don’t think a man like you retires either,’ he added. ‘I think that’s what you’ve been trying to tell yourself all along. That there’s more to you, more to your life. Come with me, if you’d care to. You have seen things now. You have been tempered by this experience. Everything that follows will be less of a shock.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ said Drusher. ‘But I don’t think I will.’

‘I thought there was nothing left to keep you here?’ Eisenhorn asked.

‘So did I,’ said Drusher.

Eisenhorn walked over to him and held out his hand.

‘Then thank you for your service,’ he said. ‘We won’t meet again, but I have appreciated your company.’

Drusher shook his hand.

‘You look well, inquisitor,’ he said. ‘Better than you did when I first met you. Which, given what we’ve endured, is quite something. You seem stronger.’

‘I am.’

‘You’ve been tempered by this too, then?’

‘I think so,’ said Eisenhorn. ‘I feel stronger than I have in years. Ready to face the endgame.’

‘Is that a good thing?’ asked Drusher.

‘Yes,’ said Eisenhorn. He smiled.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile before,’ said Drusher.

‘It’s not something I’ve done in a long time,’ said Eisenhorn.

Thirty

THIRTY

The Old Place

Evening was rolling in, a violet haze off the sea. It was two days after Drusher had stood and watched the fortress of Helter burn.

Macks rolled the Magistratum cruiser to a halt and pulled up on the shingle beside the old highway.

‘Really?’ she said. ‘Back here?’

‘It suits me,’ he said.

She shrugged. She was trying to appear cheerful, he could tell. But they were both still in their heads. There was a tremor in his hands that wouldn’t go away. The universe would never seem the same to either of them.

‘Will you come in?’ he asked.

‘I’ve got to get back,’ she said. ‘If I turn around now I can make it to Unkara by dawn. There’s a lot of clearing up to do. A lot of paperwork. A whole lot of crap, in fact, including a meeting with the governor tomorrow night.’

‘Good luck with that.’

‘Oh, well, you know,’ she said. ‘But I’ll come back and visit.’

‘Don’t leave it too long.’

They looked at each other. He leaned forwards and kissed her. He could smell True Heart very faintly. The kiss lingered.

‘Get on,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to go back.’