“It keeps me alive,” Bobby said, with a wince. “But it still hurts.”

There was a moment of silence. Winter could hear singing from somewhere up the column, the tramp of many feet, and the jingling of her horse’s harness. Absent were the creaking sounds of wagons and the occasional lowing of oxen. The slow-moving vehicles had been left to make their own best speed behind the column, bearing most of the regiment’s baggage and reserve supplies.

“So, what does he want, in the end?” Jane said.

“Who?” Winter said.

“Janus.” She held up a hand and ticked off points on her fingers. “The Church, or the Priests of the Black, anyway, want to get rid of magic because the Wisdoms tell them it’s evil. So if this Thousand Names is like a giant spell book—”

“It’s a set of steel tablets eight feet high,” Winter interrupted. “Not a book.”

“Whatever. The point is, it lets you do magic, so they want to destroy it, or hide it until Elysium. I follow that much. But what does Janus want it for? You said he went to Khandar to get it.”

Winter frowned. “It’s not as if he shares his plans with me. But if I had to guess, he wanted it to help him get rid of Duke Orlanko. He told me that he always knew the Concordat were working with the Priests of the Black.”

“Did he really need to go all the way to Khandar for that?” Jane said. “We threw Orlanko out, and I didn’t notice him blasting anyone with lightning bolts at the time.”

“I have no idea,” Winter said. “Maybe there’s more to it than that. Does it matter?”

“I . . .” Jane shook her head. “I’m not sure. This is a lot to take in.”

Winter let out a deep breath. She felt curiously free, now that she’d told the story from beginning to end. No more secrets. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

“It’s all right,” Jane said. “I can’t imagine I’d have believed you.”

“Those three last night,” Cyte said. “You think they were there to kill you?”

“That’s the only thing that makes sense to me. We’re only one regiment. It’s flattering to think that I might be a good enough officer that they’d want me assassinated, but even if that were true they wouldn’t send Penitent Damned to do it. It has to be because of Infernivore.”

“Do you think they’ll come back?” Cyte said.

“We’ll be keeping better watches now that we’re in enemy country,” Jane said. “They won’t be able to sneak up on us again.”

That was more confidence than Winter felt, but she nodded anyway. “They’re not invincible. Frightening, but not unbeatable.”

“And I’m going to stay close,” Bobby said. “Just in case.”

*   *   *