‘Assuming the availability of materials, I could probably oversee up to ten in a week. The assistants would have to be excellent though, good listeners, able to do exactly as they are told. I have no time for egocentrism.’

Lemon snorted at that. ‘Aye, right, now you know me,’ she said, swaggering back into the plaza, ‘I don’t want to widdle on any parades, but … Splendid as that little twangy-stick is, you may yet be staring down a world of witchfire in the none-too-distant, and I’m not sure how much difference a dozen more twangers will make …’

Matil gave no sign of being aware of her existence. She held her ruined breastplate up to the light, inspecting the jagged rent the bolt had made. ‘You owe me a new breastplate, engineer. Can you afford to buy me a replacement?’

Kosh met her eye, bold, teasing. ‘I will make you a replacement.’

Matil grinned like a tiger. Chel looked to Foss and Lemon. ‘What’s going on with those two?’

Foss only chuckled, while Lemon wrinkled her nose. ‘I dunno, maybe it’s for the best. Could be getting her velvet tipped might make her less of a pain in the wossname.’

‘What?’

‘Never mind, wee bear, never mind.’

***

They heard the raised voices, anger through dark wood, long before Mira the seneschal stopped at the door to the rotunda.

‘Your chambers. Her radiance, Exalted Hayal bids you rest while she resolves the matter of the southern force. Please await a summons.’

Loveless and Rennic stood on opposite sides of the circular antechamber, bristling like alley-cats. They froze when the others entered, the atmosphere in the room frigid despite the day’s warmth.

‘Everything all right?’ Tarfel asked, calculatedly blasé.

Loveless ignored him, switching her focus to Lemon and Foss, and to a lesser extent, Chel.

‘We need to leave this place.’

‘What? We only just arrived.’ Lemon flopped down on a bloated cushion; silken, of course.

‘And staying here is poison. It will consume us, one way or another.’

‘What are you talking about, friend?’

‘I’m talking about the fucking army at the threshold, the one that wants yon princeling’s blood. I’m talking about the venomous lizard that rules this place, and her sow of a daughter.’ Kosh stirred at this, ready to dissent, but Loveless left no space. ‘I’m talking about this vile, constricting place, its scheming lords and poisoners. It will choke us all if we stay more than a breath.’

‘Lot of snake imagery there, friend.’

‘I can’t think why.’

Rennic stepped around the cushion pile, into the patterned light of the upper windows, their blinds like frozen spiderwebs. ‘Why the hurry, Ell? Why the desperation?’

Her gaze fixed him with cold fire. ‘You should know that better than anyone what this place is to me.’