She walked him to the door, one hand on his arm, supportive, intractable. She spoke quietly as they walked, her voice a murmur. ‘You need to be very careful with Gar, cub. I called him a coward before, but I was wrong. He’s innately cautious, or he was, but that’s gone, scoured away … Once he gets an idea, he … hardens around it. He’s set on his course now, and you’d better be thrice-damned sure you have the stomach to follow him to its end.’

She pushed him gently through the door and began to close it.

‘Watch him for me.’

***

When he returned to her room at dawn, ready to apologize and redouble his efforts to convince her to stay, she was gone.

TWENTY-NINE

Foss, Lemon, and Chel stood in the doorway, staring at the empty room. The bed was made, blankets pressed flat, and on it lay a single bottle, one of the wines Lemon and Foss had pilfered. It was unopened.

‘Guess she wasn’t thirsty,’ Foss said. ‘Half-expected her to have left the sword.’

‘You’re joking, eh? She’d sooner part with an arm.’

Chel looked from one to the other, searching their faces for oncoming levity, a relieving break to the tension. None was forthcoming. ‘She’ll come back, though, right?’

‘Hmm?’

‘She’s threatened to leave before. She’ll come back, once the dust settles. Right?’

Lemon puffed her cheeks. ‘Often said it. Never done it.’

‘So?’

‘So, I don’t know, wee bear.’

‘Will she be all right?’

‘Her? Aye, she’ll be grand, that one. All of nature’s bounties.’

‘What do you mean?’

Foss stirred. ‘You know, if you break a bone, it heals thicker, stronger than before?’

‘Yeah, I suppose.’

‘If you break it again, it gets a little thicker? A little stronger?’

‘If you say so. What are you getting at?’

He nodded, slowly, his gaze still on the bed, bright shafts of patterned sunlight dancing over it. ‘I’m saying she’ll be all right, friend.’ He took a long breath. ‘It’s the rest of us we should worry about.’

Footsteps thumped up the hallway behind them. Rennic was almost at a run.

‘Get to the gallery. Now.’

‘What’s the commotion, boss?’

‘Now.’

Chel searched for words, thinking of how to phrase the news of Loveless’s exit. Lemon overtook him, with a nod inside the door.

‘Did you see—?’

‘Yes. Now move it!’

***

The dust cloud had gone, although dark smears of thick smoke still rose from the neck of the pass into the brilliant morning air.

‘No,’ Chel whispered, his hands on the gallery rail. ‘Already?’

‘How the fuckity …’ Lemon murmured beside him. Foss just stood very still.