Matil rubbed at one eye with her free hand. She looked more tired than Tarfel, whose own complexion was grey in the room’s gilded light. ‘Thank you, Lord Ghiz, for your thought. I foresee a number of potential obstacles, however: first, their force is very much larger than we realized, encompassing a number of what appear to be former mercenary companies. Our lookouts report company pennants, overpainted with the symbol of the crook.’ Rennic twitched at this, and Chel thought of Nadej’s words, and Fest’s treachery. ‘There is no guarantee that the men who dug and laboured through the night are the same as those entering the plateau, especially given our intelligence on the nature of their alchemy.’ There, a little look to Kosh, who responded with a tight smile of satisfaction. ‘Second, we cannot attack in cold blood. They have raised a flag of truce.’

‘Truce?’ cried one of the robed types. ‘They laid our fortress to waste!’

Matil nodded, jaw clenched. ‘Which they may claim was in defence of an act of aggression from those manning it. We have no way to confirm, there being few left to us who can speak of the events, and under the treaties we have little alternative.’

Ghiz’s moustache was trembling. ‘Your mother would never have stood for this.’

‘My mother,’ Matil replied with a voice of ice, ‘refused to treat with an army on our doorstep, dictated an aggressive ultimatum and triggered the destruction of our city’s greatest defence beyond the gorge and the loss of hundreds of lives. I shall not make the same mistake. Keep your forces ready, Commander, but you will wait for orders.’

‘Very well.’ He turned to leave.

‘Very well, what?’

He paused, exhaled through his nose. ‘Very well, Exalted.’

‘You are dismissed, Commander.’

The rest of the council filed away after him, muttering in their own language. The words might have been unknown to Chel, but the tone wasn’t, nor the pointed looks at Matil and Kosh both.

Tarfel remained. ‘You’re going to treat with them? Is that wise, Exalted?’

‘I understand your concerns, highness. But we risk little in hearing them out. Their position may be more flexible than was implied.’

‘And if not?’

‘I will not surrender you, highness. If they insist, I will refuse, and they will lay siege, as was perhaps always their intent.’

‘You’re not worried?’

‘I am. But Arowan is the most defensible city in the known world. They must cross the gorge to reach us, along a wide, open bridge, to reach a triple gatehouse. And they cannot surround us – we will always have the water of the wells, the aqueducts, and two bridges out to the plains, allowing us to bring in food and evacuate people as we see fit. Arowan has never fallen, nor will she. Ever.’