‘No.’ He smiled to himself, but not happily. ‘Waited outside for him, seething, struck with his back turned. He was bigger than me, a lot bigger. Then.’

‘And was your captain pleased?’

‘No. Not by my answer, nor my actions. You know what she said? She said that one day I wouldn’t even remember what he’d said, that it would all be meaningless.’

The flunky nodded to them. ‘His highness is with the guard captains. You will be seen next.’

‘My gracious thanks,’ Rennic replied with a snarl.

They waited in the hall, each leaning on an opposite wall.

‘What did he say?’ Chel said. ‘Your first victim.’

Rennic was quiet for a long time.

‘I don’t remember.’

***

The Butterfly Chamber stood shattered, its balcony blocked with sand-sacks, its upper windows smashed, its glossy marble floors littered with piles of debris. Its former insect occupants appeared long-gone, but a few of their bejewelled silk facsimiles remained, tattered and dangling loose by their strings, crass and garish. Tarfel stood by the blockaded arch to the balcony, looking haggard and stooped, hair hanging like string around his ears. The two seneschals who attended him withdrew at Chel and Rennic’s approach.

‘My friends,’ he mustered an unconvincing smile.

‘Tarf,’ Chel nodded. Rennic merely grunted. In the far reaches of the room came the echoes of whispered, desperate words of those sharing what they knew could be their last conversations. ‘You summoned us.’

‘I’m not going to dress it up,’ the prince said, walking toward the balcony. ‘Things are bad. As you might say, this city is fucked.’

Rennic nodded, as if this matched his expectations.

‘What happened in the caves below the city led to the collapse of one of the aqueducts, the destruction of countless pieces of water-retrieval machinery and the loss of water supply to over a third of the city, including the workshops. This is without assessing the loss of silkworms and habitat to the flood. The damage to the city’s prospects is severe.’

Chel started to protest, but the prince held up a hand. ‘But. But. Corvel lost a huge number of his troops when the aqueduct collapsed, not to mention those who drowned in the caves or were discharged into the gorge.’ The prince nodded to himself, smiling, but Chel felt a certain sickness at the thought of his hand in their deaths. ‘A swathe of their confessors are gone, as are most of their mercenaries and ancillaries. Your destruction of those Mawn at the gate was sublime, Master Rennic, and you have my thanks.’

The mention of Mawn jumped Chel’s gaze to Rennic, his eyes searching, but the big man’s stony expression made no admissions. ‘Part of the job,’ he said.

‘Is it right that you lost someone in the defence of the caves?’

Chel stiffened at the prince’s use of ‘you’.

Rennic sniffed and looked away. ‘No.’