Chel shook his head. ‘I’m fine. Can’t leave you unsupervised, anyway. You’d only fuck something up.’ In truth, he was shattered, but as long as he kept moving he could push the exhaustion from his mind and his muscles. And Rennic’s look worried him. He’d made little acknowledgment of Foss’s mortal state, but after the violence of his reaction to Whisper’s loss, after what had happened with Grassi, Chel could not shake the notion that the big man was about to do something suicidally reckless. Loveless’s words echoed in his head. Watch him for me.

Rennic nodded, that snorted half-smile again. ‘No doubt, little man.’

Chel followed him toward the low, blocky form of the third gate.

‘What’s the plan? Let them come at the gate, hold the walls?’

‘Come at the gate? At this gate? Are you soft, little man? This is the last gate, the oldest, the weakest. This fucker hasn’t been closed in centuries. A stiff breeze could level it. No, we’re going out to face them.’

‘Leave the walls? But—’

‘Yes, yes.’ Rennic bent and hefted a spear from a rack, testing its edge and flex, whistling it around his head and body in a sudden display of martial prowess. ‘Hurkel will be leading them. No way they’d be coming otherwise. That arse-faced fuck has made this personal.’

‘And that means we should ride to meet him?’

‘He’s arrogant, selfish, self-important – he’ll want to be the one to break the last gate. Take him down, those red pricks will be dead in their tracks. Cut the head off the snake.’

‘Why not just shoot him? Kosh’s crossbow is fixed, right?’

He snorted, blew dust from the spear-tip. ‘Little man, this is something that needs to be seen to be done.’

‘And you think you can beat him, one-to-one? He’s smashed everyone he’s faced to mush, and he’s plated like an engine. It’s not like I can hit his knees again – tried that in Black Rock, and it damned near got us executed. It did for Dalim and Palo.’

‘But this time we’re not locked in a tower, and the terrain favours us. And old prune-face has a fatal weakness.’

‘What?’

‘You. He thirsts for you, little man. And that’s going to come in handy.’

The day darkened, thick clouds the colour of a coal-face sliding overhead. Somewhere over the plains, thunder rumbled, echoing from the mountains. Rennic’s manic smile widened.

‘I’d say there’s a storm coming, wouldn’t you?’

He flexed the spear and made for the gate.

***