‘Foul luck. My sympathies.’ The prince sighed. ‘I knew my parents more by reputation than as people, let alone family, and I’ve found that the more time I’ve spent outside the cloisters and palaces, the more I’ve come to question what I heard.’

‘Such as, highness?’

‘I think it’s pretty obvious by now that my father was Vassad’s pawn for much of his adult life, and that much of what I was told about his great victories and leadership and so on was likely exaggerated to the point of outright mendacity. Who was going to tell me the truth, after all? I believed what I was told, never questioned it, and, had it not been for your intervention, I’d have gone to my grave believing that my father was a fabulous conqueror who championed justice and the true church, and brought great strength and stability to our kingdom. But it’s all bollocks, isn’t it?’

‘It is, highness.’

‘It’s been non-stop conflict for two decades. Battles and strife, famine and plague – your poor father among the victims, direct and indirect. And it was all power games, to Vassad, the Names, the powers beyond our borders. All that suffering, just so they might get one over on each other.’

‘You’ve been thinking about this, highness.’

‘I have, Vedren, I have. I’ve been thinking that I stand here, the scales fallen from my eyes, finally understanding the hypocrisy, the vile waste … And in Roniaman, my brother dreams of empire.’

‘Empire?’

‘It’s … it’s worse than I mentioned before. When I said he had plans.’ Tarfel pushed back the hood of his furs, ran a hand through his lank mass of hair. ‘He hasn’t seen what I’ve seen, he’s swallowed it all, whether he realizes it or not. He thinks Father was a great man, poisoned and murdered by Vassad, and with Father avenged he can carry on his legacy. Corvel once told me as a joke that Father had some ancient scrolls falsified, lineage changed, just so he could claim to be descended from the first emperors. It was all a ridiculous stunt, or at least we thought so.

‘And now I think back, I wonder how stupid, how petty a man my father was. So easily tricked, so easily used, before he was even drugged into a stupor. He probably believed it himself. That he was emperor in waiting. And now Corvel … Now my brother sees his duty as the rebuilding of that empire. He’s going to wage wars the like we’ve not seen in our lifetimes, and all over a foolish lie. He will not stop unless he is made to stop.’

‘What are you saying, highness?’