Tarfel stepped forward from behind Rennic, holding his head high with barely a sniffle. ‘I’m afraid I don’t remember you, ah …’

She ignored the dangling pause. ‘I am glad, after all, that Brecki spoke true, and you are not dead as we had heard. This will make life very interesting. We have much to discuss.’ She was smiling even wider. ‘The rest of you, you are …’ She wrinkled her nose in thought, an oddly juvenile expression. ‘… Mercenaries? Sell-swords?’

‘Aye, we prefer “freelance contractors”.’

She nodded, unperturbed. ‘And which of you is the wizard?’ Again, her smile was genuine, if unnerving.

‘Hold on a thrice-damned moment!’ Rennic was still trying to assert himself. ‘Who are you?’

‘You may call me Ruumi.’

‘And you’re the queen of this place, right?’

‘Ah,’ she said, grin undimmed. ‘Very nearly.’

***

The hallway they followed curled down into the hill, vaguely infernal, lined on either side with monstrous images, statues and bronze casts. Ruumi nodded to each one, a salute of sorts, remarking over her shoulder as she walked.

‘You’re familiar with our pantheon, your highness? You must have suffered Doctor Mesomedes’ overview at the Academy.’

Tarfel mumbled, noncommittal. Chel worried that the prince’s great resolve from their journey seemed to have withered now they were in a Horvaun stronghold.

‘You will recognize the main players, of course,’ Ruumi said, pointing as she walked. ‘The Devourer, the Reaper, the Beast, everyone knows.’

‘The Reaper who winnows weakness, the Beast who hews strength, the Devourer who consumes the dying world,’ the prince echoed, seemingly surprising himself.

‘Very good, your highness. But do you recognize that one? No? The Gatekeeper, who stands before the door? Do you remember any others?’

‘The … Judge?’

‘The Arbiter, yes, who sits in judgement. An easy one. Any others?’

‘The … Frothing Ear-Biter?’

‘Ha, no, very good, your highness. You could also have had the Tiller who sows the seed, the Sentinel who watches over, the Harbinger who heralds what comes, the Navigator who sails the starry sky. Then there are all the minor gods, of course,’ she continued. ‘But their names vary depending on who you ask, and the time of year. I doubt even Doctor Mesomedes could name half of them.’

‘They worship the Navigator in the Thousand Isles,’ Chel said. ‘Is it the same one?’

Ruumi’s gaze travelled through him and out the other side. ‘Does their Navigator sail the oceans of night in a vessel of bone, her oars fashioned from the claws of the last dragon?’

‘I, uh, don’t think so.’

‘Perhaps not the same one.’

‘Aside from the Tiller, they sound like a morbid bloody lot,’ Loveless muttered from behind.

Ruumi smiled. ‘The Tiller harrows with a thousand-sided plough of the swords of his conquered foes, sowing their teeth in the furrows, that they may rise as an army of slaves at the coming of the endless winter.’

‘Ah. My mistake.’