‘Yes,’ said Foss at the same time as Loveless said, ‘No.’ They looked at each other, irked.

‘I see,’ Ruumi said, stroking her chin. ‘And this Shepherd, she was a real person, walked the earth?’

‘No,’ said Foss, firmly, while Loveless said, ‘Yes,’ with equal certainty.

‘Master Rennic, do you have a view?’

Rennic put up his hands. ‘Don’t look at me, nearly-queen, my gods are silver and grape.’

‘I believe we have more in common than you may have expected.’

He raised his horn. ‘Maybe we do.’

They exchanged a smile, and Chel didn’t like the look of it.

***

Oksa was talking, a rapid stream of the lilting Horvaun tongue quite at odds with her ponderous speech to the northerners. Ruumi listened intently, the smile growing at the corners of her mouth, then exploded with laughter at the joke’s conclusion. Oksa sat back, chuckling to herself, delighted.

‘I apologize,’ Ruumi said, wiping a tear from one eye with the hand that held her drinking horn. ‘It’s a marvellous joke, but it just won’t translate well. Rest assured, it was not at your expense.’

‘Until you said that, the thought hadn’t occurred,’ Lemon said, eyes narrow. She returned her attention to hacking at the meat on the platter in front of her, something rich and well-fatted. It wobbled and sprang beneath her knife.

‘I am sorry, too, for the quality of the feast,’ Ruumi said. ‘Now that winter is upon us and the straits are frozen, we are forced to open the stores.’

Lemon looked up, aware of the glares in her direction. ‘But the straits don’t freeze!’

‘Perhaps not all the way across, but enough to make them impassable for our vessels. There will be no eastern travel until the thaw. Hence, no fresh meat, I’m afraid.’

Loveless raised an eyebrow. ‘Hence? Just how long did you spend in the north? Your linguistic command appears prodigious.’

Ruumi placed a hand on her chest in modesty, false or otherwise. ‘I admit, much of your language is returning to me with renewed exposure. Borre, my half-brother, and I both spent several years at the Academy, our terms overlapping. It was only toward the end of my time there that I encountered Prince Tarfel’s brothers, and of course the young prince himself. I saw only a little of them, and of course it was soon after that one was dead and the other was acting an imbecile.’

Chel’s gaze was back on the nearly-queen in an instant. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Mendel, the younger twin.’

‘The one who imprisoned us, executed our friends, purged the countryside of rebellion?’

‘No, no, you misunderstand. Mendel was dead. Corvel remained, behaving in a … strange manner, as if he were Mendel. And somehow …’ She waved a hand beside her head. ‘Damaged, his thinking.’

‘How did you know it was Corvel?’