Pikte hadn’t liked her to be uncomfortable, though. Enet’s mouth pressed tight and she pinched the stump of her missing little finger. The house was quiet without him and her body slave had cried for a week in the aftermath, as if it had anything to do with her. The diamond of Enet’s grief shifted in her chest, threatening to soften and so expand, to grow until it filled all Ixachipan and crushed her beneath its weight. She thrust it away again, back behind her heart, in the prison of her ribs.

The Great Octave ran her finger around the inside of the cup, drawing up the last of the powder and licking it clean. The tonic was a recipe from the very oldest and most precious of her books, something used by the very, very first shamans who shaped the songstone – and who went on to become Singers. The legend of it had been lost, and so when Enet discovered it in the book, which was otherwise useless, it had felt like more than coincidence. Along with the truth about blooding the song, she had finally begun to see a way forward. A path to greatness, not for her – for the Empire. Everything she did was for the Empire that she loved so much.

And yet the blooding is out of control. Who’s to say the tonic won’t likewise be a disaster? Who’s to say it won’t kill you?

Enet pushed away her concerns. When Yalotlan and Tokoban were safe under the song, the time would come to waken the world spirit. And when that happened, Enet needed to be in the strongest possible position, and the tonic would give her that. Strength of body and clarity of mind and a connection to the song deeper than any she’d known before. What did a bellyache matter in return for such gifts?

‘High one? The latest report is in. I … think you should read it.’ The estate slave’s voice was neutral as he spoke through the door.

‘Not now,’ Enet snapped, staring at the books and the calendars in front of her and rubbing her stomach in soft, circular motions. It was here, the answer she needed to control the blooding. It had to be here somewhere. Why had none of the books discussed even the possibility that—

‘It’s from one of the eyes in the Melody, high one. Regarding intentions in Tokoban.’