Enet was beautiful and powerful and rich, and the Singer, their living god, was in thrall to her, and he either didn’t realise it or, worse, he knew and didn’t care. She would ascend with him, of that there was no doubt. Pilos didn’t care about that – he cared about the amount of damage she would do to the Empire beforehand. And now she had the reach and power to accomplish it.

He stared around the advisers and noted the discomfort in some faces, the pleasure gleaming from others’. The Singer’s cronies had split the council neatly down the middle and as the Singer began to wane, bloodshed would increase as all vied for a position close to his heart and the chance to ascend with him. What damage they did the Empire of Songs during that mad scramble would mean nothing to them. Only those who were left behind would face it. Whatever danger I have been in before, whether in the council or in battle, is as nothing compared with this.

‘We are awaiting your answer, Spear,’ Enet snapped and Pilos dragged his scattered thoughts back together.

‘Singer,’ Pilos said, addressing his lord instead of the Great Octave, ‘you are right: the war is not yet won. We have taken half their territory and expect to complete the conquest after the rains have stopped and the land has firmed enough for battle. If it is your will,’ he placed the tiniest emphasis on the pronoun, ‘I will of course turn the Melody around and march them straight back to war. As Spear and High Feather, by your grace, my advice would be to wait until after the Wet. We have fought through it before, in Quitoban. We lost more than half our warriors and the Empire’s expansion was delayed as a result.’

‘The Singer does not need reminding of your past failures,’ Enet hissed, her face appearing again.

Pilos raised both hands, not even bothering to remind her that he had been been promoted to High Feather only a few days before Quitoban finally fell and that the length of the campaign had been neither his fault nor unexpected. ‘The Quitob were brought under the song, Great Octave. Where is the failure? I mention it only because once we have brought the Yaloh into the Empire, we will still have to face the Tokob – unless we take both tribes at once.’ Atu huffed at that. ‘We cannot afford to wait for our full-blood youngsters to mature and replace any needless losses. And the Yaloh slave warriors will not be fully integrated under the song for years. We won’t be able to trust them.’