‘And much of it is down to you and the others,’ Pilos said as they began to walk. ‘I know it and I will not forget it.’ The look on Elaq’s face reminded him why he preferred paid Pechaqueh to slaves, no matter the cost. All his guards had partners and children who lived on the estate with them and who Pilos educated and cared for at his own expense. It wasn’t entirely altruistic, of course – most of the children entered the Melody when they were old enough and all were fiercely loyal to him. Still, he could afford it and it meant that his estate was secure and his employees virtually incorruptible.

They strode into the temple complex that spiralled out from the great pyramid, and had made it less than half a stick when Elaq paused to kick a babbling, yelling wreck of a woman out of their path. She shrieked and clawed for him, and he clubbed her in the face and dragged her to the side of the street. Pilos trod through blood as he tried to work out whether he’d once known her, back before she was disgraced. There was something familiar about her. Or maybe she was no one, just a slave who’d displeased her owners and wasn’t good enough to offer to the holy Setatmeh. He’d forgotten how commonplace such sights were here in the heart of the Empire, but the woman’s situation sparked a question.

‘I take it there’s been another purge since last I was home?’ he asked.

Elaq grunted his disgust as he wiped the head of his club on the hem of his kilt. ‘There has, Spear, a large one. The properties and wealth of the traitors and dissidents flow ever to where it is most needed, but the … human waste that is left behind causes issues of its own. We have had to throw them off your estate several times; the offal were trying to rob you.’

‘I’ve a proposal to clear this mess from our streets and help the Melody at the same time. It wasn’t something to mention to the Singer on my first day back, but now I see this’ – he gestured at the shacks of pole uprights and leaking thatch roofs tilted drunkenly against the sides of temples – ‘I can see something must be done.’

Elaq gave him an approving nod. ‘I pray your words find the Singer’s ear.’

‘As do I,’ Pilos said. ‘I see Enet has been elevated again.’

‘I only found out myself this morning, Spear, or I would have warned you,’ Elaq said in apology. ‘And the last I’d heard, the Singer had punished her in the very source itself, though why, I couldn’t find out. But as ever, the snake wriggles its way free and flashes its pretty scales to best advantage.’