best to help you, in my own way. Someone had to have an eye on the bigger picture. I was working with Superior Pike to bring this madness to an end.”

A cold sliver of doubt pierced the warm fuzz of their reunion and began to stab deeper. “Working with Pike? Wasn’t he behind all this?”

“No, Savine. The time has come for me… at long last… to confess.” His eyes slid up to hers, bright in their bruised sockets. There was no remorse in them. If anything, he had a kind of stubborn pride as he said the words. “I was.”

Her hand was prickling where he held it. “What do you mean?”

“When I was a young man, and widely admired—there actually was a time, if you can believe it—I always imagined the power was in the Closed Council. But from the moment I first perched my withered arse on a chair there, it was clear we were all puppets. Bayaz pulled the strings, and always had. He controlled the banks, and their roots ate into everything. A web of debts, and secrets, and favours, deeper than you can imagine. Valint and Balk.” His eyelid flickered, and he dabbed a streak of wet from his weepy eye with a knuckle. “They were like ivy choking the garden. King Jezal and I… you might not believe it, but we tried to do some good. As long as Bayaz was there… we were helpless.” He paused, shadows black in the deep lines of his frowning face. “I had to bring a Great Change.”

Savine could only stare at him, while the floor seemed to shift under her feet. Seemed to shift so savagely it was hard, almost, to keep her balance. “You… brought the Great Change?”

“I had to burn out the corruption. Rip Bayaz and his bank up by the roots! Dig it all over, so we could plant something new, something good.” He sat forward, gripping her hand tight, lips curling back from his ruined teeth. “And now we have that chance!”

“Don’t talk to me about fucking gardening!” she screamed, tearing her hand from his. “People died! Thousands of them!” She felt dizzy. She felt sick. “I nearly died, more than once!”

He gave a frustrated twitch, as if the problem was not his epic ruthlessness but her poor temper. “Progress does not come without sacrifices—you have always seen that more clearly than anyone. The Court of the People was not at all what we had in mind, but once it became clear what a disaster Risinau would be, Judge was the only option. Who could have known Judge would be even worse?”

“Anyone! Anyone who saw what she did in Valbeck! Anyone with eyes or ears in their head! The woman was fucking insane!”

“A period of insanity was necessary so that sanity could prevail,” grumbled her father, as if she was complaining about footprints on a rug. “I would have liked a more… orderly transition, but Bayaz began to show an interest in you, and I could not risk that. Honestly, Savine, a little gratitude would not kill you.”