Shand’s cold eyes bored into her. She clenched her jaw and returned the look. She started counting back from a hundred. She had reached seventy-three when Shand looked away. His cheeks coloured.

‘I will look into this,’ he said. ‘Meanwhile, I am deeply displeased by your behaviour. As a lieutenant I expect you to set a better example.’

Minka nodded. ‘Sorry, sir.’

Shand considered the matter done. ‘You had better get back to camp,’ Shand said.

Minka made the sign of the aquila. ‘Thank you, sir.’

‘Oh. Lieutenant Lesk,’ he said as she reached the doorway. She paused. ‘Give the Drookians a wide berth from now on. I don’t want to have to deal with any more complaints. Or even worse, I don’t want to lose a promising young lieutenant.’

Minka strode to the guard chamber. She signed for her weapons. The guard returned them to her and nodded. She felt an air of respect from him and as he nodded, he winked.

‘Well done, sir,’ he said.

Minka stepped out onto the front step of the confinement block. She paused and looked about. There was the distant rumble of artillery. A fire was burning on Tor Tartarus. It was a deep red colour, like freshly spilled blood. Above the siege camp the ruddy clouds were sliced with searchlights.

She could see the upper storeys of Tor Tartarus, with their massed artillery.

The bridge supports were silhouetted against the sky. She paused for a moment. A few scraps of the road bridge sagged on the taut wires.

When she got back to the flakboard barracks hall, Minka said nothing about her absence, but there was no disguising the bruises on her face. ‘I fell,’ she said.

She gave Baine a look that shut him up.

‘How is she?’ Dreno said.

‘Dido? She’s not good,’ Minka said. The words fell heavily in the room. Minka paused. ‘I told her she was lucky not to be in the next attack.’

‘Any idea when that will be?’

Minka shook her head.

Next morning Minka went out with Baine and Dreno. They stopped at the base of one of the suspension bridge supports. Two towers rose up into the sky. A service ladder provided ­access to the upper levels. The roadway had been mined, but high up the cables were still intact.

Minka clambered right to the top. She put her hand to the top wire. It hummed in the breeze.

‘What do you think?’ Dreno said.

Minka paused. ‘I think we should have a word with Colonel Sparker.’

Sparker listened to Minka’s plan. He came out with her onto the steps of his office. She handed him the field-auspex. He looked for himself.

At last he said, ‘Well. It’s possible.’

‘Would you like me to present the plans to Colonel Baytov?’

‘Not yet,’ Sparker said.