Arch Lector Sult was standing near the centre of the room, frowning thoughtfully down at the floor on the other side of the bed. If Glokta had expected him to be as dishevelled as his three colleagues outside the door, he was disappointed. His white gown was spotless, his white hair neatly brushed, his white gloved hands clasped carefully before him.

'Your Eminence . . .' Glokta was saying as he shuffled up. Then he noticed something on the floor. Dark fluid, glistening black in the candlelight. Blood. How very unsurprising.

He hobbled a little further. The corpse lay on its back on the far side of the bed. Blood was spattered on the white sheets, smeared over the boards and across the wall behind, had soaked up into the hem of the opulent drapes by the window. The ripped nightshirt was soaked through with it. One hand was curled up, the other was torn off, ragged, just beyond the thumb. There was a gaping wound on one arm, a chunk of flesh missing. As though it were bitten away. One leg was broken and bent back on itself, a snapped off length of bone poking through split flesh. The throat had been so badly mauled that the head was barely attached, but there was no mistaking the face, seeming to grin up at the fine stucco work on the ceiling, teeth bared, eyes wide, bulging open.

'Crown Prince Raynault has been murdered,' muttered Glokta.

The Arch Lector raised his gloved hands and slowly, softly clapped two fingertips against his palm. 'Oh, very good. It is for just such insights that I sent for you. Yes, Prince Raynault has been murdered. A tragedy. An outrage. A terrible crime that strikes at the very heart of our nation, and at every one of its people. But that is far from the worst of it.' The Arch Lector took a long breath. 'The King has no siblings, Glokta, do you understand? Now he has no heirs. When the king dies, where do you suppose our next illustrious ruler will come from?'

Glokta swallowed. I see. What a towering inconvenience. 'From the Open Council.'

'An election,' sneered Sult. 'The Open Council, voting for our next king. A few hundred self-serving halfwits who can't be trusted to vote for their own lunch without guidance.'

Glokta swallowed. I would almost be enjoying his Eminence's discomfort, were my neck not on the block beside his. 'We are not popular with the Open Council.'

'We are reviled by them. Few more so. Our actions against the Mercers, against the Spicers, against Lord Governor Vurms, and more besides. None of the nobles trust us.'

Then if the king dies . . . 'How is the king's health?'

'Not. Good.' Sult frowned down at the bloody remains. 'All our work could be undone at this one stroke. Unless we can make friends in the Open Council, Glokta, while the king yet lives. Unless we can curry enough favour to choose his successor, or at least to influence the choice.' He stared at Glokta, blue eyes glittering in the candlelight. 'Votes must be bought, and blackmailed, coaxed and threatened our way. And you can depend upon it that those three old bastards outside are thinking just the same thing. How will I stay in power? With which candidate should I align myself? Whose votes can I control? When we announce the murder, we must assure the Open Council that the killer is already in our hands. Then swift, and brutal, and highly visible justice must be done. If the vote does not go our way, who knows what we could end up with? Brock on the throne, or Isher, or Heugen?' Sult gave a horrified shudder. 'We will be out of our jobs, at best. At worst . . .' Several bodies found floating by the docks . . . 'That is why I need you to find me the Prince's murderer. Now.'

Glokta looked down at the body. Or what remains of it. He poked at the gouge out of Raynault's arm with the tip of his cane. We have seen wounds like these before, on that corpse in the park, months ago. An Eater did this, or at least, we are meant to think so. The window tapped gently against its frame on a sudden cold draft. An Eater who climbed in through the window? Unlike one of the Prophet's agents to leave such clues behind. Why not simply vanished, like Davoust? A sudden loss of appetite, are we meant to suppose?

'Have you spoken to the guard?'

Sult waved his hand dismissively. 'He says he stood outside the door all night as usual. He heard a noise, entered the room, found the Prince as you see him, still bleeding, the window open. He sent immediately for Hoff. Hoff sent for me, and I for you.'

'The guard should be properly questioned, nonetheless . . .' Glokta peered down at Raynault's curled-up hand. There was something in it. He bent with an effort, his cane wobbling under his weight, and snatched it up between two fingers. Interesting. A piece of cloth. White cloth, it seemed, though mostly stained dark red now. He flattened it out and held it up. Gold thread glittered faintly in the dim candlelight. I have seen cloth like this before.

'What is that?' snapped Sult. 'Have you found something?' Glokta stayed silent. Perhaps, but it was very easy. Almost too easy.

Glokta nodded to Frost, and the albino reached forward and pulled the bag from the head of the Emperor's envoy. Tulkis blinked in the harsh light, took a deep breath, and squinted round at the room. A dirty white box, too brightly lit. He took in Frost, looming at his shoulder. He took in Glokta, seated opposite. He took in the rickety chairs, and the stained table, and the polished case sitting on top of it. He did not seem to notice the small black hole in the very corner opposite him, behind Glokta's head. He was not meant to. That was the hole through which the Arch Lector watched the proceedings. The one through which he hears every word that is said.

Glokta watched the envoy closely. It is in these early moments that a man often gives away his guilt. I wonder what his first words will be? An innocent man would ask what crime he is accused of- 'Of what crime am I accused?' asked Tulkis. Glokta felt his eyelid twitch. Of course, a clever guilty man might easily ask the same question.

'Of the murder of Crown Prince Raynault.'

The envoy blinked, and sagged back in his chair. 'My deepest condolences to the Royal Family, and to all the people of the Union on this black day. But is all this really necessary?' He nodded down at the yards of heavy chain wrapped round his naked body.

'It is. If you are what we suspect you might be.'

'I see. Might I ask if it will make any difference that I am innocent of any part in this heinous crime?'

I doubt it will. Even if you are. Glokta tossed the bloodstained fragment of white cloth onto the table. 'This was found clasped in the Prince's hand.' Tulkis frowned at it, puzzled. Just as if he never saw it before. 'It matches exactly with a tear in a garment found in your chambers. A garment also stained liberally with blood.' Tulkis looked up at Glokta, eyes wide. Just as though he has no idea how it got there. 'How would you explain this?'

The envoy leaned forwards across the table, as far as he could with his hands chained behind him, and spoke swift and low. 'Please attend to me, Superior. If the Prophet's agents have discovered my mission and they discover everything sooner or later they will stop at nothing to make it fail. You know what they are capable of. If you punish me for this crime, it will be an insult to the Emperor. You will slap away his hand of friendship, and slap him in the face besides. He will swear vengeance, and when Uthman-ul-Dosht has sworn . . . my life means nothing, but my mission cannot fail. The consequences . . . for both our nations . . . please, Superior, I beg of you . . . I know you for an open-minded man-'

'An open mind is like to an open wound,' growled Glokta. 'Vulnerable to poison. Liable to fester. Apt to give its owner only pain.' He nodded to Frost and the albino placed the paper of confession carefully on the table top and slid it towards Tulkis with his white fingertips. He put the bottle of ink beside it and flipped open the brass lid. He placed the pen nearby. All neat and crisp as a Sergeant-Major could wish for.

'This is your confession.' Glokta waved his hand at the paper. 'In case you were wondering.'

'I am not guilty,' muttered Tulkis, his voice hardly more than a whisper.

Glokta twitched his face in annoyance. 'Have you ever been tortured?'

'No.'

'Have you ever seen torture carried out?'

The envoy swallowed. 'I have.'

'Then you have some inkling of what to expect.' Frost lifted the lid on Glokta's case. The trays inside lifted and fanned out like a huge and spectacular butterfly unfurling its wings for the first time, exposing Glokta's instruments in all their glittering, hypnotic, horrible beauty. He watched Tulkis' eyes fill with fear and fascination.

'I am the very best there is at this.' Glokta gave a long sigh and clasped his hands before him. 'It is not a matter for pride. It is a matter of fact. You would not be with me now if it were otherwise. I tell you so you can have no doubts. So you can answer my next question with no illusions. Look at me.' He waited for Tulkis' dark eyes to meet his. 'Will you confess?'

There was a pause. 'I am innocent,' whispered the ambassador.

'That was not my question. I will ask it again. Will you confess?'

'I cannot.'

They stared at each other for a long moment, and Glokta was left in no doubt. He is innocent. If he could steal over the wall of the palace and in through the Prince's window without being noticed, surely he could have stolen out of the Agriont and away before we were any the wiser? Why stay, and sleep, leaving his bloodstained garment hanging in the cupboard, waiting for us to discover it? A trail of clues so blatant a blind man could follow them. We are being duped, and not even subtly. To punish the wrong man, that is one thing. But to allow myself to be made a fool of? That is another.

'One moment,' murmured Glokta. He struggled out of his chair to the door, shut it carefully behind him, hobbled wincing up the steps to the next room and went in.

'What the hell are you up to in there?' the Arch Lector snarled at him.

Glokta kept his head bowed in a position of deep respect. 'I am trying to establish the truth, your Eminence-'

'You are trying to establish what? The Closed Council are waiting for a confession, and you're blathering about what?'

Glokta met the Arch Lector's glare. 'What if he is not lying? What if the Emperor does desire peace? What if he is innocent?'

Sult stared back at him, cold blue eyes wide open with disbelief. 'Did you lose your teeth in Gurkhul or your fucking mind? Who cares a shit for innocent? What concerns us now is what must be done! What concerns us now is what is necessary! What concerns us now is ink on paper you . . . you . . .' he was near frothing at the mouth, fists clenching and unclenching with fury, '. . . you crippled shred of a man! Make him sign, then we can be done with this and get to licking arses in the Open Council!'

Glokta bowed his head still lower. 'Of course, your Eminence.'

'Now is your perverse obsession with the truth going to cause me any more trouble tonight? I'd rather use a needle than a spade, but I'll dig a confession out of this bastard either way! Must I send for Goyle?'

'Of course not, your Eminence.'

'Just get in there, damn you, and make . . . him . . . sign!'

Glokta shuffled out of his room, grumbling, stretching his neck to either side, rubbing his sore palms, working his aching shoulders round his ears and hearing the joints click. A difficult interrogation. Severard was sitting cross-legged on the floor opposite, his head resting against the dirty wall. 'Has he signed?'

'Of course.'

'Lovely. Another mystery solved, eh, chief?'

'I doubt it. He's no Eater. Not like Shickel was, anyway. He feels pain, believe me.'

Severard shrugged. 'She said the talents were different for each of them.'

'She did. She did.' But still. Glokta wiped at his runny eye, thinking. Someone murdered the Prince. Someone had something to gain from his death. I would like to know who, even if no one else cares. 'There are some questions I still need to ask. The guard at the Prince's chambers last night. I want to speak to him.'

The Practical raised his brows. 'Why? We've got the paper haven't we?'

'Just bring him in.'

Severard unfolded his legs and sprang up. 'Alright, then, you're the boss.' He pushed himself away from the greasy wall and sauntered off down the corridor. 'One Knight of the Body, coming right up.'

Holding the Line 'Did you sleep?' asked Pike, scratching at the less burned side of his ruined face. 'No. You?'

The convict turned Sergeant shook his head.

'Not for days,' murmured Jalenhorm, wistfully. He shaded his eyes with a hand and squinted up towards the northern ridge, a ragged outline of trees under the iron grey sky. 'Poulder's division already set off through the woods?'

'Before first light,' said West. 'We should hear that he's in position soon. And now it looks as if Kroy's ready to go. You have to respect his punctuality, at least.'

Below Burr's command post, down in the valley, General Kroy's division was moving into battle order. Three regiments of the King's Own foot formed the centre, with a regiment of levies on the higher ground on either wing and the cavalry just behind. It was an entirely different spectacle from the ragged deployment of Ladisla's makeshift army. The battalions flowed smoothly forwards in tightly ordered columns: tramping through the mud, the tall grass, the patches of snow in the hollows. They halted at their allotted positions and began to spread out into carefully dressed lines, a net of men stretching right across the valley. The chill air echoed with the distant thumping of their feet, the beating of their drums, the clipped calls of their commanders. Everything clean and crisp and according to procedure.

Lord Marshal Burr thrust aside his tent flap and strode out into the open air, acknowledging the salutes of the various guards and officers scattered about the space in front with sharp waves of his hand.

'Colonel,' he growled, frowning up at the heavens. 'Still dry, then?'

The sun was a watery smudge on the horizon, the sky thick white with streaks of heavy grey, darker bruises hanging over the northern ridge. 'For the moment, sir,' said West.

'No word from Poulder yet?'

'No, sir. But it might be hard-going, the woods are dense.' Not as dense as Poulder himself, West thought, but that hardly seemed the most professional thing to say.

'Did you eat yet?'

'Yes, sir, thank you.' West had not eaten since last night, and even then not much. The very idea of food made him feel sick.

'Well at least one of us did.' Burr placed a hand sourly on his stomach. 'Damned indigestion, I can't touch a thing.' He winced and gave a long burp. 'Pardon me. And there they go.'

General Kroy must finally have declared himself satisfied with the precise positioning of every man in his division, because the soldiers in the valley had begun to move forward. A chilly breeze blew up and set the regimental standards, the flags of the battalions, the company ensigns snapping and fluttering. The watery sun twinkled on sharpened blades and burnished armour, shone on gold braid and polished wood, glittered on buckles and harness. All advanced smoothly together, as proud a display of military might as could ever have been seen. Beyond them, down the valley to the east, a great black tower loomed up behind the trees. The nearest tower of the fortress of Dunbrec.

'Quite the spectacle,' muttered Burr. 'Fifteen thousand fighting men, perhaps, all told, and almost as many more up on the ridge.' He nodded his head at the reserve, two regiments of cavalry, dismounted and restless down below the command post. 'Another two thousand there, waiting for orders.' He glanced back towards the sprawling camp: a city of canvas, of carts, of stacked-up boxes and barrels, spread out in the snowy valley, black figures crawling around inside. 'And that's without counting all the thousands back there cooks and grooms, smiths and drivers, servants and surgeons.' He shook his head. 'Some responsibility, all that, eh? You wouldn't want to be the fool who had to take care of all that lot.'

West gave a weak smile. 'No, sir.'

'It looks like . . .' murmured Jalenhorm, shading his eyes and squinting down the valley into the sun. 'Are those . . . ?'

'Eye-glass!' snapped Burr, and a nearby officer produced one with a flourish. The Marshal flicked it open. 'Well, well. Who's this now?'

A rhetorical question, without a doubt. There was no one else it could be. 'Bethod's Northmen,' said Jalenhorm, ever willing to state the obvious.

West watched them rush across the open ground through the wobbling round window of his own eye-glass. They flowed out from the trees at the far end of the valley, near to the river, spreading out like the dark stain creeping from a slit wrist. Dirty grey and brown masses congealed on the wings. Thralls, lightly armed. In the centre better ordered ranks took shape, dull metal gleaming, mail and blade. Bethod's Carls.

'No sign of any horse.' That made West more nervous than ever. He had already had one near-fatal encounter with Bethod's cavalry, and he did not care to renew the acquaintance.

'Feels good to actually see the enemy, at last,' said Burr, voicing the exact opposite of West's own feelings. 'They move smartly enough, that's sure.' His mouth curved up into a rare grin. 'But they're moving right where we want them to. The trap's baited and ready to spring, eh, Captain?' He passed the eye-glass to Jalenhorm, who peered through it and grinned himself.

'Right where we want them,' he echoed. West felt a good deal less confident. He could clearly remember the thin line of Northmen on the ridge, right where Ladisla had thought he wanted them.

Kroy's men halted and the units shuffled into perfect position once again, just as calmly as if they stood on a vast parade ground: lines four ranks deep, reserve companies drawn up neatly behind, a thin row of flatbowmen in front. West just made out the shouted orders to fire, saw the first volley float up from Kroy's line, shower down in amongst the enemy. He felt his nails digging painfully into his palm as he watched, fists clenched tight, willing the Northmen to die. Instead they sent back a well organised volley of their own, and then began to surge forward.

Their battle cry floated up to the officers outside the tent, that unearthly shriek, carrying on the cold air. West chewed at his lip, remembering the last time he heard it, echoing through the mist. Hard to believe it had only been a few weeks ago. Again he was guiltily glad to be well behind the lines, though a shiver down his back reminded him that it had done little good on that occasion.

'Bloody hell,' said Jalenhorm.

No one else spoke. West stood, teeth gritted, heart thumping, trying desperately to hold his eye-glass steady as the Northmen charged full-blooded down the valley. Kroy's flatbows gave them one more volley, then pulled back through the carefully prepared gaps in the carefully dressed ranks, forming up again behind the lines. Spears were lowered, shields were raised, and in virtual silence, it seemed, the Union line prepared to meet the howling Northmen.

'Contact,' growled Lord Marshal Burr. The Union ranks seemed to wave and shift somewhat, the watery sunlight seemed to flash more rapidly on the mass of men, a vague rattling drifted on the air. Not a word was said in the command post. Each man was squinting through his eye-glass, or peering into the sun, craning to see what was happening down in the valley, hardly daring even to breathe.

After what seemed a horribly long time, Burr lowered his eye-glass. 'Good. They're holding. It seems your Northmen were right, West, we have the advantage in numbers, even without Poulder. When he gets here, it should be a rout-'

'Up there,' muttered West, 'on the southern ridge.' Something glinted in the treeline, and again. Metal. 'Cavalry, sir, I'd bet my life on it. It seems Bethod had the same idea as us, but on the other wing.'

'Damn it!' hissed Burr. 'Send word to General Kroy that the enemy has horse on the southern ridge! Tell him to refuse that flank and prepare to be attacked from the right!' One of the adjutants leaped smoothly into his saddle and galloped off in the direction of Kroy's headquarters, cold mud flying from his horse's hooves.

'More tricks, and this may not be the last of 'em.' Burr snapped the eye-glass closed and thumped it into his open palm. 'This must not be allowed to fail, Colonel West. Nothing must get in the way. Not Poulder's arrogance, not Kroy's pride, not the enemy's cunning, none of it. We must have victory here today. It must not be allowed to fail!'

'No, sir.' But West was far from sure what he could do about it.

The Union soldiers were trying to be quiet, which meant they made about as much racket as a great herd of sheep being shoved indoors for shearing. Moaning and grunting, slithering on the wet ground, armour rattling, weapons knocking on low branches. Dogman shook his head as he watched 'em.

'Lucky thing there's no one out here, or we'd have been heard long ago,' hissed Dow. 'These fools couldn't creep up on a corpse.'

'No need for you to be making noise,' hissed Threetrees, up ahead, then beckoned them all forward.

It was a strange feeling, marching with such a big crew again. There were two score of Shivers' Carls along with 'em, and quite an assortment. Tall men and short, young and old, all manner of different weapons and armour, but all pretty well seasoned, from what the Dogman could tell.

'Halt!' And the Union soldiers clattered and grumbled to a stop, started sorting themselves out into a line, spread across the highest part of the ridge. A great long line, the Dogman reckoned, judging from the number of men he'd watched going up into the woods, and they were right at the far end of it. He peered off into the empty trees on their left, and frowned. Lonely place to be, the end of a line.

'But the safest,' he muttered to himself.

'What's that?' asked Cathil, sitting down on a great fallen tree trunk.

'Safe here,' he said in her tongue, managing a grin. He still didn't have half an idea how to behave around her. There was a hell of a gap between them in the daylight, a yawning great gap of race, and age, and language that he wasn't sure could ever be bridged. Strange, how the gap dwindled down to nothing at night. They understood each other well enough in the dark. Maybe they'd work it out, in time, or maybe they wouldn't, and that'd be that. Still, he was glad she was there. Made him feel like a proper human man again, instead of just an animal slinking in the woods, trying to scratch his way from one mess to another.

He watched a Union officer break off from his men and walk towards them, strut up to Threetrees, some kind of a polished stick wedged under his arm. 'General Poulder asks that you remain here on the left wing, to secure the far flank.' He spoke slow and very loud, as though that'd make him understood if they didn't talk the language.

'Alright,' said Threetrees.

'The division will be deploying along the high ground to your right!' And he flicked his stick thing towards the trees where his men were slowly and noisily getting ready. 'We will be waiting until Bethod's forces are well engaged with General Kroy's division, and then we will attack, and drive them from the field!'