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“Taking the capital will not be easy,” I said “The wisest course would be to wait here, gathering strength until the spring”

“Wisdoht, the Ally will most likely see it all”

“Then why?”

“We cannot sier here and wait for the next blow to fall Any more than your Emperor can expect to remain immune from the Ally’s attentions”

“I ae to deliver to the E the sealed scroll was heavy about h only a fraction of its weight Just ink, paper and wax, I thought Yet it could send millions to war

We halted as we ca still scorched fro the scars of blades and arrowheads, patches on the sails furled to the rigging My eyes were also drawn to the serpentine figurehead which, despite having lost aze found the captain at the head of the gangplank, thick arlower, a face I recalled all too well

“Did you, perhaps, have a hand in choosing this vessel, my lord?” I asked Al Sorna

There was a faint glied “Merely a coincidence, I assure you”

I sighed, finding I had scant roo to Fornella and extending a hand to the ship “Honoured Citizen I’ll join you in a moment”

I saw Al Sorna’s eyes track her as she walked the plank to the ship,practice “Despite what the truth-teller said,” he told me, “I caution you, don’t trust her”

“I was her slave long enough to learn that lesson ain and nodded a farewell “By your leave, n”

“You were right,” he broke in, his wary smile returned once more “The story I told you There were someomissions”

“I think you mean lies”

“Yes” His smile faded “But I believe you have earned the truth I have scant notion of how this ill end, or even if either of us will live to see its end But if we do, findbut truth from me”

I should have been grateful, I know For what scholar does not hunger for truth froratitude as I looked into his gaze, no thought save a name Seliesen

“I used to wonder,” I said, “how a man who had taken so uilt How does a killer bear the weight of killing and still call himself human? But we are both killers now, and I find it burdens my soul not at all But then, I killed an evil ood one”

I turned away and strode up the gangplank without a backward glance

CHAPTER ONE

Lyrna

She oken by the snow Soft, icy caresses on her skin, tingling and not unpleasant, calling her from the darkness It took a moment for me, fear and confusion reigning a as he charged, sword baredThe ring of steelA hard fist across her mouthAnd the manThe man who burned her

She opened her mouth to screaasp dragging chilled air into her lungs It seemed as if she would freeze froe she should die fro burned so fiercely

Iltis! The name was a sudden shout in her mind Iltis is wounded! Perhaps dead!

She willed herself to et up, call for a healer with all the power her queen’s voice could roan and flutter her hands a little as the snow continued its frosty caress Rage burned in her, banishing the chill fros I need tojagged air into her lungs again she screae into the sound A fierce scream, a queen’s screah teeth when it reached her ears, along with so else

“better be a good reason for this, Sergeant,” a hard voice was saying, strong, clipped and precise A soldier’s voice, accompanied by the crunch of boots in snow

“Tower Lord said he was to be minded well, Captain,” another voice, coloured by a Nilsaelin accent, older and not quite so strong “Treated with respect, he said Like the other folk froather from a fellow that don’t talk above tords at a time”