'And still it is true, whether you let yourself see it or not.' Styrax turned to face his son, letting none of his sadness at Kohrad's glazed expression show on his face. Small flames still ghosted over the red-stained steel of his son's armour. Kohrad enjoyed wielding flame and destruction rather more than his father was comfortable with; Styrax thought it was beginning to cloud the young man's mind. However he'd found that armour, the only secret he kept from his father, it hadn't been the blessing Kohrad considered it.

'Despite his looks, I still don't think Gaur really suits being a soldier,' Kohrad said, in a rare moment of reflection. 'He's too serene, too at peace with the Land. He never lost his temper with me when I was growing up. Now I realise that must have been hard.' Styrax gave a snort of amusement but didn't interrupt. 'I suppose that makes him the best man to trust your army to, but it still seems perverse.'

'As is much in life,' the white-eye Lord agreed. 'Battle is all he's ever known, and you would wound him gravely if you suggested he gave up furthering my cause.'

Kohrad gestured towards the walls of Raland up ahead. 'Speaking or your cause and the perversity of life; all those years of research to find the damn thing and this fat fool digs it up just a few months before we arrive…'

'I know,' Styrax said with an ironic smile, 'but I cannot decide whether it is merely a lesson in the unpredictability of life, or a dire portent for this Age. However, whatever the reason, I think it is time

we showed these people how easily we can take what is theirs. Are you ready?'

'Of course – but I'm curious to know why you are certain there will be a soft landing waiting for me.'

'The first rule of warfare.' He waited for his son to fill in the words.

'Know your enemy,' Kohrad confirmed, 'although some might say that knowing yourself is the first rule.'

'That is necessary long before a man leads an army to battle.' Styrax could sense his son's reluctance to cede the point, but the boy was a white-eye too, and filial loyalty could only go so far, after all.

'I still think that having a vastly larger army would be a better rule to start with.'

Styrax gave his son an affectionate thump on the shoulder. 'Perhaps, but it lacks elegance, and there is not much to take from that into the rest of life. If there is a lesson to be learned, no man should ignore the opportunity. If there isn't, open a jar of wine and find wisdom there.'

'For someone with such insight, you're still taking a gamble, however educated your guess might be. You can't know everything about a man's character. For instance, this duke could enjoy waking up to the dawn just as I do now – remember our hunting trips? Since then I've always preferred a west-facing window. The duke might also, despite the impressive view from this window.'

‘True enough,' Styrax agreed, 'but do not overestimate men either: most remain slaves to their weaknesses, and our friend the duke is one. He is so weak he'll need to feel his power the moment he wakes. However, another rule of life is not to gamble with what you hold most dear, and I never do. Our agent in the city made sure.'

‘Your men would have accepted your guesswork without a word. Gaur would have.'

That's because I have the best army in the Land, and to be vicious, an army needs faith in its leader. You questioned me because you were not born to follow orders.'

‘You're very sure of that. Gaur himself is evidence that breeding counts for nothing.'

‘The chances were always good,' Styrax said quietly. 'For a good litter you make sure you have the finest bitch. I abide the company of few enough to risk keeping a fool of a son around to disappoint me. You have two positions to inherit in your life, General Gaur's

and my own, and I am certain you will prove worthy of both. Enough of doubts – you have a task I can entrust to no other, so get yourself ready.'

Kohrad stared back at his father, a mix of gratitude and suspicion on his face. There was no need to add that Styrax could do it himself. What they intended would be an outrageous gesture, one to make the whole of the West take notice. It was also a test for Kohrad. He would not return if he failed.

'Why aren't you doing something about it?'

Tochet opened his mouth to reply to Duke Nemarse's demand, then bit his tongue against saying something he would regret. The duke had been pacing around for half an hour now, all the while tapping his fingers against a small velvet purse that hung from his belt. These mannerisms annoyed Tochet, and the effect was exacerbated by the duke's high girlish voice.

'What would you like me to do? That noise is driving the horses mad, and I'm not sending my infantry out there.'

'Well, do something; I'm not paying you to stand up here and gawp over the walls.'

Tochet sighed. He'd tried to send some cavalry out, but they had gone only a few dozen yards before guttural animal calls had sent them into a panic. Whatever creatures were out there, they liked the smell of horsemeat.

'Destech,' the mercenary commander called, and his lieutenant stepped closer, baring his filed teeth at the duke to make him back out of earshot. It was quite unnecessary; the duke couldn't understand a word of Chetse, but they had found little else in the way of entertainment in Raland.

'General?' Tochet no longer held that rank, but his men could think of him no other way. They would always respect him above all others.

'What do you think?'

'Same as you, sir.' Destech had been with his commander for twenty years, and in that time they had fought many creatures from the waste-They knew well not to underestimate the unknown.

'Damn. I don't know whether it's trolls or minotaurs, or something even worse, but I'm buggered if I'm leading the men out to find what. The sentries said they heard something dragging, and heavy falling, but maybe it wasn't a battering ram after all. What I don't understand is why the catapults and ballistae are still not firing, and where in the name of the dark place that mage is.'

‘I’ll go and hurt someone.'

Thank you.'

Destech turned and dropped down through the hatch in the centre of the tower-platform at the highest point on the wall. Tochet looked down from the duke's Gate Palace towards the vastness of the Elven Waste. It was well fortified, but it was home to the duke's family too; when the tip of his long-axe had punched a hole in a tall vase, it sent the duchess into an apoplectic fit.

Tochet continued his vigil, looking out at the strange cloud that ignored the northerly breeze and instead sat in front of him. It looked even less natural now that dawn had fully broken. The men on watch had woken him just before dawn, when they'd first noticed something strange. Making his way up here, still shrouded in sleep, he'd been struck by the desolate splendour of the miles of silent, empty land he could see. Destech was back within a few minutes, grimly ignoring the kicking man he had by the scruff of his neck. The lieutenant was even bigger than his commander and had no difficulty pulling the soldier up through the hatch with one hand and depositing him at Tochet's feet.

‘Think the mage has done a runner, General – which isn't a good sign if you ask me – but this scrawny little bugger was sat in a corner with ajar of wine.'

'Ah, thank you, Destech. Now, Lieutenant, why have you not yet fired, as you were ordered?'

'Fire at what?' Even as he struggled up from a heap on the floor, the man managed to maintain the haughty arrogance that everyone in this city of goldsmiths appeared to possess.

‘Destech, take him and hang him over the battlements.'

A gasp ran around the other soldiers on the platform and the duke stepped forward, but Tochet silenced them all with a glance as Destech took the red-liveried solider by the throat and dragged him over to the edge. He followed his commander's orders, throwing the man over the edge of the battlemented wall, and held him firmly by the ankle as Tochet leaned out to speak to him. The commander's words were drowned out as the soldier shrieked like a seabird and Destech had to give the man a violent shake before he finally fell silent.