‘Such accusations! Lutto is hurt!’

‘So why didn’t you send any further messages?’

‘To be honest, no messengers dared leave the city.’ Lutto placed a fat hand on Brynd’s shoulder. ‘You may think it isn’t often I show anxiety, but I have never seen such a crisis. We’ve already accepted a few hundred into our city, but more are waiting on Tineag’l, trying to make their way across the ice sheets. More will die.

‘And within months the ice sheets will be too much to disperse. A path will be formed directly between Tineag’l and Y’iren. Leading right to this city. What then?’

Brynd said, ‘I’m surprised you haven’t made a run for it already.’

‘You joke, of course, Commander Brynd! But, there is safety in these walls. This is a fortress city, after all, with many skilled fighters.’

‘I want you to tell me every possible thing you can about the position of these refugees on Tineag’l, which of their settlements have been attacked and where they intend to sail from. Can you manage that?’

Fat Lutto nodded, his chins wobbling. ‘To save our city, I’ll do anything.’

Brynd ensured that his military were properly housed for the night at one of the empty garrisons at the northern periphery of the city, overlooking the crowded harbour. They were to be kept off the city streets, as Brynd knew only too well what kind of trouble they might get into.

The Dawnir, Jurro, was provided with a chamber all to himself, seeming happy enough to spend his evening alone with his books. The last thing Brynd wanted was a panicking city assuming a saviour of sorts had come to the rescue.

Hopefully the operation would be straightforward enough, though Brynd wasn’t certain as to the enemy’s capabilities. The next morning he ordered that all the empty boats abandoned in the harbour should be reclaimed, tied together, and then be towed by several Jamur longships to the southern shores of Tineag’l in preparation for evacuation.

As he lay awake that night on a makeshift bed in the garrison dormitory, even through the thick walls and above the snoring alongside him he could hear the faint sounds of laughter and debauchery from the city beyond. It made him wonder how life could go on in this way with a crisis looming that could soon be tearing the population’s lives apart. How much did they know of this threat?

Unable to sleep, he finally pushed his sheets aside, dressed himself in his uniform, went outside to stand on the long balcony overlooking the harbour. It was ice cold, and what clouds had followed them during the day now moved southwest. Stars were reflected in the water, the harbour stretching down in a sweeping arc from left to right and, from where he stood, he could see the lights of coloured lanterns burning all around the city. Stray dogs and massive trilobites shuffled between upturned crates on the stone docks below while people walked home in twos and threes through grubby alleyways behind flat-topped buildings.

Brynd wanted to think about almost anything just to take his mind off tomorrow’s operation. He thought of Kym; one particular night the two of them fucked on a balcony, the risk of getting caught seeming a thrill at the time – merely a warming feeling now.

Such absent-minded retrospection delayed his observation of two figures standing in the umbra further along the balcony. It was Apium, and the cultist Blavat.

As he approached them, Apium enquired, ‘You couldn’t sleep either?’

‘No,’ Brynd replied. ‘When there’s a big day ahead, I never can sleep easy.’

‘Been far too long since we’ve had a proper big day,’ Apium grumbled. ‘If it wasn’t for that business at Dalúk Point I would’ve totally forgotten how to fight by now.’

‘Unlike you to be so glum,’ Brynd observed.

The stocky soldier merely shrugged.

The cultist turned to face him, her aged skin somehow timeless in the starlight. ‘You want me to light a fire to get you warm?’

‘Please,’ Brynd said, gratefully.

She reached into her pocket, twisted something. A purple light started from nothing, and she set it down on the edge of the balcony until it soon transformed into a welcome glow.

‘Handy, that,’ Apium commented in admiration.

The three of them stared out northwards, towards Tineag’l. Brynd couldn’t imagine what state the refugees would now be in. It could take days to reach them, and you had to factor in how far the ice sheets had descended, and how much distance they would have to travel on horseback.

‘I won’t necessarily be able to get you out of any difficult situation,’ Blavat said dully, now gazing into the fire. ‘Don’t start thinking we cultists are the stuff of epic poems. We’re ordinary people, just like you.’

‘So who did you piss off back home?’ Apium enquired. ‘Since you’re the lucky sod who’s forced to come out all this way north with the army, instead of keeping your arse safe and warm in Villjamur.’

‘There’s a certain amount of loyalty owed to the order, but Papus is a bit too fond of being in authority. She doesn’t like her position challenged and apparently I became a bit too popular with the rest of my order. Times are uncertain, and she wanted to make it very clear who is in charge, especially right now.’

‘Especially now?’ Brynd queried, surprised at the intensity of her tone.

‘Yes, it’s all to do with Dartun Súr of the Order of the Equinox. Papus hates him, even holds him responsible for the draugr. I don’t know if it’s just a personal vendetta, or whether she truly holds the moral high ground. Don’t be surprised, if when we get back to Villjamur, you find all cultists are at war with each other. And I was hoping to spend my time quietly on Ysla during the Freeze.’

‘So this Ysla place,’ Apium said, ‘what’s it really like?’

‘It is an incredible place, you’ve no idea how much so. There are problems, just like any place, but there is a governing board of cultists from every order who make sure everything runs smoothly. It will be significantly warmer there than elsewhere in the Archipelago, so I doubt the ice will cause too much of a problem.’

Brynd interrupted, ‘I believe you can control the weather there, so why can’t you do that for the rest of the Empire?’

‘A couple of members of the Order of Natura can alter cloud patterns in order to keep the sunlight on us – also drive snowstorms away – but not for long periods of time. It’s a difficult science, and though there is a heritage from the times in our history when the sun shone brighter, we only comprehend a fraction of it all.’

For a moment no one said anything, merely studied the city before them. The stars had become increasingly obscured, a bank of cloud rolling in from the north, which made Brynd wonder how long it would be till it started to snow. It didn’t surprise him, therefore, when it began, gently at first, and then grew into something more acute.

‘Tomorrow’s military operation,’ Blavat said. ‘How confident are you?’

‘Honestly? I don’t know,’ Brynd admitted. ‘We face an utterly unknown enemy. We have no surveillance information to hand. As far as getting the refugees back to safety, it depends what state they’re in. We can only do our best.’

‘Where do you see my powers fitting in?’ Blavat enquired.

‘Any medical relics you can apply to the refugees, and, of course, enhancement of our weapons.’

‘You’ll need explosives?’ she suggested.

‘Yes, indeed,’ Brynd said. ‘If you could prime some for us to deploy across the ice sheets, that might be useful in cutting us off – from whatever those refugees have coming after them.’

After that the three of them watched the falling snow in companionable silence. Street fires and lantern lights glared defiantly for another bell, but one by one they fell into shadow. Voices in the streets beyond quietened and soon there was only the sound of the wind probing the city’s countless alleyways.