Beyond the wall the Vekken began to retreat to their camp for the night, but they would be back again in the morning, perhaps for the last time.

The Fly-kinden, Kori, ducked in and closed the door solidly behind him. In the moment it was open they could all hear the distant sound of exploding grenades.

‘Well this is lovely!’ he exclaimed. ‘I do hope the Empire sends us someplace nice like this again!’ He hooked his cloak off and cast it into the corner of the taproom. They had the taverna to themselves after the owner had gone off to fight.

‘You’ve taken your time,’ Gaved snapped. ‘We’d about given up on you.’

‘Big city, Wasp-boy, so even a man as talented as me takes time to get around it. And this whole Ant invasion gets in the way sometimes.’ Kori stretched. ‘Someone get me something to drink. I feel a need to toast the Emperor.’

‘Over a fire, no doubt,’ muttered Eriphinea the Moth. She slung him a wineskin, which he caught on the wing while hopping up onto a table.

‘Have you located it?’ Scyla demanded of him. The other two were also on their feet now, waiting for his report.

‘Relax, I’ve found the building,’ the Fly assured them. ‘Private collection? Barred and bolted, more like. No simple job to get in. Briskall, the old hoarder, he’s obviously gone to ground with all his treasures. Won’t come out until the siege is over, or the Vekken come to break down his doors.’

‘Can we break through his doors?’ Eriphinea asked doubtfully. ‘These Beetles and their locks…’

‘I’m the knees with locks,’ Kori told her. ‘I’m the utter knees. I’m more worried about finding our trinket once we get in there.’

‘Don’t forget,’ Scyla said disdainfully, ‘we can’t miss it. That’s an imperial guarantee.’

‘Oh sure, sure.’

‘We’ll have no difficulties locating it,’ the Moth insisted flatly. That silenced them, and they stared at her. Her blank eyes gave them nothing back.

‘Would you care to qualify that, Phin?’ Gaved asked her.

‘Not in any way that you could comprehend,’ she said, not harshly but as a simple statement of fact. ‘He knows.’ She pointed at Scyla. The Spider, finding their attention on her, scowled.

‘She’s right,’ Scyla said shortly. ‘We’ll know it. Her and me.’

‘Well whatever,’ said Kori. ‘You sniff it out, and I’ll get us in, and the Wasp here can watch the door. We have the place and the means.’

‘Let’s go, then,’ Gaved said.

‘Let’s wait till dusk, shall we, so people don’t see us housebreaking,’ Kori suggested.

‘There’s a war on! Who’s going to care?’ the Wasp demanded.

‘Night-time is always better,’ Scyla said. ‘In war they kill looters out of hand, in my experience, which is just what we’d look like.’

‘Darkness is always best,’ Eriphinea confirmed.

The Wasp threw up his hands. ‘Nightfall it is,’ he said. ‘Always assuming we can even get the thing out of the city.’

‘Neither Ants nor Beetles fly, so they seldom watch for fliers,’ Scyla reminded them. ‘We got in. We can get out.’

‘Unless what they say about Ant women is true,’ Kori said.

‘And what is that?’ Phin asked him archly.

‘That they can fly non-stop for a whole night the first time you knock them up.’ The Fly grinned lewdly.

‘And you believe that?’

‘No, but I could have a lot of fun putting it to the test.’ He rubbed his hands. ‘And we’ve got a few pleasant hours to wait, assuming the Vekken don’t kill us. Anything to eat around here?’

‘Are you sure this is the place?’ Stenwold asked.

‘Yes, yes,’ Doctor Nicrephos insisted. ‘You cannot understand, but I am driven – drawn – and I know not by what, but this is definitely the place.’

‘Keep calm, Doctor,’ Stenwold advised him, but Nicrephos was obviously anything but calm. Something had a hold of the old man, something that was now shaking him to his very bones.

There were four of them there loitering outside in the street and looking suspicious. Stenwold had brought Balkus, of course, and because he had gone home first to wash, because he could not bear the thought of Kymon’s blood on him, Arianna had joined them and was here too. He was not sure whether she entirely understood what was going on here but, when Stenwold had left for this errand, she had been tagging along behind him.

He spared her a fond smile, and resisted the urge to reach for her hand. ‘This is Master Briskall’s place,’ he said, belated recollection coming to him. ‘I knew I recognized it. He used to be an archivist at the College, but there were questions as to where some of the exhibits were disappearing to…’

‘We have to go in,’ Nicrephos insisted. ‘Please, Master Maker.’

‘Are we expecting trouble here?’ Balkus hefted the nail-bow. ‘Want me to send Master Briskall a warning shot?’

‘No!’ Stenwold snapped. He did not understand why this whole venture felt like something criminal, but maybe Doctor Nicrephos’s furtive manner was beginning to infect all of them. ‘I am a Master of Collegium, therefore we’ll knock.’ He turned to say more to the Moth, but the grey-skinned old scholar was wringing his hands and silently baring his yellowed teeth.

‘Well if you want to do things the hard way,’ Balkus muttered, ‘I’ll get them out of bed.’

The big Ant went up to the reinforced door and his fist descended, a single booming thud that had the door already swinging open on its hinges. The others crowded forwards instinctively.

‘Oh-’ the big man said, and then swept back one arm, knocking all three of them, even Stenwold, off his feet. A second later there was a flash, and Balkus staggered back, tripped on Stenwold and sprawled out in the street.

‘That was a Wasp sting!’ Arianna cried out. Nicrephos was desperately trying to get up.

‘Balkus?’ Stenwold called in dismay.

The Ant sat up, a patch of his chainmail now fused together over his chest. ‘Bastard!’ he shouted, and unslung his nailbow.

‘They are trying to steal it!’ Nicrephos shouted in alarm. ‘We must stop them! Please, Stenwold!’

‘All right!’ Stenwold drew his sword, took a second to steel himself, and then flung himself in. The expected bolt sizzled past him and he hit the floor awkwardly, trying to roll away. A moment later the very floor seemed to shake as Balkus discharged his nailbow three times through the doorway, and then moved in to take cover behind a side-table whose exquisite vase he had just shattered. They were in an entrance hall with a door at the far end, and another in each of the long side walls. Stenwold saw movement ahead as the unknown Wasp drew back, and he took advantage of this. All of a sudden he was no longer tired, no longer the War Master, but just Stenwold Maker and free to make his own mistakes, with his own life as the only stake.

The Wasp, out of uniform in a long coat, reappeared with his hand spread, but Stenwold was already far too close and moving too fast for that to work. He had knocked the arm up before the man loosed his sting, and cannoned into him with enough force to send them both sprawling. Stenwold had the better of the collision and already had his sword stabbing down at his opponent. The Wasp twisted agilely out from under him so that the point of the descending blade chipped the floor tiles, but Stenwold managed a quick reverse and caught the man under the chin with his pommel as he tried to rise, sending the Wasp reeling backwards.

‘Beware!’ he heard Nicrephos croak. ‘Someone here has power!’

Stenwold smacked the Wasp across the back of the head with his sword-hilt, sending him back to the ground, and then something snaked past him and caught about his throat. Its claw hooked sharply into his armpit, dragging him off balance.

A grapple! he realized, before seeing a stocky Fly-kinden across the room holding the other end of the rope he was just about to pull. Trying to brace himself, Stenwold got one hand on the rope about his neck, so that he was only pulled off his feet and not strangled with it. Then Balkus burst in with the others right behind him.