'As my Lords wish,' said Aurum with a tone of resignation. 'I will seek out a suitable place to stop.'

They continued to climb up the valley side. Carnelian strained to look over the juddering back of the saddle-chair and glimpsed the shimmer of the sea.

He was crossing a weir when he saw Aurum on the other side bringing his aquar to a stop. The Master set five Marula aside and divided the rest into two groups. The first he sent back down the way they had come. The second was sent ahead to spy out the land. Aurum made his aquar kneel, fastened on his ranga shoes and then climbed out of his saddle-chair. Carnelian bound on his own shoes. Aurum towered over the Maruli to whom he was handing his aquar's reins.

The river formed a lake below the level of the path. The aquar stooped to drink and the Marula bent down beside them lapping like beasts. Tain and the other slaves stood apart from the Masters who were like a copse of trees.

Jaspar struck a pose. 'One is certainly relieved to have escaped that foul factory. Though not without cost.' He pinched up his robe as if it were dung. 'In civilized circumstances one would insist on having this immediately torched. This rag could not be sweetened by all the perfumes of Osrakum.'

The wind will cleanse it well enough,' snapped Vennel.

'One fears the smell of those putrid molluscs will remain forever in one's nostrils.'

Suth looked at Jaspar. The road's perfume will make my Lord soon enough forget his putrid molluscs.'

'At last,' said Vennel.

'At last, my Lord?' said Jaspar.

Vermel's mask regarded him disdainfully. 'We come at last to knowledge of our destination.'

'Our destination has always been the same, my Lord,' said Suth.

'But not the means by which we might reach it, my Lord.'

'We all agreed we should proceed along the road disguised.'

'I recall a mention of palanquins, of the Legate's banners.'

'It has become necessary, my Lord, that we should adopt a different disguise,' said Aurum.

'Why did the palanquins fall out of favour?'

'We can no longer risk using the leftway,' said Suth.

'Why by the Two can we not, my Lord?'

'We have reasons to believe that were we to do so we should be attacked,' said Aurum.

These reasons were no doubt contained in the Clave's letter?' Vennel waited for confirmation but received none. 'Do these reasons justify this preposterous choice of route?'

'Many eyes would have seen us leaving the tower if we had joined the road, there,' said Suth.

Vennel pointed up the valley. This will bring us up onto the road, no doubt?'

'It will, my Lord.'

Carnelian could see Vermel's fury in the cast of his shoulders.

'What is this new disguise, my Lords, this wonderful concealment that will draw a veil of shadow over the eyes of our enemies?'

Aurum indicated the Marula. 'We will hide ourselves among these barbarians.'

Vennel looked at the Marula as if he were counting them. These creatures are of a type rare within the borders of the Commonwealth. Do my Lords think it wise that we should attempt to conceal ourselves in such a conspicuous hiding place?'

'Marula are rare, my Lord,' said Aurum, 'but here, by the sea, black men from round the coast are not unknown. We shall masquerade as chieftains making a trade pilgrimage to the Guarded Land.'

'One had understood the coastal blacks to be far more diminutive than these Marula.'

Suth broadened his shoulders. 'My Lord is not listening. Black men are uncommon on the road and thus few will know enough to make a distinction between their kinds.'

Vennel nodded. 'My Lords seem to have woven their schemes with some care. I can only wonder why I was excluded.'

'I too,' said Jaspar, but Carnelian noted that his voice held no edge of resentment.

Vennel’s mask turned its imperious gaze on him. 'You seem not much concerned, my Lord.'

'We are here now. It would seem foolish, not to say unpleasant, to return down this valley.'

The Ruling Lord Suth and I thought it more prudent that we should keep our own counsel,' said Aurum.

Vennel made a gesture of exasperation. This prudence was not, it seems, extended to the Legate of the Tower in the Sea.'

'We needed his assistance,' said Suth.

'A great quantity of it, my Lord, judging by our collar-less and poisoned escort and these starvelings with their grimy chairs, not to mention the cut-down ranga. Tell me, Aurum, how did you persuade our dear Legate to give you so much assistance? Did you perhaps bind him to your cause with the promise of one of your blood-high daughters?'

Aurum opened his hands in a threat gesture. 'Perhaps my Lord should consider choosing his accusations with more care.'

Vennel turned away to look at Suth. 'What of the much-vaunted need for haste, My-Lord-who-goes before?'

There is still time enough to reach Osrakum before the election,' said Suth.

'One more question, my Lord.' Vennel leaned towards Suth. 'Who are these enemies so terrible that they can force Lords of the Great to hide like thieves?'

'A conspiracy among the Lesser Chosen.'

To which, no doubt, our friend the Legate is totally immune?'

'Do you think we apprised him of all our plans?'

'And from all this caution can one conclude that these conspirators might dare to breach the Blood Convention?'

Aurum moved closer to Vennel. 'It seems that they might indeed attempt our lives, Lord Vennel, and so it behoves us all to show great care. These are evidently very desperate people. You do understand, my Lord?'

Their two masks reflected each other's for a moment.

'Only too well, Ruling Lord Aurum,' said Vennel.

Looking from one to the other, Carnelian could almost see the anger passing between them. He was sure more had been said than had been in the words.

Something touched his shoulder. It was his father. Follow me, his hand signed. Carnelian clacked after him though he was reluctant to be alone with him. Crail's blood flooded between them like a river.

Carnelian and his father stood on the weir and looked down the valley to the sea.

'Behold Thuyakalrul,' said Suth.

There it lay, beguiling like a ring: the Grand Harbour a paler region of the sea within its circle; the inner harbour of the tower a tiny winking jewel.

This sea is a strange wealth,' his father said.

Carnelian wrinkled his nose as he thought of the stinking purple dye.

Suth pointed to where the coast, curving round into hazy distance, was inlaid with tiny mirrors. There lie the pans in which the yellow-salt is made with which we buy soldiers from the Lower Lands. The sun's ardour distils it from the sea and the Chosen use its currency to buy barbarian blood. Is it not a paradox that a few holes in the ground should yield up such conquest?'

Carnelian played with his fingers.

The Quyans came to these lands across that sea,' his father said. The Wise maintain it was the sea that was the mother of the Quyan race. They claim for evidence the colours of our Chosen eyes that constantly reflect her.'

Behind them there was a mutter of voices. The aquar were fidgeting.

His father looked back at the other Masters. 'We cannot risk being divided, you and I.'

Carnelian stared seawards but saw nothing. His eyes were searching inwards, seeking a way out of the prison of his anger.

'I did all I could to save Crail,' Suth said quietly.

'If you did, my Lord, it was evidently not enough,' said Carnelian. The words were out before he could recall them. He felt his face burning against the metal of his mask. He could taste his words' venom. He felt his father turn towards him.

'Henceforth, my Lord, always wear your gloves. A single pale, symboled hand could betray us all.'

As his father strode off to join the others, Carnelian lingered frozen by the coldness in his voice. He knew it was unfair to blame him but he could not help it. The bile rose in him as he told himself that it was his father's weakness that had consigned Crail to his terrible death.