Suth smiled up at his son. 'Most of it is the assassin's.'

Aurum peeled Suth's hand away from the wound and peered at it. He stood up. 'It is quite deep but bleeds cleanly. The bandages resisted the blade. Do you think you can walk, my Lord?'

Suth jerked a nod. Aurum helped him up. Carnelian felt his father's wince like a stab. Suth pressed on the wound to keep it closed. A swathe of his bandages was black with blood.

'Why are you just standing there, my Lord?' said Aurum to Carnelian with a flash of anger. Carnelian stumbled round to support his father's other side. This wounding is unfortunate but at least it has drawn Ykoriana's sting. Now we must abandon secrecy.'

In Carnelian's grip, the stone still nestled warm and sticky.

They gathered in the enclosure that Aurum had commanded the Marula put up around the corpse and shredded tent. He waved away Vermel's comment about the eyes from above and, by unmasking, forced the Master to remove his mask with the others. The light had gone out of Vennel's face. His colourless eyes turned reluctantly to Suth sitting stiff-backed on a stool. These robbers have spilled your precious blood, my Lord. They would not have dared had they known you to be Chosen.'

These were no robbers,' said Aurum.

With his foot he rolled the corpse's head to one side and drew its tunic down with his toe. A lantern on the ground revealed the red ruin of its face. Carnelian stared, clenching and unclenching the fingers from which Tain had prised the stone.

Aurum indicated the six-spoked wheel tattooed just above the corpse's clavicle. 'It would be strange indeed if the Brotherhood of the Wheel were to send their men so far merely to rob some merchants.'

Vennel was mesmerized by the tattoo. 'What else?'

'Assassination.'

Carnelian tore his eyes away from the tattoo to look at Aurum. Vennel also looked round. Carnelian saw his eyes avoiding contact.

Aurum looked down. These creatures meant to slay us all.'

'All?' Vennel examined the old Master's face. 'How so?'

They are hired killers. They came at night. They could not know which tent was which. To murder one they had to slay us all.'

'Which… which of the Chosen however desperate would thus dare breach the Blood Convention?' breathed Vennel.

Jaspar gave Vennel a filthy look. 'Your pretences begin to wear parchment-thin, my Lord.'

Vennel sneaked glimpses at the other Masters as if their sleeves might conceal daggers. 'Even Ykoriana would not dare…' he said at last.

Aurum rounded on him. 'You think not? Even after she murdered her own daughter within the very precincts of the Labyrinth?'

That is an ugly rumour.'

Suth had his stormy eyes on Vennel. 'Believe what you will, my Lord, but do not try to deny that your mistress lies behind this outrage. You should perhaps consider that your own blood would have soaked this ground had my son not raised the alarm.'

Suth looked at his son. The warm pride Carnelian saw in his father's eyes melted him a little.

Vennel’s face was ice. 'Even the Empress could not hope to wash her hands of such blood as ours.'

Suth indicated the corpse. ‘She wore these creatures like gloves that could easily be discarded. Who would dare accuse her as she pointed to her own emissary found among the dead?'

Jaspar nodded grimly. 'Our disguise would allow the Wise to give interminable sermons on the price that must be paid by those who disregard the Law.'

Carnelian's eyes had been pulled back to the corpse. 'How many of the Marula were slain?'

'A handful,' Aurum said, without turning. His mouth twisted with contempt. ‘She has used you for a fool, Vennel.' He snorted. 'And now you even confess complicity in a breach of the Blood Convention.'

Vennel turned away to hide frantic, calculating eyes. 'By all the huimur of the Commonwealth and on my own blood I swear that all I was party to was a temporary abduction, a delay that would ensure the election should go ahead without us, nothing more, no attacks, certainly not bloodshed…'

Jaspar was looking into space. 'How can one believe that the Brotherhood would dare raise their hands against the Chosen? We have tolerated their activities for so long. This single act invites their annihilation.'

'It is likely they knew not what they did,' said Suth.

'How did they find us?' asked Carnelian.

'Well…' said Vennel. They all looked at him. He floated his hands in elegant apology. 'In good faith, my Lords, and bearing in mind that my blood is as much at risk as yours-'

Jaspar dropped his forehead into his hand. 'Do we have to listen to this?'

Vennel flinched. The Legate and I came to an arrangement. A message was sent to Osrakum.'

Jaspar chopped a sign of contempt. 'You imagine we did not know? Why else do you think we forwent the left-way where you expected us to be?' He turned his back on Vennel and addressed Aurum. 'Do you think, my Lord, that any of these vermin escaped to carry word of their failure?'

That is immaterial,' said Aurum. He swung his arm round in an arc to take in the city wall. 'It is certain the Brotherhood had eyes up there to monitor the attack.'

Carnelian searched the wall, but it was as dark as the sky.

'When will Ykoriana know that they have failed?' asked Jaspar.

'Even by leftway courier, she could not have received Vermel's message much before the day that we passed Maga-Naralante, ten days after we set off from the sea,' said Aumm.

'Surely not ten days,' said Jaspar.

'You ignore the difficulty in getting the message secretly up from the City at the Gates to Osrakum and into Ykoriana's hand in her forbidden house.'

'Assuming you are right, my Lord, that would allow her at most only nine days to get the assassins here.'

Aurum jabbed the corpse with the toe of his ranga. 'We are at least sixty days by road from Osrakum. This thing was already here.'

'Not if it came here on the leftway,' said Jaspar.

Suth shook his head. That would be difficult without the complicity of the Wise. Besides, she would not risk being so easily incriminated. The traffic records for the leftways are meticulously kept.'

'Either way,' said Aurum, 'it is probable that in a few days Ykoriana will learn that she has failed. Desperation will make her doubly dangerous. We must reduce the time she has to spin another web. We must use the leftway.'

'On the leftway we will be exposed,' said Vennel.

Thanks to you, my Lord, we are exposed wherever we go,' grated Suth.

'What of your wound, Lord Suth?' asked Jaspar.

Carnelian disliked the way Vennel's eyes turned to feast on his father.

Suth smiled. 'A scratch.'

Carnelian remembered how much blood there had been. He looked away, over the canvas wall and saw above the gate a paler edge of sky. 'Behold, the morning,' he said, with wonder. He had believed the night would never end.

The clanging of stone bells could be heard all across the field. Beneath the city wall everyone stood waiting, looking towards the still-closed gates. Carnelian and the other Masters were formed up within the cordon of the Marula. He was anxious that his aquar as it shifted should not step on the flattened tents. Beneath the canvas the corpses of the assassins lay side by side with the Marula they had killed. Though it was their custom, Aurum had not allowed the Marula to burn their dead. They glanced furtively at the canvas, stroking the salt bracelets they had stripped from the corpses. One of them sat stiffer than the others. Carnelian kept noticing the red corners of his eyes and knew the man was looking at him. When the black face angled towards him, gaunt with fear, Carnelian recognized it as belonging to the Maruli who had seen him unmasked the night before. There was no way he could reassure the man that he was safe, but Carnelian was determined to keep their secret. There was already enough blood on his hands.