‘Who’ll drink with me?’ said Eoin. ‘Who’ll drink with me but the princess and the foreign brother? Will my own family desert me? Will they stand by and watch as their king takes us all on the road to perdition?’

‘Eoin, it’s the drink talking,’ said his sister. ‘Apologies, Princess, Brother.’

‘It is not! It’s loosened my tongue, is all. Did you see what happened out there today? Did you see? That wasn’t a fair fight. It wasn’t a fight at all. It was bloody slaughter and that’s the beginning and end of it.’

‘We were defending our homes.’

‘Our quarrel was with Cormac, not his men, and we spitted them like rabbits over the fire.’ He picked up his knife and slammed it down in the remnants of the leg of mutton. ‘We didn’t give them a chance. We didn’t warn them. We just butchered them, even as they ran. Even as they ran, I tell you.’

His last comment hit home, and the men stopped calling for him to sit down and reluctantly began to nod.

‘You see the truth of it, do you? Since when have the men of Coirc stabbed anyone, even their enemies, in the back? We’re men, I say, not murderers.’

‘Suppose you speak right, Eoin macDonnabhan,’ said his sister’s husband. ‘What would you have us do? You don’t have the king’s ear any more. He listens to no one except Solomon Akisi.’

‘Then we need a new king,’ said Eoin into the silence.

‘He’s going to get himself killed,’ said Va in Rus.

‘Then do something,’ said Elenya.

‘Speak for me.’ Va cleared his throat. ‘There is another way. Rather than a new king, would you not prefer your old king back?’

‘We would,’ said the brother-in-law, ‘but he’s been bewitched by the Kenyan.’

‘I came here to find a book—’ said Va, and Eoin interrupted.

‘The metal book? It’s a User thing. I said it was cursed.’

Va snarled. ‘He stole it. He killed my brothers. He burned my monastery. That book is the patriarch’s, and I’m taking it back to Moskva with me.’

His sudden change of demeanour startled the macDonnabhans. One or two of them clutched at their knives.

‘I want the book. But if you want me to take Akisi too, you’re going to have to help me.’ He looked around the room. ‘The book is cursed. There’s spilled blood on every page and worse: if you start to live like the Users, you’ll die like the Users. Do you want the sea to swallow you up? Do you want your houses in ruins? Do you want your good name to be used as a profanity, just like the Users’?’

‘You’re going to have to slow down, Va,’ said Elenya. ‘You’re going too fast.’

‘I’ve said all I need to say. If they’ve got any balls, they’ll bundle Akisi into a sack and deliver him to me.’

‘It’s their king they’re going against. It’s not their balls they’re worried about; it’s their necks.’

Eoin raised his cup. ‘I’ll give him all the help he wants. I swear it to be true.’ He drank.

‘You won’t remember in the morning, Eoin. You’ll wake with a thick head and a sorry heart, and the only thing you’ll be swearing to is that you said nothing of the sort.’

‘Shut up, Deirdre. I’ve had enough, understand? Of your nagging and the king’s madness. We’ll do it tonight, then, if you don’t think I’ve the stomach for it tomorrow.’ He swayed against his chair. ‘Bring me my sword.’

One of Eoin’s cousins went to fetch it, and he was pulled back by another. They started to fight, great ruddy fists windmilling. Pulled apart, they fought those who restrained them, the dogs barked wildly and the room descended into chaos and uproar. Why the plates looked so battered was explained by Deirdre macDonnabhan throwing one at her brother. He ducked in time and launched the dregs of his drink at her face.

Va grabbed the bottle of valuable uisge and retreated to the bathhouse door. Elenya dodged a meaty beef joint and vaulted an upturned bench to join him. Two silver streaks of dog dashed past on their way to the bone, and they began to fight too.

‘Barbarians. I told you.’

‘They love fighting. You should be pleased.’

‘They love fighting each other.’ Va kicked the door open and slipped inside. ‘Fat lot of use they turned out to be.’

Elenya put her back against the door, and the sounds of cracking wood and crunching knuckles dulled. There was another door that led outside, and they sat on the back step together.

‘Another day wasted,’ said Va. ‘Another day with the books out in the world, turning men’s minds from the things of God to the works of the Devil.’

‘You’re as miserable as they are. Woe is me, I can’t do a thing,’ she mocked. ‘When did you ever need man’s help, Va Angemaite, when you have God on your side?’

There was a half-moon blinking in and out of the clouds. Va looked up and chewed at his lip. ‘I’ve lacked faith. How stupid of me. How could I possibly doubt? My cause is right, isn’t it? So who can stand against me? Not this Ardhal, King of Coirc, not the clan macDonnabhan, and certainly not the thief Akisi. Wait here.’

He went back into the bathhouse and quickly changed the brown robe for his own damp black one.

‘We don’t wait for the Aeireanns. We do it now.’

CHAPTER 23

IMPORTANT MEN NEVER lived in the lowest part of town. It was a truth that Va had seen again and again. They somehow believed that altitude gave them status, and they sought out the tallest tower or the highest peak to better look down at the mortals below. In turn, the little people had to shield their eyes and crane their necks to catch sight of their masters. It was political architecture, designed to preserve and reinforce power.

It made it absurdly easy to remove the ruling class of a city. Va had done it before, creeping from one well-appointed house to another, slipping in from a balcony designed for show or a wide tower window, leaving behind him a grisly trail of misery and confusion.

To find the king and his new adviser, Va had looked up, up, until he found the stone tower overlooking the foul-smelling workshops turned over to alchemical practices. Such was their confidence that they had no enemies within the walls, there were no guards.

Va and Elenya passed silently through the deserted sheds, stopping to inspect the barrels of white salt, yellow powder, black dust, and the half-finished tubes waiting for their packing of metal arrows. The door of ill-fitting planks allowed Va to squint out at the base of the tower.

‘There’s a light in the top window. That’s where he’ll be.’

‘Alone?’

‘Probably.’

‘And if he’s not?’

‘I’ll have to improvise.’

‘I won’t stop them from killing you.’

‘You already have.’ Va slid a coil of rope over his head and one shoulder.

‘A moment of weakness. No one should have to die like that.’ Elenya looked through the door herself. ‘It doesn’t look easy.’

‘I’ve climbed worse.’ He rubbed his fingers in the dust and kicked off his sandals.

‘Who would have thought that your former profession would come in so handy?’ she said wistfully. ‘You’ve renounced violence, but not sneaking in through windows.’

‘King Ardhal won’t let me have the book now. His mind’s been corrupted.’ He slipped the latch and eased the door open a fraction. ‘All I can do now is take it.’

‘And Akisi too.’

Va pulled the door back shut. ‘What?’

‘You’re going to have to either kill him or kidnap him. You can’t leave him here, even if you do get him to tell you where the other books are.’ She blinked in the darkness. ‘You don’t think he’s going to stop making these weapons for the king just because you’ve stolen his book back, do you?’

‘I . . .’

‘You did. Don’t be such an idiot, Va. You’re obsessed with the books when it’s not the books you have to be worried about. It’s what’s in them that’s important, and that’s now in Akisi’s head. Do you know what else he can build? I don’t, but I wouldn’t want to be around when he does. Finish him while you have the opportunity.’