“Good. You are probably aware of the unusual visitors we received yesterday.”

Visitors? For the past week Glokta had been in agony with his back. Yesterday he had struggled out of bed to watch that cretin Luthar fence, but otherwise he had been confined to his tiny room, virtually unable to move. “I hadn’t noticed,” he said simply.

“Bayaz, the First of the Magi.” Glokta gave his thin smile again, but the Arch Lector was not laughing.

“You’re joking, of course.”

“If only.”

“A charlatan, your Eminence?”

“What else? But a most extraordinary one. Lucid, reasonable, clever. The deception is elaborate in the extreme.”

“You have spoken with him?”

“I have. He is remarkably convincing. He knows things, things he shouldn’t know. He cannot be simply dismissed. Whoever he is, he has funding, and good sources of information.” The Arch Lector frowned deep. “He has some renegade brute of a Northman with him.”

Glokta frowned. “A Northman? It hardly seems their style. They strike me as most direct.”

“My very thoughts.”

“A spy for the Emperor then? The Gurkish?”

“Perhaps. The Kantics love a good intrigue, but they tend to stick to the shadows. These theatricals don’t seem to have their mark. I suspect our answer may lie closer to home.”

“The nobles, your Eminence? Brock? Isher? Heugen?”

“Perhaps,” mused Sult, “perhaps. They’re annoyed enough. Or there’s our old friend, the High Justice. He seemed a little too pleased about it all. He’s plotting something, I can tell.”

The nobles, the High Justice, the Northmen, the Gurkish—it could be any one of them, or none—but why? “I don’t understand, Arch Lector. If they are simply spies, why go to all this trouble? Surely there are easier ways to get into the Agriont?”

“This is the thing.” Sult gave as bitter a grimace as Glokta had ever seen. “There is an empty seat on the Closed Council, there always has been. A pointless tradition, a matter of etiquette, a chair reserved for a mythical figure, in any case dead for hundreds of years. Nobody ever supposed that anyone would come forward to claim it.”

“But he has?”

“He has! He has demanded it!” The Arch Lector got to his feet and strode around the table. “I know! Unthinkable! Some spy, some liar from who knows where, privy to the workings of the very heart of our government! But he has some dusty papers, so it falls to us to discredit him! Can you believe it?”

Glokta could not. But there hardly seems any purpose to saying so.

“I have asked for time to investigate,” continued Sult, “but the Closed Council will not be put off indefinitely. We have only a week or two to expose this so-called Magus for the fraud he is. In the mean time, he and his companions are making themselves at home in an excellent suite of rooms in the Tower of Chains, and there is nothing we can do to prevent them wandering the Agriont, causing whatever mischief they please!” There is something we could do…

“The Tower of Chains is very high. If somebody were to fall—”

“No. Not yet. We have already pushed our luck as far as it will go in certain circles. For the time being at least, we must tread carefully.”

“There is always the possibility of an interrogation. If we were to arrest them, I could soon find out who they are working for—”

“Tread carefully, I said! I want you to look into this Magus, Glokta, and his companions. Find out who they are, where they come from, what they are after. Above all, find out who is behind them, and why. We must discredit this would-be Bayaz before he can do any damage. After that you can use whatever means you please.” Sult turned and moved away to the window.

Glokta got up awkwardly, painfully from his chair. “How shall I begin?”

“Follow them!” shouted the Arch Lector impatiently. “Watch them! See who they speak to, what they are about. You’re the Inquisitor, Glokta!” he snapped, without even looking round. “Ask some questions!”

Better than Death

“We’re looking for a woman,” said the officer, staring at them suspiciously. “An escaped slave, a killer. Very dangerous.”

“A woman, master?” asked Yulwei, his brow wrinkled with confusion. “Dangerous, master?”

“Yes, a woman!” The officer waved his hand impatiently. “Tall, with a scar, hair cropped short. Well-armed, most likely, with a bow.” Ferro stood there, tall and scarred, hair cropped short, bow over her shoulder, and looked down at the dusty ground. “She is wanted, by the highest of authorities! A thief and a murderer, many times over!”

Yulwei gave a humble smile and spread his hands. “We have seen no such person master. I and my son are unarmed, as you can see.” Ferro looked down uncomfortably at the curved blade of the sword stuck through her belt, shining in the bright sun. The officer didn’t seem to notice though. He swatted at a fly as Yulwei blathered on. “Neither one of us would know what to do with such a thing as a bow, I can assure you. We trust in God to protect us, master, and in the Emperor’s matchless soldiers.”

The officer snorted. “Very wise, old man. What’s your business here?”

“I am a merchant, on my way to Dagoska, to purchase spices,” and he gave a grovelling bow, “with your kind permission.”

“Trading with the pinks are you? Damn Union!” The officer spat in the dust. “Still, a man has to make a living, I suppose, if a shameful one. Trade while you can, the pinks will be gone soon, swept back into the ocean!” He puffed out his chest with pride. “The Emperor, Uthman-ul-Dosht, has sworn it! What do you think of that, old man?”

“Oh, it will be a great day, a great day,” said Yulwei, bowing low again, “may God bring it to us soon, master!”

The officer looked Ferro up and down. “Your son looks a strong lad. Perhaps he’d make a soldier.” He took a step towards her and grabbed hold of her bare arm. “That’s a strong arm. That arm could draw a bow, I’d say, if it were taught. What do you say, boy? A man’s work, fighting for the glory of God, and your Emperor! Better than grubbing for a pittance!” Ferro’s flesh crawled where his fingers touched her skin. Her other hand crept towards her knife.

“Alas,” said Yulwei quickly, “my son was born… simple. He scarcely speaks.”

“Ah. A shame. The time may come when we need every man. Savages they may be, but these pinks can fight.” The officer turned away and Ferro scowled after him. “Very well, you may go!” He waved them on. The eyes of his soldiers, lounging in the shade of the palms around the road, followed them as they walked past, but without much interest.

Ferro held her tongue until the encampment had dwindled into the distance behind them, then she rounded on Yulwei. “Dagoska?”

“To begin with,” said the old man, staring off across the scrubby plain. “And then north.”

“North?”

“Across the Circle Sea to Adua.”

Across the sea? She stopped in the road. “I’m not fucking going there!”

“Must you make everything so difficult, Ferro? Are you that happy here in Gurkhul?”

“These northerners are mad, everyone knows it! Pinks, Union, or whatever. Mad! Godless!”

Yulwei raised an eyebrow at her. “I didn’t know you were so interested in God, Ferro.”

“At least I know there is one!” she shouted, pointing at the sky. “These pinks, they don’t think like us, like real people! We’ve no business with their kind! I’d rather stay among the Gurkish! Besides, I’ve scores to settle here.”

“What scores? Going to kill Uthman?”

She frowned. “Perhaps I will.”

“Huh.” Yulwei turned and headed off up the road. “They’re looking for you, Ferro, in case you hadn’t noticed. You wouldn’t get ten strides without my help. They’ve still got that cage waiting, remember? The one in front of the palace? They are anxious to fill it.” Ferro ground her teeth. “Uthman is the Emperor now. Ul-Dosht, they call him. The mighty! The merciless! Greatest Emperor for a hundred years, they are saying already. Kill the Emperor!” Yulwei chuckled to himself. “You’re quite a character alright. Quite a character.”