‘You knew his purpose?’

‘I surmised. He is a conservative man, and only grows more hardened in his ways. Whatever he said to Calat was all the bulwark the commander needed and as you say: the walls did not so much as tremble.’

‘My sister and cousin will back Urusander, if only to wound Draconus. Better a husband than a consort, if she is to rule us all.’

‘Children cleave to the security of a formal union in the matter of parents,’ said Tulas. ‘It is in their nature to dislike their mother’s lover, if that is all he is. There is a way among the Jheleck, when they have veered into their wolf form, that males are taken by a fever of violence and they set out to slay the pups of their rivals.’

Sharenas thought about that, and then smiled. ‘We do the same and call it war.’

‘No other reasons serve?’

She shrugged. ‘Forms and rules serve to confound what is in essence both simple and banal. Now, you ask which way I will fall. I have thought about it, yet am still undecided. And you?’

‘I shall side with peace.’

‘Who among any of us would claim otherwise?’

‘Many speak of peace, yet their hearts are torrid and vile. Their one love is violence, the slaying of enemies, and in the absence of true enemies, they will invent them. I wonder, how much of this hatred for Draconus comes from base envy?’

‘I have wondered the same,’ Sharenas admitted.

They rode on for a time then, silent. The caustic air, so near the as yet unseen Vitr, burned in the throat, made raw the eyes. They passed the carcasses of slain wolves, the beasts scaled rather than furred, and though only days old already the hide was crumbling, the jutting bones gnawed by the very air.

Deep into the night Bered called a halt. It was a wonder to Sharenas that the Wardens had managed to follow a trail this long. Now the captain dismounted and walked back to her and Tulas. ‘Here, Finarra Stone emerged from among the rocks, coming from the shore. Her steps were laboured, her stride unsteady. We will rest here, as best we can in this foul atmosphere, and approach the Vitr with the dawn. Lady Sharenas, Lord Tulas, will you join us in a meal?’

The sun was like a wound in the sky, reflecting dully on the tranquil surface of the Vitr Sea. They were arrayed in a row upon the high bank, looking down through a scatter of pocked boulders. Just up from the shore sprawled an enormous, headless carcass. Close to it was the mangled remains of Finarra Stone’s horse.

‘She spoke true, then,’ Sharenas said. ‘But how is it that a creature with its head cut away was able to live on, much less launch an attack?’

Bered, his face pale and drawn tight, dismounted and closed a gauntleted hand on the sword at his belt. ‘Selad, Stenas, Quill, walk your horses with me. Lances out.’

Tulas grunted and then said, ‘Captain, the beast is clearly dead. Its flesh rots. Its organs are spilled out and sun-cracked.’

Not replying, Bered set out down the makeshift trail between the boulders. The three named Wardens accompanied him, each picking his own path.

Tulas slipped down from his horse and followed the captain.

Pulling her gaze away, Sharenas stared out upon the Vitr. Its placid mien belied its evident malice. Rising on her stirrups, she scanned the length of shoreline, first to the west, and then to the east. She frowned. ‘There is something there,’ she said, and then pointed. ‘A shadow, half in, half out of the water. No boulder could long survive that.’

One of the Wardens near her, second in rank behind Bered, guided his horse down to the left, out on to the strand. Sharenas glanced back at Bered and the others. They had reached the two carcasses, and Bered, sword sheathed, was pulling loose the saddle from the dead horse. He’d already retrieved Finarra’s weapons and delivered them to one of his Wardens. Tulas stood a few paces back, watching.

Her chest felt tight, much like after a night with the pipe, and she could feel vehemence in the fumes flowing against her exposed skin. Eyes stinging, she set out after the veteran. Joining him on the strand she said, ‘Nothing untoward with the captain. It seems the creature is finally dead. Let us ride to examine our find, and then we can be quit of this place.’

‘The Vitr yields no detritus, Lady Sharenas.’

‘It seems that now it does.’

The observation made him clearly unhappy. Sighing, he nodded. ‘Quickly then, as you say.’

They kicked their mounts into a slow canter. The sharp sands beneath the horses’ hoofs sounded strangely hollow.

Four hundred or so paces ahead, the object casting the shadow looked angular, tilted like a beached ship, but far more massive than any ship Sharenas had seen — although in truth she had only seen ships in illustrations, among Forulkan books and hide paintings, and scale was always dubious in such renderings, so eager were the artists to magnify personages aboard such craft.