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“His hand.” Damon feels sick at the thought of it. “They took his hand. Where is he now?”

“He has returned to the Mortingale Outlaws.”

“They allowed him back?”

“I believe so. As a one-handed beggar, he would struggle to survive anywhere else. He has been styling himself Silverhand.”

“That sounds like him,” Damon says, although he feels sour in his stomach at the thought. He doesn’t doubt the tale is true. Vindar is never wrong.

Vindar says, “And he has a lover amongst them, I believe. A male lover who claims the title The Red Wolf.” Vindar says this coolly. He is only casual with information if he thinks it will gain him something.

His point is clear. If he knows this much of Lukas, far away in the Mortingale Mountains, how much more must he know of Damon?

“Lukas’s position,” Vindar continues, “is still precarious because many of the Mortingale Outlaws blame him for the failure of the assassination attempt you foiled. Many of them died that night and in the purge of the mountains that followed, although it is astonishing your brother got away. He should have been trapped in the centre of the palace with the rest of them, and yet, he vanished like smoke. It puzzles me still. Do you know how he escaped?”

Damon clenches his jaw. “I do not. That night was bloody chaos.”

“Truly,” says Vindar. Together they walk through the high marble archway into a passage leading from the statue hall. Vindar says, “Your brother Tobi still travels with the Copperhead Circus. I’ve always thought it strange that a circus be named for a kind of rat. But I suppose in some ways, it is appropriate. Tobi Darekul styles himself Prince Tobi Darek, Beast Tamer.”

Damon laughs. It comes out louder than he expected. Echoing off the stone wall of the long passage. He only spent a year with Tobi, long ago, but that sounds like him. He says, “And Kerik?”

“Kerik is still missing.”

“Still? There is no word of him throughout the empire.”

“None. He has vanished as surely as Lukas vanished from Selim’s chambers that night five years ago,” Vindar says, cool as an ocean breeze.

“If even you cannot find him I believe he must be dead.”

“Perhaps,” says Vindar. “Lady Ilyne seems to think so. She has asked Doroth Zain to allow her to commend him to Zai.”

“Does that not require a body? Or a witness to a body?”

“Normally, it does. But Ilyne has always been persuasive. She has had so many audiences with Doroth, I think he may allow it — if only to rid himself of her.”

This is almost certainly the nearest thing to a joke Damon has ever heard from Vindar. Perhaps this is because he enjoys talking of his brother’s suffering.

Doroth Zain, the High Word of Zai, is a terrifying man. The only men in the Rose Court who are more terrifying are Vindar himself and Gelen the Green. Lady Ilyne is admirably fearless if she is pestering Doroth. She always had such ambitions for Kerik. Damon would not be surprised if someone had him killed.

12

LYR

Over the days leading to the Feast of Surrus, the mood in the kitchens of Sanglora Manor had grown more and more heated. Lyr has never worked so hard. The fish delivery arrives and he is sent out with Mina to unload the cart.

Lyr does as he is bid and follows Mina to the yard. As they struggle back with the heavy crates, Mina makes a joke and by the time they reach the kitchen Lyr is still laughing.

Laughing enough that, for a moment, he doesn’t notice Damon standing in the kitchen. He doesn’t notice him until Damon takes the crate of silvery fish from his hands and sets it on the table.

“Master,” Lyr says, voice a little thin and wobbly.

Behind Lyr, the cook spins around and clips him on the back of the head with a spoon. “Do not speak to the Master,” she snaps. Then, to Damon, she says, “Good morning, Master. Would you like to review my menus for this evening?”

Damon glances at her, “No. No, thank you. I will leave that to Inez. She will be here shortly, I am sure.”

Something about hearing Damon saying Inez’s name makes Lyr’s heart throb with a dull pain.

“Can I help you, Master Damon?” This is Kres, who has appeared at the kitchen doorway behind Lyr and Mina.