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Again. Because Jemel had trusted him. Trusted him, like no other. He told him things about himself. And Xan had told Jemel things in return.

But he did not tell him the truth about Atticul and where the foribunda had come from. He regrets it deeply. He isn’t sure why he didn’t. Perhaps even, in that moment, he had thought he ought to hold on to the possibility of keeping his deal with Atticul. Even after he had rescued Trysta. The guilt of that, even if it was hidden in his mind, weighs on him like a stone. If that is his truth he has paid dearly for it.

Xan looks around at Jemel’s simple unadorned chamber. It looks quite different.

The room has been ransacked by the people plundering the palace and the temple. The box is on the floor, broken open by someone searching for valuables. Papers have been emptied out. They are everywhere, all covered in Jemel’s neat Artemian script.

He begins to gather them together. He finds the letter written by the Plumian servant Embel. The only one of the papers he can read. He cannot read Artemian. The letters are strange to him. He can’t tell which papers are important, or which came from the box. He piles up everything that is any kind of paper.

He is startled when he hears a sound. He jumps up from where he is crouched on the floor, drawing his sword as he straightens, thinking this is someone else looking for plunder.

But he sees, in the doorway, a woman. Her pale face looks confused. She is shaking. She wears a white tunic and a white cloak. Her face is so pale she barely looks like a living being. Her eyes look like Jemel’s. They are not silver, but they are shaped just the same.

He holds out his palms, hoping to calm her. Whoever she is.

She babbles something in Artemian. Her voice is strangely mesmerising, although she speaks too fast for Xan to understand. Except for one word, “Jemel.”

“Jemel?” Xan says back to her.

She nods, “Jemel.”

“You look for Jemel?” Xan says, careful and slow. He realises who this must be. The woman the Azurians keep locked away. The woman Jemel discovered from Atticul is his mother. Someone in this temple must have freed her. And she had come looking for him.

He took care of her. “Are you the Immurite?” Xan says. Did he even say that word correctly?

She looks confused. She is shaking and says, “Jemel,” again. Xan has to move fast to catch her when she swoons.

He looks down at her. Her face, close up, is delicate and fine. He can see so much of Jemel’s beauty in it. Her eyelids flutter. “Jemel,” she says, before they close again.

Xan needs to collect the papers for Jemel. He needs to ride North and catch up with the Azurian army.

But what of this woman, Jemel’s mother, if he leaves her here? She has been imprisoned her whole life. He can’t leave her in this fallen city. She could be defiled and killed. And she wants Jemel. He looks down at her. Her eyes flickering open in his arms. “I take you to Jemel.”

He takes hold of Jemel’s blade and scoops the Immurite up in his arms, he can carry nothing else. He makes for Attar docks.

42

KERIK

Kerik stands with his brothers, watching Harok’s physician tending to Damon. Marko lies in the crook of Damon’s arm, whining softly. Baby paces at the end of the bed.

This is bad, even the animals know it.

Lyr , finally returned from his ritual with Yaelin, is sitting on a chair beside the bed, holding Damon’s hand. His face is so pale. But the ritual has worked. Kerik can almost taste the power coming from Lyr in the air of the silent bed chamber.

The physician murmurs something to Harok in Ambolk. Kerik cannot understand it, but it sounds serious.

Perl, standing behind Kerik, interprets the words, saying, “He took the Amber Blade through his shoulder. He needs to rest. But he will recover.”

Lyr seems to slump with relief. Tears glitter in his eyes.

“Can he fight?” says Kerik.

Tobi confers with Harok, then says, “No. The physician says he has to rest. He will not be able to fight on the morrow.”

The room goes quiet. Harok gives the physician his leave and returns to the group, standing staring down at Damon in the bed. Kerik cannot believe it. He doesn’t think any of them can. Doroth was a traitor. He wanted Ur-Durik to rise. All this time. He had been working with them, waiting to find his time to betray them. He had tried to kill Jemel at the banquet. Perhaps thinking the fragile priest was the easiest target, and only been foiled by Lukas and Damon, Damon getting gravely injured in the process.

Kerik curses the fact he had left the hall with Perl. He would have liked to be the one to cut Doroth’s throat. He had betrayed Perl most of all. Perl had brought him to their cause years ago. He knows Perl is still shaken by what happened. And Jemel has not emerged from his room since Tobi and Harok escorted him there after Lukas slayed Doroth in front of him. Kerik heard he had been given some kind of sleeping draught.