of his eyes. ‘It’s me, I’m Wintersea’s emissary. You’ve heard, haven’t you? Steed’s opening the border to Wintersea and—’
‘You. Yes, I know it’s you.’ Morrigan took a reflexive step away from him. ‘I’d figured that much out.’
‘You can’t let – he mustn’t – are you listening to me?’
He lunged forward, arms outstretched as if to grab her by the shoulders, but of course his hands fell straight through her.
The back of Morrigan’s neck prickled. There were things about Squall that frightened her, but nothing so much as this. Nothing he’d ever said or done was as terrifying to Morrigan … as seeing him so frightened.
What scared you this much, if you were the evillest man who ever lived?
‘But this is exactly what you wanted,’ she said, drawing back in revulsion. ‘You planned it this way!’
‘No. Listen to me—’
‘You made the Hollowpox so you could be the one to come into Nevermoor and unmake it. You risked thousands of lives, you killed people, killed Wunimals, just so you could worm your way back—’
‘I made the so-called Hollowpox,’ he raised his voice above hers, ‘because I was asked to. Because I was compensated handsomely for it. And because when the most powerful person in the realm asks for a favour, even I don’t refuse.’
Morrigan’s head was spinning. ‘The most powerful – what are you talking about?’
But even as she asked the question, a memory came to her of a conversation she’d had long ago. On Bid Day, in the Jackalfax Town Hall, before she’d ever come to Nevermoor or met Jupiter, or any of it. He had told her that he, Ezra Squall, was only the second most powerful person in the Republic. Second to—
‘President Wintersea?’ She laughed again, although there was nothing very funny about it. ‘You expect me to believe that President Wintersea asked you to create the Hollowpox?’
‘It was an extermination,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t supposed to be for Nevermoor, it was for the Republic, but she saw an opportunity to use it to force her way into the Free State. That was never part of our deal. She’s the one who sent it in there – bundled an infected otterwun into one of her spy vessels and launched it into the River Juro. He thought he was escaping life under the Wintersea Party, but he was their weapon.’
Morrigan’s stomach seized. ‘An extermination of Wunimals? She asked you to help her exterminate an entire group of people … and you did? Just like that?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I could,’ he snarled, flinging his arms outwards in frustration. ‘And because I had to. Because I am a Wundersmith, and that is what we do. We say yes. We do the ghastly things that are asked of us by people in power, and we do the good things, and we take none of the credit and all of the blame. It’s what we do.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ she snapped back. ‘And if you were so happy to exterminate Wunimals in the Republic, why do you suddenly care about Wunimals in the Free State?’
‘I don’t!’ he said. ‘I couldn’t care less whether they live or die. I have no feelings about them whatsoever; that’s not my fight, it’s Wintersea’s. I only care about Nevermoor. But I can promise you that once Wintersea crosses that border, there will be no cure for the Hollowpox. She doesn’t want to help you.
‘The Wintersea Party wants to take Nevermoor, and they will. They will take it just as they reached out their iron fist from Great Wolfacre and took Prosper, and Southlight, and Sang. I know, because I helped them do it. They will crush Nevermoor the way they crushed those places. You think you’re going to save your Wunimal friends? No. The Wunimals will be the first to go, and they won’t stop there. Anyone who opposes them, anyone who presents the slightest threat to the party will be destroyed, imprisoned or enslaved. If you think that doesn’t mean you and every single one of your Wundrous Society friends with their very useful knacks, you are tragically mistaken.’
‘But you’re a Wundersmith.’ Morrigan was utterly baffled. ‘Why can’t you just stop them if they’re such a problem? I don’t understand!’
‘Do you THINK I HAVEN’T—’ Squall shouted, then cut himself off abruptly. He clamped his mouth shut and stared at her, breathing fiercely through his nose. When he spoke again it was in a tight, barely controlled growl. ‘Let her in, and the Wintersea Party follows. All you need to understand