the lake? You’re looking for mad and strong enough to kill Gods — there’s your answer.’
Doranei considered Coran’s point. While King Emin had left the ruins of Scree with the Skull of Ruling, Azaer’s disciples had been intent on getting something else the island-monastery’s abbot had in his possession. The journal of Prince Vorizh Vukotic had been Azaer’s prize, and its contents remained a worrying mystery.
‘You could be right,’ Doranei mused, ‘but it doesn’t explain why — unless it’s revenge for something that happened in the Age of Myths, there’s not a good enough reason. Just to cause chaos and misery can’t be all there is to it: there has to be a plan, and that’s what we’re missing.’
‘What if this is a game of the heavens?’ Osh asked unexpectedly. ‘I don’t pretend to understand much of what is going on, but I suspect my theology is better than any of you. There is clear precedent of insurrection there — Lliot, the God of All Waters, rebelled against the rule of Death and His queen. That failed, so perhaps another God has chosen a different line of attack and found a daemon cunning enough to lay the way for it. If successful, the rewards would be commensurate.’
‘The king doesn’t believe so,’ Doranei said. ‘It’s the best explanation we have, but investigations say it ain’t right. No God of any significance has been spared the effects of the backlash, and the king’s mages have consulted a host of daemons — there would be some sort of a whisper about it if such a thing were happening. Anyway, Azaer’s no true daemon — ’
‘And too fucking arrogant to be a hired hand,’ Coran broke in.
Doranei nodded. ‘Even with the collusion of a God it doesn’t fit with what we know of the shadow. If it sparks a war within the Pantheon it will be solely for its own purposes.’ He raised a hand to stop any further conversation. ‘We can discuss this later, but right now we have an assault to plan. Surviving that is my only concern at this time.’
‘So what’s the bet?’ Coran asked automatically.
Doranei glowered and glanced at Sebe’s belongings on the bed. ‘You kill Ilumene or Ruhen, or you finish off Aracnan, you can name your fucking price. I’ll pay it gladly.’
The next day was one of unexpected sunshine, long shafts of light cutting through clumps of drifting cloud to shine down upon Byora’s streets. It felt to Doranei like the entire population had been ushered outside, flocking to the recently replenished markets or just making the most of the weather after the months of grim, lingering cold. He had left the wine merchant’s not long after dawn, taking with him the Mystic of Karkarn, Hambalay Osh, and Veil, one of the Brotherhood.
The trio took a long, winding route through the quarter. They were in no hurry to get to the Ruby Tower; it was the perfect day to get a feel for the city again — they’d be more inconspicuous than usual with so many people out and about. The streets of Wheel and Burn were hives of activity now the Menin had reinstated free passage and carts of all sizes had clogged the streets in their eagerness to deliver the raw materials Byora so desperately needed. The few Menin patrols they saw were carefully keeping out of the way of everyday life; many were sitting outside taverns and eateries, behaving themselves like soldiers under orders.
Heading into Breakale, the central district where more than half of Byora’s citizens lived, they found the streets no less busy. Doranei led them past the Three Inns crossroad, where their Brother Sebe had died, to an eatery that faced east, towards Blackfang. The wedge-shaped building had been built to divert the floodwaters that occasionally swept off the mountain slopes, and from the tip of the wedge on the upper floor they had a good view of the surrounding area. Since it was well before midday, they had it to themselves.
They sat in silence, sharing a jug of weak wine and watching gangs of labourers work through the rubble of the buildings that had once stood to the right of them; the place where Sebe had been holed up with his poison-tipped arrows, from where he shot Aracnan. And it was there he had died, when the immortal mercenary had indiscriminately unleashed the power of his Crystal Skull, killing hundreds in a storm of raging magic.