‘Well, no. Nothing like that.’ Blenner cleared his throat. Baskevyl got the distinct impression that Blenner was glancing around in the hope of spotting a bottle he could pour a glass from.
‘Look, Bask,’ said Blenner. ‘The thing of it is… the thing of it is, morale really. And confidence.’
‘Go on,’ said Baskevyl.
‘Don’t make me spell it out, Bask.’
Baskevyl sighed. ‘Your specific assignment in V company,’ Baskevyl said. ‘A Belladon company. The colours band. Of which Wilder was c.o. You are concerned how they regard you now you’ve shot their senior. How any of us Belladon will regard you.’
‘Well, I mean, given the history,’ said Blenner. ‘Jakub Wilder, Lucien Wilder. An illustrious Belladon fighting family–’
‘Jakub Wilder was not a model soldier,’ Bask snapped. ‘He let the name down. He murdered, for feth’s sake. And attacked the person of the First Lord Executor’s daughter. You were doing your duty.’
‘I was.’
‘Then you and me, we don’t have a problem. Jakub Wilder brought shame to the Belladon contingent. Unless, as I said, there’s more to this.’
‘There really isn’t.’
‘Good.’
‘I’d still request,’ said Blenner cautiously, ‘reassignment.’
‘Reassignment?’
‘Attachment to another company. The boys of V Company keep looking at me like I’m a bad smell.’
There was a bad smell, all right. The background fug of sulphur from the volcanic vent the palace straddled was particularly noxious in the undercroft area. And the latrines had flooded again. Another technical issue the Munitorum work crews couldn’t adequately explain.
‘First of all, just bring them into line,’ said Baskevyl unsympathetically. ‘It’s not a popularity contest. Second, that’s not my call.’
‘You’re senior officer present.’
‘By rank, yes. But Daur has operational oversight of the Tanith here. Take it up with him if you must. Except don’t, because Ban’s not an idiot, and he’ll give you the same answer I just did.’
‘Where is Captain Daur?’ Blenner asked.
‘Fethed if I know, Vaynom.’
‘Is… is the girl all right?’
Baskevyl looked at him. ‘Gaunt’s daughter? Again, fethed if I know. Is that all?’
Blenner nodded. Baskevyl pushed past him to exit. He paused.
‘Any word from Hark?’ he asked Blenner.
‘I’ve heard nothing.’
‘Nothing through Prefectus channels?’
‘No, Bask.’
‘So we have no idea where Kolea is?’
‘We don’t,’ Blenner agreed.
The alarms suddenly went off again. They shrieked for a second before shutting off. Blenner flinched.
‘Feth that,’ said Baskevyl, and strode away.
Alone, Blenner leant against the door jamb and breathed out slowly, trying to calm himself. His hands were shaking, so he stuffed them in the pockets of his storm coat.
‘Nice chat?’ Meryn whispered.
Blenner jerked with a start. The Tanith captain was standing right beside him in the shadow of the archway.
Meryn grinned his crooked grin.
‘Don’t do that,’ Blenner hissed.
‘I’ve got something for you, Vaynom,’ Meryn said. He took a baggie of pills and stuffed them into Blenner’s top pocket. ‘Something to take the edge off.’
Then Meryn leaned in until he was eye-to-eye with Blenner, and the back of Blenner’s head was pressed against the stonework behind him.
‘I heard all of that,’ Meryn said. ‘That talk with Bask. You’re a fething idiot. How guilty do you want to look exactly? Play it chill, for feth’s sake. I’m not kidding, Blenner. If I go down, you go down. And if it comes to that, I think I can throw you to the damn wolves a lot more effectively than you can throw me. Are we clear?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good.’ Meryn smiled. He raised both hands and smoothed the front of Blenner’s coat as if he was a tailor finalising a perfect fit. ‘Don’t make me have this conversation with you again.’
Meryn walked away, humming to himself. Blenner took out the packet of pills. Somnia. He took two.
He knew it would hardly be enough.
Long rows of cots had been set up down the lengths of the arched undercroft chambers. Heaters were running, and lumen globes hovered under the arches. The close air smelled of sweat and volcanic fumes and the damned latrines.
And fear. The whole retinue was afraid. Apart from the dirty business with Wilder and Gendler, everyone had heard the story about Elodie and poor little Yoncy. Some kind of monster out in the wasteland behind Low Keen had taken out an entire squad of enemy soldiers and almost killed them both too.
Baskevyl walked the length of the billet, pausing to chat with troopers and members of the retinue. He did what he could to reassure them. They did what they could to appear reassured.
Baskevyl spotted old Ayatani Zweil gingerly feeding scraps of dried meat to the regimental psyber-eagle mascot.
‘Fattening him up, father?’ Baskevyl asked.
‘Oh no, no,’ Zweil replied, offering another scrap and trying to guess which head would take it. ‘Gaining the beast’s confidence. Making friends, you see? I have named him Quil. He didn’t have a name. It’s short for–’
‘I get it,’ said Baskevyl.
‘It puts us on good terms, see? Makes us friends. So I can get close enough to groom him.’
‘Groom him?’ Baskevyl asked.
‘Groom him and maybe slip a garland of islumbine over each of his heads… ow! Bastard nearly took my finger off!’
‘Because why?’ Baskevyl asked.
‘I presume because he was hungry,’ said Zweil.
‘No, father. Why do you want to groom him?’
‘Well, because there’ll be a parade. When she gets here. We want the bitey little bastard looking his resplendent best.’
‘A parade?’
‘For the Beati, man.’
Baskevyl frowned. ‘Father, the arrival of the Saint is not open knowledge. How did you find out? Who told you?’
‘No one,’ Zweil replied, his eyes fixed on the raptor as he held out another chunk.
He glanced at Baskevyl.
‘I’m ayatani imhava, major,’ he said. ‘One of her roaming chosen. I know these things. Just as I know the imhava are gathering in Eltath. Coming from all over. It’s taken years for some of them to get here, following the long routes of the Saint’s pilgrimage. I believe even some delegations of the templum ayatani are coming here too. Her priesthood, major, gathering at her side at the site of the victory.’
‘This is a victory?’ asked Baskevyl dubiously.
‘It will be,’ replied Zweil.
‘It doesn’t feel much like one.’
‘I didn’t say whose victory,’ said Zweil. ‘Oh, don’t look at me like that, major. I wasn’t being pessimistic. The paths of the esholi have not yet revealed the outcome of the future, even to those of her chosen, like me. All we know is, we should be at her side at this time and feth! Bastard! Shit! Bugger!’
‘Did it bite your finger again, father?’ asked Baskevyl.
‘I find it has a tendency to do that,’ said Zweil, sucking at his fingertip.
‘Maybe don’t put your fingers in its beaks, then?’
‘I’ll get a stick,’ said Zweil.
‘So you can offer the scraps at arm’s length?’ asked Baskevyl.
‘Oh,’ said Zweil, ‘that’s a better idea.’
Elodie was helping several troopers from E Company to mop the outer hallway of the undercroft where groundwater had sopped up through the washhouse drains.
‘The Munitorum can handle that,’ Baskevyl said to her as he walked up.