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Gramo coughed into his hand, a perfectly Collegiate way of hiding amusement. ‘Prince Felipe Shah departed, with his retinue, even as you were being . . . recovered,’ he told her. ‘He had an audience with one of your Wasp friends, and then he set off for Esselve. Today is the first day of spring. A prince-major is expected to visit his vassals, although for the last few years Prince Felipe has not been too prompt in that.’

After an audience with one of my Wasp friends . . . Che considered, hoping that Thalric had not managed to offend one of the most powerful men in the Commonweal.

The two Wasps rose soon after. Varmen was first to appear, bustling out of the embassy with only a brusque nod to her, off to check on his pack-beetle. Thalric stepped out a moment later, finding Che sitting near the door, looking towards the centre of Suon Ren, at the Dragonfly-kinden going about their business there.

She glanced at him, expecting that familiar closed look, the cynical Thalric armoured against the world, but instead she caught a strangely vulnerable expression there. Relief at her recovery, yes, but more than that. He stared at her without words, and at last she found her feet, with a flick of her wings, and walked over to him, holding his gaze.

‘You put me to a great deal of trouble, Beetle girl,’ he told her, but his voice trembled slightly, and she put her arms around him and hugged him tight, feeling his own embrace respond a moment later.

‘We must set off north, as soon as you’re ready to go,’ she murmured into his chest. ‘Tynisa needs me.’

He grunted. ‘Does she know that?’

‘No. Quite the opposite, probably. But I can’t abandon her to . . .’ She remembered that he would almost certainly not understand, and just let the sentence tail off.

‘Well, then, I can’t think of any urgent social engagements here that I can’t put aside,’ he told her. ‘Let’s beg some supplies and we’ll set off.’

Thalric had looked out a map, soon after they had arrived, in preparation for this moment. He produced it with something like embarrassment, because it made no sense to him, lacking the careful proportion and measurement of the charts used by the Imperial army. Che studied it with interest, though, seeing how the Inapt cartographers had set out their world, places and trails, landmarks and directions. She understood it perfectly.

When they were ready to set off, they found Varmen waiting for them, his laden beetle at his heels.

‘You’re heading back east?’ Che asked him.

He shuffled his feet. ‘Thought I’d come with you.’

She glanced at Thalric, who was frowning, clearly as surprised as she was. ‘You’ve been paid off?’ she pressed.

Varmen shrugged. ‘Paid, certainly. Listen, where you’re heading, it’s Rhael Province – bandit country. You’re saying you can’t use an extra sword?’

Che scrutinized his face, trying to detect treachery. She sensed a crack in his bluff and simple exterior, but she did not read guilt there, exactly. ‘What is it?’ she murmured, feeling obscurely that she should be able to tell precisely, to extract the knowledge from his face or his mind.

‘You were with Felipe Shah,’ Thalric noted, and Che readied herself for a display of suspicion, but instead the former Rekef man was nodding. ‘He’s hired you, hasn’t he, to look after Che?’

Varmen shrugged awkwardly. ‘He wasn’t exactly going to pay me anything to look after you,’ he said, still evasive. Thalric seemed satisfied with his own deductions, but Che could sense the gap, the discontinuity. Not that Thalric was wrong, but she knew there was more that was going unsaid by Varmen.

They set off shortly after, following a path that was little more than an animal track. They were barely a quarter mile from Suon Ren’s outskirts, though, when someone was calling them back. Glancing behind them, Che saw a figure swathed in a dark cloak hurrying to catch up.

‘It’s the world’s least subtle assassin,’ Varmen murmured, mirroring Che’s thoughts so closely that she could not suppress a bark of laughter.

‘It’s Maure,