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The Spider girl shook her head, her expression pitying, and she seemed about to turn and leave when Maure said, ‘Do you not know me, Tynisa? Have you not seen me before?’

‘No.’ But Tynisa frowned. ‘Have I?’ Her sword, which had been hanging loose by her side, was abruptly levelled across the circle, directed at Maure’s heart. For a moment Tynisa went very still, save that Che could see a slight tremble in her, as though she was fighting with her own body. ‘What . . .?’ she got out, ‘I should . . .’

‘You want to kill me,’ Maure observed.

‘No, why would I want to . . .?’ Tynisa was staring at her own arm, which seemed to be warring both with the rest of her and with the rapier itself. At last, with a great effort of will, she rammed the weapon home in its scabbard. ‘What’s going on?’ she demanded, with a tremor to her voice.

‘Sit down, please,’ Che repeated, and Tynisa did so, looking all of a sudden uncertain.

‘Tell me what’s going on,’ she asked, with a hint of pleading in her voice.

‘Maure is going to perform a ritual,’ Che explained. ‘A ritual to try and call up certain ghosts that are near to us. You and I have both lost loved ones. We . . . the Inapt believe that there may be traces, shadows of the dead left in the world. Wouldn’t you want to speak to them?’

‘No,’ said Tynisa hollowly, but she did not get up. ‘Che, I have seen . . . On my journey to this place, I’ve had them at my elbow every day. Just in my own mind, but that’s enough ghost for me. I’ve only recently got rid of them, so . . . even if it was possible, I wouldn’t want to see them again.’

‘Even if they could then let you go? Give you their blessing?’ Che pressed. She was not sure whether she was now speaking for Tynisa’s benefit or her own.

For a long while Tynisa stared into the circle sketched in ash and charcoal. ‘You’re mad,’ she said at last, but her voice had a plaintive tone. ‘This woman’s led you on. How much money did you give her?’

‘Tynisa—’

‘But perform your nonsense. Go on, get it over with. I’ll sit here and listen. Why not?’

Che nodded, somewhat mollified. ‘Maure, would you . . .?’

‘You must think of him, both of you. Draw into your minds all your recollections, the precise shape of him, the shadow he cast on the world.’ She closed her eyes and began visibly steeling herself. Che had expected incantations, mystic words, a high-blown patter to go with all the props and clutter that the woman had assembled here, but there was none of that, simply a name.

‘Tisamon.’ It was dropped like a stone into a well, and although the walls around them were not capable of it, Che was sure that there was an echo.

‘Tisamon,’ Maure repeated. ‘Tisamon, I name you—’ names signifying power to the old Inapt kinden. The air within that central room twanged with tension, the incense smoke coiling but refusing to rise properly. In the lanterns, the fireflies seemed to spell out strange sigils with their lights.

The beating of rain on the sloped roof above them was sudden enough to make Che start, an abruptly descending hiss as the skies broke open, soon joined by the sound of a miniature waterfall as the water began sheeting off the roof’s lower edge. Not the thunderstorm that traditionally belonged to this kind of venture, but a moderate shower remarkable only for the timing of its onset.

‘Tisamon,’ Maure repeated, over the sound of it. ‘Come forth and speak your piece. You have grievances, let us hear them. Speak to us, Tisamon.’

But there was nothing. No shadowy figure stepped into the circle. No voice croaked from beyond the grave. There was no sign that the influence that had laid its hand on Tynisa would unmask itself.

‘What’s wrong?’ Che demanded. ‘Make it come out.’

‘Che . . .?’ Tynisa herself looked almost embarrassed.

Maure grimaced. ‘It’s not so simple. I have never before needed to force a ghost to do anything. Normally they’re only too glad to get the chance to speak, to make their demands, to set right old wrongs. Normally they have messages to impart. Believe me, Che, normally I’d have to beat one off with a stick, given this