Ullii knew that wasn't true, and moreover Flydd had treated her far more kindly than the chief scrutator ever did. However, she stopped at once; Ghorr took pleasure in inflicting pain, particularly on the weak and powerless.

'Well?' he said, pulling off her earmuffs to roar in her ear, though she could hear him clearly through them, and he knew it. 'Where is the renegade, Seeker?'

Before she could answer, a soldier came running. 'Two people have barricaded themselves in a chamber down to your left, Chief Scrutator, surr. Mancer Squilp says the place has a strong tang of the Art.'

'Is it Xervish Flydd, Ullii?' said Ghorr, crushing the bones in her gracile arm.

She closed her eyes behind the mask, the better to visualise her lattice. The noise hurt and the violence frightened her, making it difficult to concentrate. The lattice was faint again today. It had been fading for weeks now, and that filled her with dread. What if she lost it completely? Ullii had created her lattice as a lost and lonely little girl and, in the desperate years since, it had been the only thing keeping her sane. Her solitary achievement had given her pride in herself. It was now the only crutch she had left.

'Hurry up!' hissed Scrutator Fusshte, thrusting his pockmarked reptilian face at her behind Ghorr's back.

Ullii recoiled. Fusshte was a creeping monstrosity whose nearness brought her out in goosepimples.

Ghorr urged him out of the way. 'She can't be forced, Scrutator,' he said acidly. 'Won't you ever learn?'

Fusshte backed off, but Ullii saw his malevolence as a corrosive knot in her lattice. Even Ghorr was preferable to the slithering horror that was Scrutator Fusshte.

'Well, Seeker?' said Ghorr.

'It's Xervish,' she conceded. Ullii had once regarded Flydd as a friend and knew she was betraying him to his doom, but she wasn't strong enough to resist. Even if she had been, Ghorr would happily break her to find his enemy. 'And Crafter Irisis.'