'oh come now, is that any way to treat an ally?' it is nowadays,' Carel said with feeling. He hadn't put his sword up 'In case you're not up with current events, surprises aren't welcome any more.'

'I heard aboutl Lord Bahl,' Morghien said, no trace of emotion in voice or face. 'A shame, but not much of a surprise, with hindsight. Xeliath tells me it was Lord Styrax who killed him. If that's true we have quite a problem on our hands.'

'We?' echoed Isak hotly. 'And which city do you rule that makes it your problem?'

'I don't care for the Lord of the Menin, and if it involves those I call allies and complicates my own plans, I consider it a problem.' Morghien's eyes were fixed on Isak and he remained calm and confi¬dent – until the seconds stretched on and he became aware of Isak, slowly tapping his fingernail against the emerald set into his sword hilt. Morghien frowned, his normal self-assurance wavering slightly.

Under different circumstances Isak would have been pleased to dis¬concert Morghien, but there was little to be happy about here. 'Your friend,' he said, 'the Seer of Ghorendt…'

'Fedei? What about Fedei?'

'We stopped there on the way back – well, we tried to. The guards made it very clear before we even reached the city walls that we were not welcome.'

'Not welcome?' Morghien's face fell. 'Is Fedei dead?'

'We don't know; Ghorendt is closed to outsiders. All we could discover was that it happened the day after Silvernight. As we left the river we found ourselves staring at the pointy ends of a dozen arrows, so we turned back. There was talk of the Seer being trapped behind locked doors, and every mirror in the house being broken.'

As Isak spoke, Morghien's face darkened. 'I know whose handiwork that is,' he muttered,