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Numbed, she followed Karos Invictad.

Up a flight of stairs, down a passageway, then into the man’s office. As promised, Karos Invictad found a cloak and set it carefully on Nisall’s shoulders.Advertisement

She drew it tight.

He waved her to a chair in front of the huge desk, where waited a sheet of vellum, a horsehair brush and a pot of squid ink. Slightly off to one side of the ink pot was a small, strange box, opened at the top. Unable to help herself, Nisall leaned over for a look.

‘That is none of your concern.’ The words were a pitch higher than usual and she glanced over to see the man scowling.

‘You have a pet insect,’ Nisall said, wondering at the flush of colour in Karos Invictad’s face.

‘Hardly. As I said, not your concern.’

‘Do you seek a confession from it as well? You will have to decapitate it twice. With a very small blade.’

‘Are you amusing yourself, woman? Sit down.’

Shrugging, she did as he commanded. Stared down at the blank vellum, then reached over and collected the brush. Her hand trembled. ‘What is it you wish me to confess?’

‘You need not be specific. You, Nisall, admit to conspir-ing against the Emperor and the empire. You state this freely and with sound mind, and submit to the fate awaiting all traitors.’

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She dipped the brush into the ink and began writing.

‘I am relieved you are taking this so well,’ Karos Invictad said.

‘My concern is not for me,’ she said as she completed the terse statement and signed it with a flourish that did not quite succeed in hiding the shakiness of her hand. ‘It is for Rhulad.’

‘He will spare you nothing but venom, Nisall.’

‘Again,’ she said, leaning back in the chair. ‘I do not care for myself.’

‘Your sympathy is admirable-’

‘It extends to you, Karos Invictad.’

He reached out and collected the vellum, waved it in the air to dry the ink. ‘Me? Woman, you insult me-’

‘Not intended. But when the Emperor learns that you executed the woman who carried his heir, well, Master of the Patriotists or not…’

The vellum dropped from the man’s fingers. The sceptre ceased its contented tapping. Then, a rasp: ‘You lie. Easily proved-’

‘Indeed. Call in a healer. Presumably you have at least one in attendance, lest the executioner be Stung by a sliver-or, more likely, a burst blister, busy as he is.’

‘When we discover your ruse, Nisall, well, the notion of mercy is dispensed with, regardless of this signed confession.’ He leaned over and collected the vellum. Then scowled. ‘You used too much ink-it has run and is now illegible.’

‘Most missives I pen are with stylus and wax,’ she said.

He slapped the sheet back down in front of her, the reverse side up. ‘Again. I will be back in a moment-with the healer.’

She heard the door open and shut behind her. Writing out her confession once more, she set the brush down and rose. Leaned over the odd little box with its pivoting two-headed insect. Round and round you go. Do you know dismay? Helplessness?

A commotion somewhere below. Voices, something crashing to the floor.

The door behind her was flung open.

She turned.

Karos Invictad walked in, straight for her.

She saw him twist the lower half of the sceptre, saw a short knife-blade emerge from the sceptre’s base.

Nisall looked up, met the man’s eyes.

And saw, in them, nothing human.

He thrust the blade into her chest, into her heart. Then twice more as she sagged, falling to strike the chair.

She saw the floor come up to meet her face, heard the crack of her forehead, felt the vague sting, then darkness closed in. Oh, Tissin-

Bruthen Trana shouldered a wounded guard aside and entered Invictad’s office.

The Master of the Patriotists was stepping back from the crumpled form of Nisall, die sceptre in his hand-the blade at its base-gleaming crimson. ‘Her confession demanded-’

The Tiste Edur walked to the desk, kicking aside the toppled chair. He picked up the sheet of vellum, squinted to make out the Letherii words. A single line. A statement. A confession indeed. For a moment, he felt as if his heart stut-tered.

In the corridor, Tiste Edur warriors. Bruthen Trana said without turning, ‘K’ar Penath, collect the body of the First Concubine-’

‘This is an outrage!’ Karos Invictad hissed. ‘Do not touch her!’

Snarling, Bruthen Trana took one stride closer to the man, then lashed out with the back of his left hand. pqdm.com