‘You had to kill him,’ Che said solemnly, her eyes still on the blade. ‘He would have killed you otherwise. Don’t feel bad.’

‘I felt…’ Tynisa pursed her lips together. ‘I felt so alive.’

‘Alive?’

‘In that moment, when I was past his guard, it was… Help me, Che, but it was wonderful. I forgot everything else. At that moment I didn’t care about you, or Sten. I just knew that I had won, and it was good. It was so good.’

Che remembered the girl’s sudden concern after the fight, Tynisa trying to make up for the remorse she should have been feeling. ‘I don’t know, I-’ she started, and just then, blessedly, Totho and Salma were being ushered into the room by the taverna’s owner. Totho was bundled into a shapeless long coat, a canvas bag slung over one shoulder, so it was Salma who must have drawn any looks all the way across Collegium. He was known for dressing well, but understated, always fashionable, never gauche. Now he was hidden somewhere within a hugely elaborate, high-collared robe and the garment was – as the saying went – almost splendid enough to be offered its own department at College. Blue and green and red, iridescent like mother of pearl, its curling hems were lined with plates of gold.

‘What exactly are you got up as?’ Tynisa demanded, recovering her customary cool. ‘Or did Sten’s note actually say you should look like a mad foreigner?’

‘It’s not my fault that nobody in this forsaken backward little town ever dresses properly,’ said Salma. ‘What was I supposed to do with my robe? Leave it behind?’

‘Don’t you have any… bags?’

Salma opened the robe to reveal an inner garment of simply cut turquoise cloth lined with numerous pockets. There was even a sword scabbard sewn into it containing a short-bladed weapon of odd design.

‘You do realize that someone tried to kill us last night?’ Tynisa told him, although there was no reason he should know. ‘I suppose at least it won’t be me now drawing the arrow-shot.’

‘Tried to kill you?’ Totho asked, shocked.

‘Tried to kill Uncle Sten,’ corrected Che, ‘only we got in the way. The killers, they’re… dead, both of them.’ She remembered how the city guard had finally been called, and Stenwold had sent them on their way with the bodies and no questions asked, a clink of coin. Everyone, even Stenwold, seemed to be pretending that nothing had happened, and she suspected this was the way of it for those with secrets that too many questions could compromise.

Stenwold came in just then, without ceremony. ‘Good,’ he said, on seeing them all present. He settled himself on the floor across the table from them, making sure he had the door on his right hand and not to his back. ‘Time for some truths,’ he began. ‘Although if you’re half the people I take you for, there’ll be no surprises. Che and Tynisa know the histories I’ve been teaching by heart now, and Salma’s Commonweal has first-hand experience of the Wasp Empire’s ways. And Totho…’

The artificer swallowed. ‘I listen, sir.’

‘So what is it you want to do?’ Che asked Stenwold. ‘About the Wasps, I mean.’

He nodded. ‘The Lowlands has not changed – its political balance anyway – has not for perhaps five hundred years. It’s incredible to think it, but if you discount the usual jostling rivalry between the Ant city-states it’s much the same as it has been ever since the revolution. Perhaps conditions are better, in some places, but there has been a balance struck that has lasted, and that has had little to do with outside pressures and everything to do with our self-made isolation.’ Try as he might he could not keep the College Master out of his voice. ‘The world beyond our boundaries has contrived to assist us. The Spiderlands beyond Everis have always seen us as a resource, an amusement and an oubliette. The Barrier Ridge cuts us off from the north so well that most Low-landers know little or nothing about Salma’s home except the name “the Commonweal”. Luckily for us, they have never been of a mind to impose their civilization on us. Salma’s people are more inward-looking than we. A fair assessment, Salma?’

‘Both harsh and fair,’ his pupil agreed.

‘And to the east… Well, most of it’s desert, and what’s not is a patchwork of little cities and hill tribes, and none of them rich or sophisticated, or that’s what the textbooks say. Well, in the last two generations all that has changed, and keeps changing, and it will change faster than anyone wants.’

He sighed. ‘Looking at you, the lot of you… it takes me back. When I was not so much older than you are, I and some like-minds headed east, to see if the disturbing news from that quarter was true. It was indeed, for a new power has arisen. The Wasp-kinden, who are described in our oldest records as barbarians primarily interested in cutting each other’s heads off, are an empire now. Their borders have since been pushed to not so very far east of Helleron and Tark. There is a city called Myna…’ The memories swelled in him, and he closed his eyes. ‘We witnessed the fall of Myna, and realized a little of the Wasp dream. One world, one empire: that sums it up neatly.’

‘But this must have been… what, twenty years ago?’ Tynisa objected. ‘So where are they? Why aren’t they all over Helleron? Why aren’t they at Collegium’s gates with an army?’

‘As to Helleron, they are familiar with the Wasps. Indeed, the merchants of Helleron have been doing well out of importing the spoils of their war, and they sell them the latest in Beetle-made arms in return. They want to see the Wasps as just another city-state that is constantly fighting, never really changing. There was a time, during the Empire’s war with Salma’s people, when enough of Helleron suddenly woke up to what was brewing on their doorstep. But the Wasps came in with their treaties and their promises, and signed lots of comforting pieces of paper about the Empire going no further than Myna and, so long as the trade revenue keeps coming in, the Helleren magnates overlook just what it is they’re trading in. And perhaps those that don’t overlook it don’t get to live very long. And as for what their army is up to… Salma, you’re best placed to answer that one.’

Salma’s smile widened a little, but lost its warmth. ‘I did wonder what you knew, when you took me as a pupil so easily.’

The other three were staring at him dubiously, and he shook his head. ‘When I first came here, it had been only a year since the Twelve-Year War ended. Twelve years’ conflict between my people and the Wasp-kinden.’

Their expressions had become intense as they tried to assimilate this, to stretch their minds around the periods of time involved.

‘The Wasps only stopped their march forward when they became overextended. There was a rebellion behind their lines, conquered people trying to cast off the yoke. The Wasps then offered us a chance at peace, and by that time we had no choice but to take the terms they gave. They demanded three border principalities. Over here, in extent, that’s from about Lake Sideriti right to the west coast, taking in all of Collegium and Vek along the way. The Wasps then turned round to crush the rebellions as we sat there with our Treaty of Pearl. We’re still waiting for them to come back. So that explains where their army has been, all those years. Not sitting idle, believe me.’ Salma sat back, watching them.

‘And my agents in Helleron, who keep an eye and ear open for me, lead me to believe that the Lowlands will be next to feel the rod,’ Stenwold finished. ‘If nothing else it will mean that, when the Wasps move on the Commonweal again, they’ll come at it from both east and south, and with Helleron’s foundries supplying their army.’

‘So what can we do?’ Che asked the question in all of their minds.

Stenwold sagged. ‘I had hoped that this would go differently, but time’s a wheel that crushes better plans than mine. I’d wanted to take you… take some of you with me to Helleron, to introduce you and gather a little information there. Once you were ready, and when I knew enough about the Wasp plans, I would put a question to you.’ He paused, aware that he was turning a page in their lives, and his, that could not be turned back. ‘I am putting the question to you now. Will you help me against the Wasp-kinden? I want you to be my agents in this. Think very carefully before you answer. Now, Totho.’