'It is essential.' Carnelian could see the strength flowing back into him as if a cloud that had moved its shadow over him was passing on. The sun already burns the Guarded Land. If the God Emperor is not reborn, the Rains will not come and the Commonwealth will perish with the old year. The tributaries are massing outside our gates with thousands of wagons carrying the coined taxes from the cities. When the time is right, we will bring them into holy Osrakum. The tributaries must all be there, in the Plain of Thrones, when the Rains come.'

'When will that be?' said Carnelian, wanting to feed his father's resurrection.

The Wise will soon know.'

'What sorcery do they use to reveal the very intentions of the sky?'

'It is a sorcery of sorts. Daily they gather reports from all their watch-towers. In a chamber far from here they receive the flashes of light that have come from the furthest edges of the Commonwealth. They collate the reports and compare the results with their almanacs. Eventually, by this procedure, their collective mind determines the day upon which the storm clouds will dash their water against this mountain. On that day the world will be reborn.'

Carnelian looked up as if his eyes might pierce the shadow and massing rock to behold the distant sky.

The Rebirth is in itself a mighty labour to arrange,' his father said. 'But combined with Apotheosis…?' He raised his hands. Carnelian thought he could see light filtering through their parchment but at least they were steady. 'Soon the Chosen will gather here for the sacred election. Their coming cannot be sullied by the tributaries, and yet they too must be there.' His father inclined his massively crowned head. There is so little time.'

Carnelian frowned. 'How can you be so sure there will be need for an election before the coming of the Rains?'

The Wise are sure.' His father motioned. 'Make them bring the staves.'

Carnelian understood his father's meaning. He manoeuvred the syblings to prop their staves in front of his father. They were really standards. One carried the wheelmap of the Commonwealth he had seen before in one of his father's books: a black disc within a red within a green, the whole jewelled roundel surmounted by the horned-ring of divinity. The other staff bore the jade and obsidian faces of the Gods, also crowned with the horned-ring.

His father groaned as he tried to push himself up and failed. Carnelian leaned in to shoulder one of his father's arms like a yoke. He hoisted it till his father had grasped one of the staves and then did the same for the other hand. Holding on to him they rocked him back up onto his ranga. He was suddenly as tall as Molochite had been. Carnelian saw that the woven metals of his court robe were dented as his father, holding on to the staves, came down the steps. Once he had reached the floor, he tentatively let go of the staves and took a few steps without their help. He dismissed the syblings and they and the staves retreated.

'Come, Carnelian, lend me your strength.'

Carnelian gave his father his shoulder to lean on. The warm, heavy pressure filled Carnelian with a love for his father that stung his eyes. Suth pointed out the way he wished to go, and they set off.

'Are you, as Regent, responsible for all this?' asked Carnelian, ignoring his father's weight.

'For this purpose, the Regent is, in everything but name, God Emperor.'

Then who now is He-who-goes-before? Who speaks for the Clave? Aurum?'

The shaking of his father's crowned head vibrated them both. He opened his hand to reveal the red eye of the Pomegranate Ring.

'Surely then, Father, you direct two of the Three Powers?'

'Yes.'

There must be those who object to this concentration of might?'

He felt his father's mirth trembling down his arm. 'Oh, yes. Indeed yes.'

'She of whom we must not speak?'

'She most of all. The God Emperor made me Regent and while They live I am secure.'

'And then…?'

The Regency will pass to her until a candidate is elected.'

'Still, she will be safely locked away in her forbidden house.'

'Not so. She will be let out, brought here to wield the power of the Masks.'

'Will that not endanger us?'

He felt the shaking again. 'Why should it?'

'Why then did you set your lictors upon my door?'

They cannot enter here. I had no other use for them.'

'And the escort of syblings, today?'

To give you state. You are a Lord of the Great, Carnelian, and my son. I would not have you appear before the other Ruling Lords like a beggar.'

There is no danger, then?'

'Not now.'

Then, my Lord, your worry is at an end.' Carnelian glanced off towards the Iron Door. 'Out there…' He stopped. The Hanuses' two faces were gazing down the length of the hall at them.

'Yes?'

Carnelian screwed his head round to look up at his father. 'I saw some of our people… and the Jade Lord Molochite. He spoke to me.'

'Did he? What about?'

'Nothing… he saw my mother in my face.'

'She is there, in your face, in your eyes.'

'He is the most beautiful creature I have ever beheld.'

'Even in a House that breeds so much beauty, Molochite is an emerald among jades.'

'He was amiable enough.'

'Is that not what you once said about Jaspar?'

Carnelian thought about this. 'Where is the other Jade Lord?'

'Nephron? With Aurum to espouse his cause, he has no need to show himself. Only Molochite is forced to bend his pride to canvas for his own votes.'

Their mother is locked away?'

'In the full purdah, although even if she were free I do not think she would stoop to going out among the Great. She has none in her party whose blood the Ruling Lords would respect enough to deal with. So she resorts to sending her own son to negotiate for their block votes.'

'Of course,' Carnelian said, thinking aloud, remembering his lessons on the island. Into a ballot, a Ruling Lord could cast all the rings in his House save for those worn by adult males. This explained why they were come up to court alone. Their block votes would play the major part in the election.

Carnelian looked up and saw that they had reached a door. It was barred by huge billhooks, each held by the four hands of the sybling pairs on either side. His father's weight on him grew lighter as he straightened up. Carnelian let him go reluctantly. They took some steps towards the syblings. The billhooks clinked as they uncrossed.

Carnelian stopped. 'My Lord.' He waited for his father to look down at him. 'Did you know that there are many Lords waiting outside your door?'

His father gave a nod.

Carnelian looked at the syblings and saw that they were either blind or wearing eyeless masks. Aurum among them, he signed. Let him wait.

He was angry seeing me here. So, he is always angry. I was rude to him.

His father made a dismissive wave and beckoned Carnelian to follow him through the door. The hall beyond was walled with opals so that as they moved through it, iridescing waves followed them. The floor was a mosaic of different-hued pearls. Feather rugs changed colours like flitting hummingbirds. The furniture was all spired ebony and jade.

As they passed another sybling-guarded door, Carnelian asked, 'Is the Lord Hanus of the Chosen?'

The Lords Hanus. They are two beings, and yes, they are Chosen.'

'But they are syblings.'

The Wise teach that the Chosen are all conceived as twins. The rarity of twin births they put down to fratricidal conflict in the womb. They use this to explain our predatory spirit and even the love yearnings that we sometimes feel for one another.'

These syblings are then the natural offspring of the Chosen?'

'Of the God Emperor, Their sons and Their Lesser Chosen brides.'

'Is that perhaps because the Twin Essence is so hot in imperial blood?'