I said, ‘Blood doesn’t matter any more.’

‘It matters. It matters to me. Oh, I know what you’re thinking. That I’m some sort of relic of the seventh century. Well, let me tell you, it was the golden age of Awia-hic!-(excuse me). The genealogies of every other family twisted and turned and snuffed out. But Micawater comes straight down through the centuries: me. And now Cyan. She is the heir to Esmerillion’s crown. And she’s also my daughter and I love her and I want to see her safe.’

‘The old money of the country even then,’ Eleonora murmured.

I said, ‘All this past is just like a millstone around your neck. Can’t you forget about it for once?’

Lightning said, ‘That would be forgetting history.’

‘I do forget history.’

‘You would. You’re a Rhydanne. But the history of my family is the history of my country, and even if Insects take our land they won’t take what we are.’

‘Hear, hear!’ said Eleonora.

Lightning nodded, warming to his subject. ‘When in four-fifteen the Insects first appeared in Awia, the chaos they caused led to the collapse of the governments in every country. The Insects extended their Paperlands and Awian families began moving south to escape them. Everyone knows that account, but my ancestors were among them. Our records don’t stretch back that far; we were not notable then. We were unplanned settlers but we had courage and intelligence. We settled Pentadrican land. They were in anarchy and grateful for the order we brought. We also brought the knowledge of how to fight Insects. We lived in harmony with the Pentradricans who remained. Soon King Murrelet made a decision to shift the boundaries of Awia south. All the land from the rivers Moren to Rachis was Pentadrican land back then. If you know what you’re looking for, Eleonora, you can still see vestiges of the Pentadrica today-the Dace River, that was one of their fish names, like the Trisians still use. Awia stretched from the Rachis river to the north coast of the continent, all under paper now.

‘My family staked a claim on bountiful land in Mica River valley. We founded the manor and took the river’s name for our family name. Then gold was discovered in Gilt River, my family started to mine it and we flourished. We married into the Sheldrake family and gained all the land south of the river mouth. Our rise in influence seemed unstoppable.’

‘Look,’ I said. ‘We know all this.’

Eleonora said, ‘Shut up, Jant. He’s talking to me’

She gave Lightning an encouraging nod and he continued, unfortunately: ‘The Murrelets held the throne for centuries. They had claimed the Rachis Valley, but they died out in five four nine and we inherited the throne. Queen Esmerillion was the first of our dynasty-her charm was legendary. She moved the capital from Murrelet to Micawater town. She built the palace, away from the best land, obviously, but she gave it the best vista.

‘Ninety years passed. Then my grandfather, King Gadwall, married Minivet Donaise and we gained her manor-the whole of the Donaise hills were added to Micawater. Gadwall and Minivet had two daughters, the firstborn being Teale. Teale Micawater married a warrior called Garganey Planisher and, though their children-my siblings and me-numbered nine, we were the last generation…until Cyan was born.’ Lightning sighed and folded his arms.

I drained my glass noisily and declared, ‘God, I needed that.’

‘I understand, even if Jant doesn’t,’ said Eleonora. ‘We live forever through our descendants.’

‘I prefer to live forever through being the fastest messenger in the world,’ I said. ‘Lightning, do you want some more wine?’

‘Thank you. But, you know, I was only fourth in line for the throne and I was never expected to inherit so I was not brought up knowing how to run the manor as were my brothers Peregrine, Gyr and Shryke. I made many mistakes in the first few years.

‘Peregrine knew he was dying of cancer. He speculated that I would live longer than a whole mortal dynasty so he placed the manor in my hands, but Gyr should have inherited. Gyr was the last of my brothers left alive but he was the black sheep of the family; he had been embittered by the death of his sister decades before. We quarrelled…I handled it badly. You see, the Castle had made me a soldier not a statesman. I beat him around the Great Hall and I threw him out. Every harsh word is still burnt into me.

‘That was in the year six eighty-seven and it was the end of our dynasty. Gyr wanted to put some distance between us, so he married bloody Korhaan Allerion. He wanted to change his name but the process was the same then as now; the name of the wealthier parents’ family was passed on to the children. The Allerions could never be wealthier than the Micawaters, so Gyr changed his name completely. He called his dynasty after the river that flowed through the lands he carved off from my manor. His lack of originality was the final insult.

‘Eventually the Avernwaters yielded the throne to the Piculets and I knew there was not a drop of my family’s blood left in the world, apart from me…’ His forehead creased, then he shrugged and sipped claret.

‘I try to trace my line as far as the Rachiswaters, but I am only fooling myself,’ he added. ‘So, when I say the seventh century was our golden age, I mean it. I have managed to keep my manor preserved at the peak of my dynasty’s expansion and achievement. We brought stability to our manor, then the whole of Awia, and we stopped the Insects coming further southward. I have always thought that’s the reason why San let me keep the land when I became Eszai. It also meant that Awia couldn’t expand its borders any further into the Plainslands. Adventurous dynasties like the Tanagers beat north against the Insects instead, and the Rachiswaters pushed west.’

Frost had been talking to Gayle on her other side, but she caught a fragment of our conversation and smiled. ‘No one can better Lightning on the ebb and flow of featherback dynasties. He remembers them all.’

Lightning raised a finger shrewdly and drunkenly. ‘I knowed…I mean…I knew them all.’

‘We realise. Why don’t you have some of this?’ I said, offering him a slice of fudge cake which would be well-nigh impossible to talk through.

Lightning refused it for the chance to show Eleonora his knowledge. ‘Our court was in power from five forty-nine until six eighty-seven. My mother held the throne at the time of the Games. The Avernwaters followed, from six eighty-seven to the year one thousand; they held out a long time but their town is now only a Tanager muster. The Piculets rose in power, from the year one thousand until ten eighty-one. Then the Pardalotes were very successful, ten eighty-one to thirteen twenty-six, when Insects killed the last. The Piculets returned from thirteen twenty-six to thirteen ninety-eight. I liked them, but I didn’t think much of the Fulvetta dynasty (thirteen ninety-eight to fifteen sixteen), very debauched in the fifteenth century. The exhilarating times of new Awia had long gone. They used to tell me, “Be decadent while you still can. The Insects will destroy us too.” Well, the last one, Lanare Fulvetta, poisoned her family and was imprisoned for patricide. Then rose the Scoters (fifteen sixteen to fifteen thirty-six) until a flu epidemic put an end to them and tens of thousands more. They were followed by an interregnum and I was champing at the bit then, let me tell you. The Falconets were merchant arrivistes-with sporadic insanity-who filled the vacuum from fifteen thirty-eight to sixteen forty-one. I had to sit through that; they were all quite mad. There was a schism in the family and poor Petronia Falconet went to Hacilith, but his son did well as the first Aver-Falconet. Then the Tanagers appeared, a famous warrior family-’ He smiled at Eleonora ‘-and succeeded to the throne. They restored some of the wonderful original vigour from sixteen fifteen until eighteen twelve…’