Lightning shook his head. ‘No, blood of mine. Not yet.’

‘You try to stop me doing everything!’

‘It is for your own good.’

‘You want me to stay inside playing instruments!’

‘No-I’m glad you want to fight. At last you’ve given me a clear clue as to what you want to do with your life. But you need experience before I give you command. We can’t waste Zascai lives. You have no idea what to do, you don’t even know the manoeuvre codes. You don’t appreciate how terrible the confusion can be in the battle’s heat.’

‘Tell me and I’ll remember.’

‘You have no practice yet, my dear. If something changed or went wrong you wouldn’t know how to improvise.’

‘Of course I do. When you visit Awndyn, your work-battles and hunts-is all you talk about!’

‘Have you ever seen an Insect close to?’

‘Not closer than the ones we’ve just been watching.’

‘And you want to lead men into battle? Everyone would be killed beside you! Our name would be reviled. When the push starts you must not leave town, do you hear me? Continue to learn archery and in a few short years you may lead your fyrd.’

Cyan spat, ‘Archery! I’m sick of people foisting their obsessions on me. Every time you visited me all I had was hours of shooting lessons. You just assume I’m interested. Well, I’m not and I didn’t want to take part in your tournaments-or Swallow’s music. But this suits me-’ she waved at the mounted soldiers ‘-I like this on my own terms, not just to please you. Why should I do archery or music when I’m not interested? I need to find something of my own. Something that’s really me.’

Lightning sighed. ‘You are proficient with the bow, and at riding, but you can’t jump straight in.’

The soldiers were staring at Cyan now and she was heat-hazed with embarrassment, but even more determined to make her point. ‘You don’t know me at all. Even the presents you bring are the same as when I was a little girl. I liked them then, OK, but I’m grown up now. I’m not a kid! You won’t let me fly.’

‘What? Only Jant and Insects can fly.’

‘I mean metaphorically! I want to be at the centre of things!’

Lightning nodded. ‘That is your noble blood showing. Very well, but you must learn poise.’

‘Must learn poise,’ Cyan repeated, making fun of his deep voice. ‘Typical. What about you, with that thing you keep doing with your hand?’

Lightning looked down and seemed surprised. His right hand was closed and he had been touching the scar across his palm. He snorted disparagingly, then pulled his gloves from under his belt and wiggled his fingers into them. He said, ‘We might be redundant soon. I have more important things to think about.’

Cyan persisted: ‘What is it with your hand?’

‘A scar from my wedding.’

‘Savory? All the poise in the world didn’t save her.’

‘Ah!’ Lightning looked at Cyan sharply. ‘You have no right! You know nothing of what happened!’

‘Well, tell me.’

Lightning took a breath as if he was about to speak, but hesitated and drew into himself. ‘Whenever I smell pine I remember her,’ he said quietly.

I spoke up. ‘Cyan’s half-sister has filled her head with all kinds of lies.’

‘I can speak to my sisters if I want.’

‘Your half-sisters are envious,’ Lightning said dismissively. ‘They do not have your prospects and they must come to terms with Ata’s unpopularity.’

Cyan and Lightning, like a peregrine and its prey, were trying to gain height on the other in the flight of the argument and it was an unsettling spectacle. I told him, ‘Cyan’s little more than a squab, but I can find her some work. Otherwise she’ll just wander around insulting Eszai. If she was my daughter I’d find her something to do.’

He shook his head with a stony expression. ‘Jant, if by some freak of nature you had a daughter, you would want to keep her safe. You saw what happened to Swallow. I’ve seen her lamed in battle-and Cyan’s mother herself slain. The same will not happen to her.’

Cyan raised her three middle fingers at the troops watching her. She did remind me of her mother, who was more of a rebel than I could ever be, because she had been capable of seeing the whole system and knew how to put her immortality to use. I ameliorate myself to the system, with drugs, because I can only see my own small part, as a Rhydanne does who’s used to hunting alone.

Yells broke our sullen silence. Pangare raised her head, ears forward. Riders were galloping up the line, passing by the queue and racing towards us at a mad speed. They were at one with their wild skewbald mounts. Their tack and clothes blazed with colour; their flowing black scarves and loose cotton trousers rippled. Red and green pompoms bounced on the bridles, the thick woollen tassels strung along their reins and the fringes over the horses’ foreheads.

‘Here’s something different,’ said Lightning, and twisted around to shout at Cyan. ‘Look! The Ghallain gauchos!’

They sped past us and barged into Shivel’s column at the gate. Annoyed shouts drifted back. More gauchos charged past. Their saddles were low and minimal, with gaudy numnah rugs underneath, and hoppers full of feathered javelins hanging on both sides. They had gathered transparent Insect wings and lashed them to their cruppers. They had tied on Insect heads by the antennae; and dragged the rest of the carcass behind them on lariats.

A man with a wide scarf around his face rode at their fore, his white trousers tucked into leather chaps. He pulled his horse round so tightly it reared. It pranced up to us sideways, spitting foam. It was so high-spirited it looked like it was about to fly.

‘Vir Ghallain!’ I shouted.

‘Salutations, Comet. Lightning, long time no see.’

‘Good to see you,’ Lightning managed in Plainslands.

‘And I you! And I you! Here are my cavalry, owing to San. Do with them what you will. If you can!’

I said, ‘What about your infantry? Where are your draftees? They must be weeks behind!’

Governor Vir pulled his scarf fully down from his mouth and said in a singsong accent, ‘They are! My steward, he leads them! Has Brandoch arrived yet?’

‘Not by a long way,’ I said.

Vir turned to an excitable man in a loose headscarf who turfed his horse to a halt beside us. ‘Ull, you see, we beat Brandoch. That’s fifty pounds you owe me.’ He pointed back up the queue. ‘San is here. For San to be here this must be the motherfucker of all battles, we said.’ He jigged up and down in his worn saddle. ‘We can’t miss it. Let’s see which of us lives!’

‘You’re a nutter, Vir Ghallain,’ I said.

‘Nutter enough to Challenge you one day! And put some clothes on. Hey! Hey!’ This last to his horse, which bounded forward and he had his back to me before I could take my next breath. Yet more hurtled up the line, churning the muddy ground either side of the road.

‘Incredible,’ said Cyan.

‘Ranchers,’ I said.

‘There are thousands.’

‘Hundreds. He isn’t a lord governor,’ said Lightning.

I said, ‘If you ask me, they’re all little kings within the bounds of their manors. They-’

‘Hush, Jant! Look!’

On the road, Shivel’s green livery was thinning out, and behind them, all was scarlet.

‘By god, the Emperor. In armour.’

‘I can scarcely believe it.’

The last few lines of Shivel men kept glancing back. They saw the Emperor mounted on black Alezane, with the banners licking the air above him like forked tongues. Shivel men slowed down, walked their horses off the road and stood watching.

As they parted, the Imperial Fyrd rode through, and more of Shivel’s infantry gave way before them. I glanced at Lightning; he nodded, and we urged our horses through the crowd.

The Emperor saw us and reined his horse in. Tornado, a step behind him on his right, the standard bearers, and the whole Imperial Fyrd slowed to a halt.