For Lyrus, being as quick as they came, it had been easy enough to secure himself a position within the palace. Always so eager to put in extra hours, always diligent, always careful beyond even the exacting Ant-kinden standards. The overseers placed real value on him, until gradually he had the run of the place. He had even attended the Queen herself before. Really, for someone with a devious brain, and the Ant-kinden Art to link minds, it was easy to achieve anything in this city.

And, of course, he would not be alone. His masters were sending two men to assist him. Not Wasps, for no Wasp could walk the streets of Sarn undetected, but a pair of Fly-kinden killers. Lyrus knew not to rely on them. They would be merely a distraction for the guards. Here, in his own hands, was the machinery for the alliance’s destruction.

He was aware that he was not expected to survive but perhaps he could surprise his masters in that. If the business was swift enough, he might be the only witness whose story would be believed.

‘How many soldiers do you have, back in Collegium?’ Stenwold asked.

‘Twelve-hundred and seventy-four.’ Parops did not need to waste a moment thinking about it. Following the Vekken siege of Collegium, word about a renegade Tarkesh army had passed across the Lowlands and, one-by-one and squad-by-squad, Tarkesh citizens had started to come out of the woodwork. Some had managed to flee after the death of the King, as the Wasps were finalizing their hold on the city. Others had been garrisoning villages or dispatched on other assignments beyond the city walls, and therefore had not been back in time to help defend their home. A few had even been Collegium residents or students at the Great College. Parops had thus become, without ever intending it, a rallying point. Some of his men were already, in their idle mental talk, promoting him to the rank of tactician.

Twelve-hundred and seventy-four disciplined and motivated Tarkesh infantry, Stenwold considered. Of course, it would probably be more than that by now. That figure was the one that had come to Parops by the latest train from Collegium, therefore already a few days cold. It was an expensive proposition for Collegium to retain so many, but the Tarkesh were second to none as soldiers and Stenwold’s people were only now starting to levy a real army of their own. The Beetle-kinden’s numbers and equipment would be there, by spring, but not the discipline or the skill.

‘Tell me,’ he said, thoughtfully, ‘will they be prepared to fight for Sarn?’

‘Well, there’s a question,’ Parops admitted. ‘And if you’d asked me whether they would fight against Sarn I’d give a quicker answer. But defending a foreign city-state…’

‘Against the Wasps? Against the people who conquered Tark?’ Stenwold pointed out.

Parops threw him an annoyed look. ‘Don’t patronize me, Master Maker. Don’t try to lead me by the nose. I know that in Collegium it’s all peace and harmony and living alongside your fellow men, but remember we are Ant-kinden. We have us and we have them, and the Sarnesh have been them longer than the Wasps have. Would your Mantis friend stand up to defend a Spider city?’

‘Yes,’ said Stenwold, surprising himself with the thought. ‘Yes, I think he would if I asked him. I’d never hear the end of it, though, and he would do it only because he sets our friendship so ruinously high. You, however, are not so bound to me, and you have your own people as your first responsibility. So if your answer is no, I will understand.’

‘My answer is that I would have to ask. We are not so very rigid as you foreigners think: it is simply that all you see is the order and the obedience. The debate between us is invisible to you. I will ask my soldiers, if you wish. So, it will come to that, will it?’

‘Sarn is the front line now,’ Stenwold confirmed. ‘Wherever else the war may come, it will come here first.’

‘And if Sarn falls… then Collegium, the Ancient League, Vek… all the way to the western coast,’ Parops agreed. ‘Hence why we’re here, and hence what you’re trying to accomplish. I understand, Master Maker, and I can promise only that I will put all this to my officers, and they will put it to their men.’

Sperra and Arianna came back just then, looking weary. They had spent most of the morning out and about in the city, Sperra waiting on the Royal Court, and Arianna gathering rumours.

‘They told me that the Queen will desire another audience,’ the Fly told Stenwold. ‘She says for you to bring the snapbow.’

Stenwold sagged. He had been standing up to talk with Parops, because that was part of the Collegiate debating style. Now he slumped into a chair. ‘I think we’re where the metal meets,’ he said.

‘I think you’re right,’ Sperra said. ‘They weren’t very polite about it either. I think they’re running out of patience with all this talk.’

‘They’re not the only ones,’ said Stenwold, but it sounded hollow. He would rather have spun it all out even further, in the hope that something would happen to rescue him from this stand-off. ‘She’s going to want to go into the next council with a snapbow in her hands, and to tell everyone that Sarn now have it, as a deal done. At that point we’ll instantly lose from half to all of our alliance.’

Parops shrugged. ‘If I were in her position, I would do the same. It is a tool she needs to defend her city-state, to counter her enemies.’

‘And after the war it will become a tool with which to attack her enemies in the Lowlands – or that is what they’re all thinking,’ Stenwold said. ‘Everyone thinks that you can just stop history…’ He looked at his hands miserably. ‘The fact is that, win or lose, the cursed thing is here. He built it, and it’s here, and the world is different for it. Worse for it, too, I’ll freely admit, but once a few have gone astray, once the Wasps lose a battle or if a thief makes off with one, then it won’t be long before everyone has engineered their own.’

‘Everyone Apt,’ Arianna pointed out. ‘Some of us wouldn’t know where to start.’

‘I thought your kin employed… people to do that sort of thing for you?’ Parops said.

‘But the Moth-kinden? And the Mantids? They’ve been trying to hold back time for five hundred years,’ she said. ‘You can imagine what they think of this.’

‘Is that what they’re saying out in the Foreigners’ Quarter?’ Stenwold asked her.

‘They’re saying all manner of things, Stenwold, but it’s a pattern I recognize. They’re saying that the Vekken are going to attack here simultaneously when the Wasps do, and that Sarn should finish Vek off for good. They’re saying that the Assembly of Collegium will fold if the Empire comes against it, and will then make a deal to betray Sarn. They’re saying that the Ancient League will try to bring back the bad old days, and then make everyone slaves of the Moths.’

‘Nothing unexpected then.’

‘It’s exactly the sort of thing we were spreading, back when…’

She did not finish the sentence, but he understood. Perhaps Parops did not know that she had been Rekef originally, but he was the only one in the room that did not.

‘So you think the Wasps are active here.’

‘It would be surprising if they weren’t,’ she said. ‘They’re no fools, after all. They’ll want to use our age-old enmities to break up this alliance, and they’ve got a lot of raw material to use. Half of the ambassadors are only here to keep eyes on their old enemies.’

‘I won’t believe that,’ Stenwold said, with more force than hope. ‘I can’t believe that. This must work. We have no other option. Everyone is thinking about what might happen after the war is won, but without an alliance we won’t win the war! How can they not see that?’

‘Because they’re Lowlanders,’ said Arianna. She went to stand behind Stenwold, putting her hands on his shoulders and kneading the tension there. ‘I hate to say it, Sten, but you Lowlanders all look out on the world with one eye closed. Even you, Sten. You look a little further, but it’s still mostly inwards. In the Spiderlands we look in all directions, see all possibilities. Our brand of politics teaches us that. Even the Empire looks outwards: it’s young, aggressive, pushing at the borders all the time. That’s why it’s here.’