It is a vile cesspit of every sort of wickedness.”

There was no sense in denying that. Rik felt a strange nostalgia for the covered courtyards and mazy alleys of his home. At least they were warm. He might still have been there now but he had taken the Queen’s gold crown and gone for a soldier.

Of course, if he had not, after the business with Sabena and the jewels, Antonio and his men would probably have had him hanging from a meat hook and Leon with him. Not even the Old Witch could have saved them, if she had been of a mind to, which she most likely was not. She had gotten strange in the later days, as all human sorcerers were said to eventually.

And Antonio was the most powerful crime boss in the city, rich enough to buy immunity even from the Magistrates. It had probably not been such a good idea to sleep with his mistress, Rik reflected. It had been a worse one to help her steal that magic crystal from Antonio’s strongbox.

“It’s a fun place,” said Weasel, just to be contrary. “I enjoyed our time there.”

“That’s because you fit right in,” said another shadowy figure out in the gloom. Weasel just chuckled as if he could not agree more.

“I knew a Terrarch whore there once…” he continued.

“There’s no such thing,” said one of the chorus.

“There is too, least she looked like one of the Exalted…”

“Means nothing, so does Halfbreed,” said somebody else.

“Maybe it was him in a wig,” said Pigeon.

Weasel chuckled again. “I think I would have noticed and so would your mother, since she was right between us.”

“Weasel’s your daddy, Pigeon,” said somebody and then looked up at the sound of footsteps. The Barbarian approached, bringing the hill-man Vosh. Weasel made a place for him by the fire and offered him some biltong and a swig from his special flask. The stranger took it gratefully. Weasel got right down to business.

“What are you doing here with us, Vosh?”

“It’s bad up here, Weasel,” said the stranger. He had the soft lilting accent of the hills. Rik nodded as his suspicions were confirmed. There was no way the stranger could have known Weasel’s name if they had not met before. The hill-man had been with the Lieutenant and the wizard all day.

“Things are always bad in the hills,” said Weasel.

“It’s been worse since the wizard came.” That quietened them. Nobody liked the thought of a wizard being up there, particularly not if they were going to have to fight against him. Wizards were always bad news.

“Wizard?” said Weasel, and even he looked a little worried.

“Renegade Terrarch. Showed up late last autumn. Whispered something in the Prophet's ear and we all had to obey him without question. He turned the old manor house into a hellhole with his experiments. It was bad enough before he started digging the mine. After that...”

“Sounds bad,” said Weasel softly. No one else dared say anything at all. “Mine? Was there gold there?”

“We never saw any. It’s in a cursed unholy site too, near the ruins of Achenar, the old city of the Spider King.”

“What’s this wizard wanting? Why come to the bloody mountains for the middle of winter?”

“Don’t ask me, but it’s no good he’s been up to. He takes people down into the mine and they don’t come back up. At first it was strangers, but then it was our own — people the wizard said were going to betray us. The Prophet agreed.