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shook his head. ‘I can’t be certain because I don’t know enough about it,’ he replied, ‘but I have an idea that what I did at the very least contributed to the fall of the City. It certainly caused an awful lot of trouble, and also made me very ill. I don’t think I want to get involved in anything like that, even if it means not learning what you know about magic. After all,’ he added, with a slight shrug that his aunt-by-marriage would have approved of, ‘it isn’t actually what I’m interested in.’
    ‘Very well,’ Niessa said. ‘Now let me tell you a little bit about my family. As you know, when we were younger and still living in the Mesoge, my brother Gorgas set me up to be raped by two rich young men from the City, and then murdered my father and my husband and tried to kill me and our brother Bardas, in an attempt to cover up what he’d done. When he got away, my brothers all blamed me for what happened - and yes, I’d been making eyes at the two City boys, hoping they’d take me with them to Perimadeia. Gorgas killed them too, which means he killed the father of my daughter. In spite of that,’ she went on, with a little shake of her head, ‘Gorgas and I are quite good friends; at least, we’re all the family each of us has got, since Bardas and Clefas and Zonaras all refuse to have anything to do with us.
    ‘Now Gorgas really believes in family; I’m not so bothered, I can take it or leave it alone. I’ve had to lock my daughter up in the guard house, because she’s not right in the head and keeps making threats and saying all sorts of dreadful things. Gorgas thinks I’m horrible for doing that, but since most of the threats are against Bardas - he dotes on Bardas, always has - he agrees it’s the right thing to do. But you see, Gorgas and I are business people; we know when to cut our losses, when to put the past behind us, we knew that together we could make a future for ourselves, and we did.’
    Niessa paused for a moment, letting Alexius digest what she’d told him. ‘I suppose you could say that above all else, we’re single-minded, and practical. We’re practical about life and death, love and hate, right and wrong; and we’re practical about this thing you call lots of long, difficult words and we call magic. And that’s the sort of people we are. And if you think you have any choice about whether or not you help us,’ she added, with a slight smile, ‘then all I can say is, for an old man you’re pretty naïve.’
    Alexius nodded. ‘You want me to kill someone,’ he said. ‘Lots of people, because one man wouldn’t need magic.’
    ‘Oh, no,’ Niessa said. ‘Again, you haven’t been listening. Now this time, listen and use your brain. We don’t want anybody killed; quite the reverse. You were the one who wanted to kill Bardas, remember, and we stopped you. And now,’ she went on pleasantly, ‘we want you to make Bardas love us again. It’s for Gorgas’ sake more than mine, really, but it’d please me too. It’s time we were a family again, what’s left of us. And besides,’ she added, ‘we could use him in the business. You’re his friend; don’t you want to see him reconciled with his nearest and dearest?’
    Alexius smoothed his beard with the palm of his hand. ‘I see,’ he said. ‘You want to give your brother your other brother as a birthday present?’
    Niessa smiled. ‘Why not?’ she said. ‘After all, it’s something he wants.’
     
    The boy looked up. His face was glowing in the light of the fire.
    ‘Why do we have to do this at this time of year, when it’s cold and dark?’ he said. ‘We could have finished in a single day back in the summer.’
    Loredan didn’t turn his head; he was staring into the fire.
    ‘It’s better to cut the staves when the sap’s down,’ he said. ‘That way, they’re easier to season. When I was your age, we’d wait till the snow was a foot thick on the ground before we’d even think of