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develop your taste for them on Rogate, sir?’
    Anton chokes on his wine.
    The story’s famous. As a captain, trapped on a planet where winter lasts eighteen months, Shadow Luc and his troop survive without rations when their supply line is broken. A surprising number survive. The same isn’t true of civilians in the area. His report mentions a diet of roots dug from the frozen earth.
    No one believes it.
    Eating human flesh is one thing. Being reminded of it is another. At least where the high clans are concerned. And the Wolf heads one of the richest in the empire, shippers of spices and weapons to the planets along this edge of the spiral.
    Also, suppliers of leaders to the imperial senate. And commanders to the Wolf Brigade. Only death can wipe my rudeness clean.
    He glares. I smile. Earth is forgotten.
    Leaning forward, Aptitude asks about his trip over.
    She listens carefully as he replies, and spends the next five minutes asking questions that need answers. It’s like watching a child calm a dangerous animal.
    The snails are replaced by rabbit. When that’s gone, Katie brings goat’s cheese and hard biscuits, which General Luc offers Aptitude, before loading five onto his own plate. Another high plains delicacy, obviously.
    I’m not the only one noticing how much attention he pays her.
    Anton and Debro keep glancing at each other. It’s not a cheerful glance. Since I can’t ask Debro what is wrong while he’s there, I wait until she begins to clear the table and then offer to help. An event so unlikely Aptitude pauses to watch me go.
    ‘Why’s he here?’ I ask, the moment we’re on the stairs.
    ‘Why do you think?’ Her voice is flat.
    ‘Aptitude?’
    ‘It’s complicated,’ she says. ‘I knew Shadow when I was a child.’ Hesitating on the edge of saying more, she decides to say it anyway. ‘My mother adored him. He and my father hunted together. We were engaged for a while.’
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘I broke it off.’
    ‘Why?’
    Debro blushes. ‘His tastes are interesting. Unfortunately, we own adjoining estates, and he’s lieutenant governor of this province, so our meeting occasionally is inevitable.’ She hesitates. ‘Sven, he’s dangerous.’
    ‘I’m not afraid.’
    ‘But I am. And you’re making matters worse.’
    Catching herself, Debro sighs. ‘Look at those eyes,’ she says. ‘It’s like being watched by a rabid dog. He’s a killer.’
    ‘Debro—’
    ‘No,’ she says. ‘You’re not the same.’
    I wonder which one of us she’s trying to reassure. She’s sweet, Debro. But she’s also wrong. The Sven she sees isn’t the one I take into battle.

Chapter 5
    ‘SO,’ SAYS DEBRO. ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK?’ SHE MEANS WHAT DO I think of her roof terrace, with its red tiles and low white wall and its view of a road that twists through the village towards the gates to her compound.
    ‘Good place for a belt-fed.’
    Anton laughs. ‘She’s talking about the view.’
    ‘So am I.’
    It would take two belt-feds. With a mortar behind them.
    That would be enough to hold Wildeside for a while. In the long run, you want a place badly enough you can take it. Might be nothing left to take. That’s not the point. The owners don’t have it either.
    ‘Sven,’ Anton says. ‘Your lips are moving.’
    ‘He’s thinking,’ my gun says.
    Maybe a couple of belt-feds. A mortar. A sniper behind the wall, firing through one of the squat drains that jut beyond the roof. Although God knows when it last rained around here. Some ground-to-airs to take out enemy batwings.
    I know the sniper I’d choose. She’s three days from here. With the rest of my troop. There isn’t a single one of the Death’s Head auxiliaries who wouldn’t die at my order.
    Give me the right battle and I’ll sacrifice the lot. Only, my quarrel with General Jaxx isn’t the right battle. So they’re in Farlight, keeping their heads down. And I’m out here on the high plains.
    My attempt to keep them