The Skull Throne. Peter Brett V.

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      Both stayed on their knees. When Shanjat hesitated, Shanvah spoke in his place. ‘It was not the Par’chin who captured us, Deliverer.’

      Most fathers would have been enraged at the face lost having their daughter speak for them before the Deliverer, but Shanjat only looked at her with gratitude, and a pride Jardir had not seen him show either of his sons.

      ‘Was me,’ the Par’chin’s jiwah said. Jardir turned a sceptical eye on her. He knew the woman was formidable, but Shanjat and his daughter were kai’Sharum, Krasian warrior elite.

      Shanvah raised her eyes to give the Par’chin’s jiwah an appraising look. ‘Her sharusahk is pathetic, Deliverer. A child could defeat her. But her magic is strong. Even with our night strength, she was beyond us. Our shields and spears lay broken.’

      The words sent anguish through Shanvah’s aura. Jardir Drew through her as the Par’chin had taught him, seeing a vision around her. Inevera commanding Shanvah to seek the missing Deliverer. Her first assignment, one of such immense honour she could barely contain her pride. A chance to show the Deliverer and Damajah her worth.

      And she had failed. Utterly.

      Another vision arose, her defeat at the hands of the Par’chin’s jiwah.

      ‘The Par’chin brought me down in the same way, niece,’ he said. ‘You have been trained well, but you would be unwise to challenge his Jiwah Ka …’—he met Renna’s eyes—‘… in the night. In day, she will be more vulnerable to sharusahk, and no match for you.’

      The Par’chin’s jiwah glared at him. Jardir felt the weight of auras shift as face in the room was restored to balance. Shanvah looked at Renna in a new way. A predator’s appraisal.

      Jardir waved for his warriors to rise and turned angrily to face the Par’chin. ‘If my brother-in-law and niece have been mistreated …’