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.Page 103 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlGlokta wiped some wet from under his eye.'I see.Then I suppose I mustconsider his offer.We will reconvene when our Gurkish friend returns.Atsunset.' He rocked his body back and winced as he pushed himself up.'You'll consider it?' hissed Vitari in his ear as he limped down the hall awayfrom the audience chamber.'You'll fucking consider it?''That's right,' snapped Glokta.'I make the decisions here.''Or you let those worms make them for you!''We've each got our jobs.I don't tell you how to write your little reports tothe Arch Lector.How I manage those worms is none of your concern.''None of my concern?' Vitari snatched hold of Glokta's arm and he tottered onhis weak leg.She was stronger than she looked, a lot stronger.'I told Sultyou could handle things!' she snarled in his face.'If we lose the city,without so much as a fight even, it's both our heads! And my head is myconcern, cripple!''This is no time to panic,' growled Glokta.'I don't want to end up floatingin the docks any more than you do, but this is a delicate balance.Let themthink they might get their way, then no one will make any rash moves.Notuntil I'm good and ready.Understand me when I say, Practical, that this willbe the first and the last time that I explain myself to you.Now take yourfucking hand off me.'Her hand did not let go, rather the fingers tightened, cutting into Glokta'sarm as hard as a vice.Her eyes narrowed, furious lines cut into her freckledface at their corners.Might I have misjudged her? Might she be about to cutmy throat? He almost grinned at the thought.But Severard chose that moment tostep out of the shadows further down the dim hall.'Look at the two of you,' he murmured as he padded towards them.'It alwaysamazes me, how love blooms in the least likely places, and between the leastlikely people.A rose, forcing its way through the stony ground.' He pressedhis hands to his chest.'It warms my heart.''Have we got him?''Of course.Soon as he stepped out of the audience chamber.'Vitari's hand had gone limp, and Glokta brushed it off and began to shuffletowards the cells.'Why don't you come with us?' he called over his shoulder,having to stop himself rubbing the bruised flesh on his arm.'You can put thisin your next report to Sult.'Shabbed al Islik Burai looked considerably less majestic sitting down.Particularly in a scarred, stained chair in one of the close and sweaty cellsbeneath the Citadel.'Now isn't this better, to speak on level terms? Quite disconcerting, havingyou looming over me like that.' Islik sneered and looked away, as thoughtalking to Glokta were a task far beneath him.A rich man, harassed by beggarsin the street, but we'll soon cure him of that illusion.'We know we have a traitor within our walls.Within the ruling council itself.Most likely one of those three worthies to whom you were just now giving yourlittle ultimatum.You will tell me who.' No response.'I am merciful,'exclaimed Glokta, waving his hand airily, as the ambassador himself had donebut a few short minutes before, 'but my mercy has limits.Speak.''I am here under a flag of parley, on a mission from the Emperor himself! Toharm an unarmed emissary would be expressly against the rules of war!''Parley? Rules of war?' Glokta chuckled.Severard chuckled.Vitari chuckled.Frost was silent.'Do they even have those any more? Save that rubbish forchildren like Vissbruck, that's not the way grown-ups play the game.Who isthe traitor?''I pity you, cripple! When the city falls 'Save your pity.You'll need it for yourself.Frost's fist scarcely made anysound as it sank into the ambassador's stomach.His eyes bulged out, his mouthhung open, he coughed a dry cough, somewhere close to vomiting, tried tobreathe and coughed again.'Strange, isn't it,' mused Glokta as he watched him struggle for air.'BigPage 104 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlmen, small men, thin men, fat men, clever men, stupid men, they all respondthe same to a fist in the guts.One minute you think you're the most powerfulman in the world.The next you can't even breathe by yourself.Some kinds ofpower are nothing but tricks of the mind.Your people taught me that, belowyour Emperor's palace.There were no rules of war there, I can tell you.Youknow all about certain engagements, and certain bridges, and certain youngofficers, so you know that I've been just where you are now.There is onedifference, however.I was helpless, but you can stop this unpleasantness atany time.You need only tell me who the traitor is, and you will be spared.'Islik had got his breath back now.Though a good deal of his arrogance isgone, one suspects for good.'I know nothing of any traitor!''Really? Your master the Emperor sends you here to negotiate without all thefacts? Unlikely.But if it's true, you really aren't any use to me at all, areyou?'Islik swallowed.'I know nothing of any traitor.''We'll see.'Frost's big white fist clubbed him in the face.It would have thrown himsideways if the albino's other fist hadn't caught his head before it fell,smashed his nose and knocked him clean over the back of the chair.Frost andSeverard dragged him up between them, righted the chair and dumped him gaspinginto it.Vitari looked on, arms folded.'All very painful,' said Glokta, 'but pain can be put to one side, if oneknows that it will not last long.If it cannot last, say, past sunset.Totruly break a man quickly, you have to threaten to deprive him of something.To hurt him in a way that will never heal.I should know.''Gah!' squawked the ambassador, thrashing in his chair.Severard wiped hisknife on the shoulder of the man's white robe, then tossed his ear onto thetable.It lay there, on the wood: a forlorn and bloody half-circle of flesh.Glokta stared at it.In a baking cell just like this, over the course of longmonths, the Emperors servants turned me into this revolting, twisted mockeryof a man.One might have hoped that the chance at doing the same to one ofthem, the chance at cutting out vengeance, pound for pound, would provide somedull flicker of pleasure.And yet he felt nothing.Nothing but my own pain.Hewinced as he stretched his leg out and felt the knee click, hissed air throughhis empty gums.So why do I do this?Glokta sighed.'Next will come a toe.Then a finger, an eye, a hand, yournose, and so on, do you see? It'll be at least an hour before you're missed,and we are quick workers.' Glokta nodded at the severed ear.'We could have apile of your flesh a foot high by that time.I'll carve you until you'renothing but a tongue and a bag of guts, if that's what it takes, but I'll knowwho the traitor is, that I promise you.Well? Do you know anything yet?'The ambassador stared at him, breathing hard, dark blood running from hismagnificent nose, down his chin, dripping from the side of his head.Speechless with shock, or thinking on his next move? It hardly matters.'Igrow bored.Start on his hands, Frost.' The albino seized hold of his wrist.'Wait!' wailed the ambassador, 'God help me, wait! It was Vurms.Korsten danVurms, the governor's own son!'Vurms.Almost too obvious.But then again, the most obvious answers areusually the right ones.That little bastard would sell his own father if heonly thought that he could find a buyer'And the woman, Eider!'Glokta frowned
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