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As a measure of caution, Rezamaar did not occupy the watchtower with him. Dunstan didn’t like being separated from her, but there was nothing for it. Though, if being separated had meant that he could no longer hear her talk, then he might have liked it very much.

‘Hey, Dunstan,’ she said from wherever she was inside the Keep.

‘What?’

‘I’m bored.’

‘That’s too bad.’ Dunstan occupied his eyes with his binoculars. Nothing moved among the ritzy hotels and empty streets below. It had been a few hours since he last saw a Rainlord. Usually, they sent someone to harass his tower at least once an hour.

Most likely, this was a deliberate tactic meant to make him and his comrades lose concentration with a suddenly longer period of downtime. It wasn’t going to work. Not on Dunstan, anyway. Perhaps the Rainlords would have better luck after his shift was over.

‘Wanna know what I think?’ said Rezamaar.

‘Not really.’

‘I think this whole business of throwing in with the Vanguard has blown up in your stupid little face.’

‘Thank you for that tremendous insight.’

‘Four years, you let them train you. And now they’ve involved us in this crap. I don’t know what’s going through their fat heads, but I don’t think this is the sort of thing you imagined us doing when you told me we should join.’

She wasn’t wrong. Dunstan hadn’t left home to become a pawn in someone else’s war game. He’d left in order to finally do something positive with his life. And to get away from his family. ‘...True, it is difficult to be completely onboard with the abduction of children.’

‘Oh. Yeah. That’s. Whatever. Listen, what I don’t like is having to go up against the goddamnn Redwaters. Or the Merlos. Or the Sebolts. Or just any of the Rainlords, really. These aren’t the type of people we should be fucking around with, regardless of what Lawrence or Miles or any of your other idiot bosses tell you.’

‘They’re your bosses, too, Reza.’

‘Yeah, sure they are.’

Needless to say, she had never quite embraced the ways of the Vanguard like Dunstan had. She could be very convincing with her feigned loyalty when she needed to be, but she certainly didn’t have any reservations about telling Dunstan what she truly thought. Ever since they’d joined, it was like being followed around by some kind of automated complaint dispenser.