"But King Sol didn't only burn the dead." Snapper went on. "He introduced it as a method of execution. Burned people alive – hideous. Considered it a sacrifice to his sun god. Not overly concerned with due process either: burning an innocent pleased his god as much as burning a criminal."

"How do the dice come into this?" Ward said.

"Well he loved gambling," Snapper said. "The higher the stakes the better. He'd often decide the accused's fate on the flip of a coin. Heads they went free, tails they burned."

"We learned about him in history class at school," Carmen said. "I thought they were making it up."

"It's true that we exaggerate the cruelties of the monarchy," Snapper said. "Makes the State and the Brotherhood seem benevolent in comparison, doesn't it? But the Black King truly was a monster."

"Wasn't his son King Nod?" Carmen said.

Snapper shook his head. "Sol had no children. Nod was his nephew. Funnily enough, Nod turned out to be the best of the lot – wise beyond words. Just goes to show, doesn't it? Blood isn't everything. Why, even in my own family we had the odd black sheep. Nobody who set themselves on fire, certainly, but some oddities for sure."

Ward was not to be distracted. "What did his dice look like?"

Snapper shrugged. "The sources don't describe them. Only mention them in passing."

"What would have happened to them? After he died?"

"No, it's my turn to ask a question. Why are you so interested in them, my young friend?"

Here comes the lie, Carmen thought.

Ward didn't miss a beat. "The Brotherhood were asking me about them. Down in – when they had me. They want them for some reason. And I want to know why."

"Then you're a fool," Snapper said. "Have you not learned to stay out of the Brotherhood's business?"

"I work for Saint Nick. The Brotherhood's business is his business. That makes it mine too."

Carmen had time to marvel at how good a liar Ward had become. Even Mildew seemed taken in by it.

"What would've happened to the dice?" Ward asked again.

Snapper threw his hands in the air. "You young people will insist on getting me in trouble. Very well. They'd have gone into the Royal Treasury along with all his other possessions, to be inherited by his heir upon his coronation."

"So King Nod ending up owning them?"

"King Nod wouldn't have cared for them. Loathed gambling. They probably stayed right where they were, in the Treasury. Nod's great-grandson, sickly King Puul, was the last Oruvian monarch. Within weeks of him coming to the throne the Kingdom was torn apart by the Revolution. The Revolutionaries looted the Royal Palace of course. The gold would have been melted down. Other items of value would have been sold, or kept by the Revolutionaries. The dice, being of no obvious value, would probably have remained in the Treasury. This is all supposition of course. They may never have gone to the Treasury at all. They may have burned with King Sol."

Carmen suddenly remembered something. The dice did look like they had been burned. She glanced over at Ward, but his attention was focused on Snapper.

"Has this got something to do with the Adamantine Door?" Slops said.

"Yes," Snapper said. "Legend tells that the Royal Treasury was sealed by a door of adamantine, a substance of impenetrable hardness, perhaps mythical. For all we know the door might be too."

Carmen had heard of the Adamantine Door. It was referred to proverbially, mainly by old people. Her Grandmere had once described Brother Tamerlane's heart as being "as hard as the Adamantine Door". But she had not known the origin of the saying until now.

"There's a Treasury under Parliament," Carmen said.

"Different place," Snapper said. "That one was built later. The Old Treasury was under the Royal Palace. Which was razed to the ground during the revolution. We don't even know where it was located."

"So," Carmen said slowly, "if you knew where the Palace stood, you could find the Treasury."

"If." Snapper grunted and turned back to the river. "It's funny you should ask about the Treasury though," he said to the river.

"Why?" Carmen said.

"Because after the Revolution it became known by another name. The Arcane Vault."

If you enjoyed this arcane chapter vault on up and press the star icon.