‘What are you saying? No! You can’t think like that. Fine – I grant you, this is a place with much good to teach, much we might carry back with us. But don’t ask me to give up my homeland. I gave Ringast my word.’

‘Lilla.’ He turned her chin to him and looked deep into the swirling dark of her eyes. ‘Is it your word you think of – or your revenge?’

She pushed away his hand. ‘You care nothing for either.’

‘My love –’ he shook his head and spoke softly – ‘vengeance is a dangerous dream. It repays the best of you with nothing but ashes and dust. Believe me, I know.’

‘I don’t dream of vengeance. I dream of justice. Even if it can only be found in the winds of war.’

‘You once told me wars were the petty grievances of petty men. Release war and you release chaos. You don’t know where it will lead. Or what else you will lose.’

‘I know I’ve lost everything already.’ She gazed up into his eyes. ‘Everything except you. I won you back.’

‘Aye. You did.’ He expelled a gentle sigh. ‘Listen to me, Lilla – I only want to protect you. You’re too precious to lose a second time.’ He pulled her closer to him, his hand slipping down her spine and over the smooth fullness of her hip. But she wouldn’t let it go.

‘When the siege is lifted,’ she murmured into his chest, ‘then we’ll take all we can from here.’

‘All?’ He scoffed. ‘You mean that devil’s fire.’

‘I mean anything that will serve us.’

‘And if the siege can’t be lifted—’

‘Make it so. And soon.’

‘What?’ He let out a bark of laughter. ‘What the Hel can I do?’

‘Whatever you can to bring the siege to an end. To break it. We need to leave this place, my love. It isn’t where we belong.’ When he didn’t answer, she pulled away from him and flung her thigh astride him, pinning his shoulders to the bed. ‘Promise me you’ll do all you can.’

‘Haven’t I made you enough promises?’ he murmured.

‘Promise me,’ she smiled, her voice a soft burr. She leaned back, her body arching above him, the half-lit orbs of her breasts shining like bronze in the firelight.

‘You know I’ll do anything for you,’ he said, his throat dry with desire. She leaned down and kissed him. He let her, savouring the soft press of her lips, inhaling her downy scent and the swirls of air escaping her nostrils, while the tip of her tongue flickered against his. And all the while burying the disquiet in his heart.

The gloom hid his frown. Because he was no closer to solving the riddle that had carried him into this cauldron of war. And he knew he could not leave it until he had.

Until he was free.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT