Sig grabbed his shoulder with her iron grip and scowled a warning at him.

She strode past him and Keld, following the tunnel as it twisted deeper into the hillside, sloping gently upwards. Torches flickered periodically, light then darkness. As she climbed higher the air seemed to thicken, a smell of things long dead, a corruption in the air.

The tunnel opened ahead and Sig came into a small chamber. A single shadowed exit on its far side. A fire-pit sat in the middle of this chamber, embers still glowing, and around the edges furs and blankets were splayed, a rack of weapons, spears and rusted swords leaned against one wall, though there was no sign of the living. Cracks in the wall oozed damp earth, worms as thick as rope were wriggling within it.

‘Fifty-two,’ Cullen said, counting the furs spread about the chamber’s edges. He shared a look with Sig and Keld.

Never this many. So, the rumours are true.

‘A better fight, if they’re all here,’ Cullen declared, not able to keep the grin from his face.

Sig gave him a flat stare.

The hounds growled, paws splayed as they half-crouched, hackles a ridge upon their backs, lips curled to reveal sharp teeth. Keld hissed a command. Then a tendril of sound drifted down to them, emerging from the darkness of the exit on the far wall: voices, joined together, chanting, a cadence to it rising and falling. They set a chill trickling down Sig’s spine, and behind her she heard muttering amongst Elgin’s men.

Sig strode into the darkness, the chanting growing louder as she climbed higher, past another flickering torch. She felt her flesh goosebump, a creeping dread seeping into her, thick in the air, making her limbs grow heavy. The urge to stop and go back wormed into her mind.

Something is at work here.

‘Truth and Courage,’ she hissed at the darkness and saw either side of her Cullen and Keld straighten at those words, the Order’s battle-cry and mantra. And then, in front of them was an arched doorway, a form silhouetted against the fire’s red glow. The chanting was loud, echoing down the tunnel, filling Sig’s head and heart with dismay.

Go back, go back, fear’s voice whispered in her head.