He is young and reckless. I can remember that feeling. But I would rather have him ride back to Dun Seren beside me with his pride injured, than be carrying his corpse tied to a horse.

‘Give your arm time; rest it properly and it won’t be long before you’re back to risking your neck,’ she said.

Cullen grinned. ‘Can’t wait,’ he said.

Sig rolled her eyes.

‘You didn’t come away bloodless, either,’ Cullen said, looking at the lattice of cuts upon Sig, on her face, forearms, legs. She felt them as she moved, scabs pulling, tight skin itching. A long gash cut across her new tattoo of vines and thorns, added to the one already curling up one arm and down the other, a tale of the lives she’d taken.

‘Aye, but mine are just scratches.’

‘Well, it was a good fight, so it was,’ Cullen declared, ‘and no denying.’

Tell that to Elgin’s dead sword-brothers. Twelve men beneath a pile of stones, now nothing more than cold sacks of meat. He’s like a young pup, feeling invincible and too eager to please.

She didn’t say anything, though. Cullen had fought well, with courage and skill, and acted to save her life without a thought for his own.

‘The Kadoshim is dead, its followers slain,’ Sig said by way of agreement.

‘We for home, now?’ Cullen asked.

‘Hammer needs another day or two.’ Sig shrugged. ‘Should give Keld the time he needs to get back to us.’

‘Thought he’d be back by now. He ever been gone this long before?’ Cullen asked.

Sig didn’t answer, just looked out over the meadow that rolled away from Uthandun’s walls towards a bridge that arched across the river Afren, which flowed slow and sluggish to the sea. On the far banks of the river a wall of trees grew, the fringe of the Darkwood, quickly becoming a sea of green and gold and russet that filled the southern horizon.

Where are you, Keld?

In truth Sig was worried about her huntsman. It had been four nights now since the assault on the Kadoshim coven, four nights since he’d gone in pursuit of the shaven-haired acolyte who had fled on the Kadoshim’s orders.

Four nights since she’d asked Keld to pursue the Kadoshim’s servant.

Keld can look after himself, she reassured herself, burying the worry that stirred within her. And Elgin has sent his own huntsmen out in search of him.

And I want to see what the Kadoshim gave to that messenger.

There was more to her worry than Keld’s delay. The whole mission was unsettling. Never before had she seen a Kadoshim surrounded by so many fanatics, and they were clearly more than a collection of feeble-minded zealots. They were organized, knew their weapons and were stealthy. They’d built a defensible maze within a dozen leagues of Uthandun.

Why? What is behind it?