A dread had filled her, a chill in her blood and bones ever since she’d heard the chanting in the tunnels of that hill, set eyes upon the Kadoshim as it sacrificed its prisoner. And saw the runes inscribed in a circle around the human offering.

This is some new strategy, and I do not like not knowing what it is.

Movement drew Sig’s eye: a pinprick in the sky above the Darkwood. A bird, standing out as different from those others in the air about it because of its flight. Where the others wheeled and soared, riding currents, this one flew straight and unerring towards Uthandun.

Cullen saw it, too, stared with head cocked.

‘Is that who I think it is?’ he said as the bird drew closer.

‘Aye,’ Sig rumbled. ‘It’s Rab.’

A white bird flew to the walls of Uthandun, saw Sig and Cullen and circled above them, squawking raucously as it descended in a flapping of wings, alighting on the timber wall. It was a white crow, its pink beak long and thick, feathers ruffled and poking in odd directions.

‘Finally,’ the crow croaked. ‘Rab been searching everywhere for you.’

A warrior standing guard upon the battlements shuffled away, muttering under his breath.

‘Well, you’ve found us now,’ Cullen said to the crow.

‘You bring a message from Byrne,’ Sig said. It wasn’t a question.

‘Rab does,’ the bird answered, hopping along the wall, flexing its wings wide. ‘Rab sore,’ it muttered. Cullen reached out his good hand and stroked the bird’s wings, Rab leaning into the caress.

‘It’s a long way to fly from Dun Seren,’ Cullen said with a shrug.

‘The message,’ Sig prompted the white crow.

Yes,’ Rab squawked with a clack of his beak. ‘First, check that Sig and her crew are safe, Byrne said.’ Rab paused and pointedly looked them over with a beady, red-tinged eye, lingering on Cullen’s arm in a sling and the cuts and gashes all over Sig.

‘Hammer. Keld. Hounds?’ Rab squawked.

‘Hammer has a knife-wound in her paw, but is healing fine,’ Sig said. ‘Keld and his hounds are missing; chasing after a man who escaped our raid.’

‘Raid?’ Rab cawed. ‘No. First Rab finish message. Byrne wants you back, Dun Seren, Dun Seren. Things happening.’

‘Does she? What things?’ Sig frowned.

‘Byrne not tell Rab,’ the crow squawked sadly, shaking his head. ‘Rab just messenger.’

‘I know, I know,’ Sig said, holding a hand up, having listened many times to the crow’s opinions on keeping information from him.

‘Sig go back to Dun Seren, soon as Sig can,’ Rab finished.

‘I’m just waiting for Keld,’ Sig rumbled, not for the first time thinking of going in search of him herself. But Keld knew Uthandun was the rendezvous point, and Sig was no tracker. Then a thought struck her.