‘His brother?’ Bleda asked, wanting to end this display. It made him feel uncomfortable.

‘He fell over the waterfall, I was told,’ Alcyon said. ‘A long drop, and then the Grinding Sea.’ He sniffed and wiped his face. ‘So that was Varan’s Fall, and a dark day it was, too.’

‘What about the Kadoshim’s lair?’ Jin asked. ‘What happened when you got there?

‘We never found it. Perhaps it was all a fiction, the intelligence we received false, all of it to lure us to that ambush. If we had entered into that killing ground together, it would have been much worse.’

Alcyon looked at them both.

‘So. Analyse,’ he said to them. ‘Why did we lose? Or at least, why did we not win?’

‘Overconfidence,’ Bleda said.

‘That’s right. Good,’ Alcyon said. ‘Many battles and skirmishes have been fought with the Kadoshim since the Battle of Drassil, scores, and we had never lost a one. Varan’s Fall was no crushing defeat, mind; but it was a defeat nonetheless. What else?’

‘Planning, scouting, knowing the ground,’ Jin said. ‘Jibril says they are key steps to victory.’

‘Aye, true enough,’ Alcyon agreed. ‘The Kadoshim were far better prepared than us, that was plain to see. They knew we were coming. Knew we were two forces. Knew the routes we would approach by, and they laid their ambushes well. And we blundered in, expecting to crush them as we had before. Huh.’ He wagged a finger at them both. ‘Never underestimate your enemy, but especially not the Kadoshim. Their numbers were winnowed on that first day, when Asroth fell, and there are certainly far fewer of them than Ben-Elim, but they are creatures of deep cunning.’

Like their kin, the Ben-Elim.

Horns blew outside, echoing in to them.

‘Best be off for prayers,’ Alcyon said.

‘Are you not coming?’ Jin asked.

‘Me? No,’ Alcyon said, a twist of his lips.

Bleda noted that with interest.

So, giants are not the obedient slaves I thought them.

‘Our thanks,’ Bleda said. ‘You have taught us much today.’

More than old Jibril ever has.

Alcyon waved a hand but had that faraway look again. Bleda and Jin rose and left him to his thoughts.

‘See, they are not unbeatable,’ Jin said to him as they stepped out into the street. ‘Not like the Cheren and Sirak will be when we are wed.’

She squeezed his hand and ran for the prayer-hall looking back to grin at the startled expression that cracked his cold-face.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SIG

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

SIG