Jezal sloshed a mouthful of water round his mouth and spat it out, watching Ninefingers walk back to the bodies, and frowning. That had been strange. Coming from another source it might have seemed almost a generous gesture. He took another swig of water, and began to feel better. He made, somewhat unsteadily, for his horse, and clambered back into the saddle.

'Whoever did it was well armed, and in numbers,' Ferro was saying. 'The grass is full of tracks.'

'We should be careful,' said Jezal, hoping to impose himself on the conversation.

Bayaz turned sharply to look at him. 'We should always be careful! That goes without saying! How far are we from Darmium?'

Longfoot squinted up at the sky, then out across the plain. He licked his finger and held it up to the wind. 'Even for a man of my talents, it is hard to be accurate without the stars. Fifty miles or thereabouts.'

'We'll need to turn off the track soon.'

'We are not crossing the river at Darmium?'

'The city is in chaos. Cabrian holds it, and admits no one. We cannot take the risk.'

'Very well. Aostum it is. We will take a wide route round Darmium and off westward. A slightly longer path but—'

'No.'

'No?'

'The bridge at Aostum lies in ruins.'

Longfoot frowned. 'Gone, eh? Truly, God loves to test his faithful. We may have to ford the Aos then—'

'No,' said Bayaz. 'The rains have been heavy and the great river is deep. The fords are all closed to us.'

The Navigator looked puzzled. 'You, of course, are my employer, and as a proud member of the order of Navigators I will always do my utmost to obey, but I am afraid that I can see no other way. If we cannot cross at Darmium, or at Aostum, and we cannot ford the river…'

'There is one other bridge.'

'There is?' Longfoot looked baffled for a moment, then his eyes suddenly widened. 'You cannot mean—'

'The bridge at Aulcus still stands.'

Everyone glanced at each other for a moment, frowning. 'I thought you said the place was a ruin,' said Ninefingers.

'A shattered graveyard, I heard,' murmured Ferro.

'I thought you said no one goes within miles of the place.'

'It would hardly have been my first choice, but there are no others. We will join the river and follow the northern bank to Aulcus.' Nobody moved. Longfoot in particular had a look of stunned horror on his face. 'Now!' snapped Bayaz. 'It is plainly not safe to remain here.' And with that he turned his horse away from the corpses. Quai shrugged and flicked his reigns and the cart grumbled off through the grass after the First of the Magi. Longfoot and Ninefingers followed behind, all frowns and foreboding.