'What are you looking at?' Logen stopped and gazed up into the sun. Ferro was frowning down at him. He stood and shifted the pack on his back, rubbing at his sore shoulders, wiping a sheen of sweat from his forehead. He could've thought up a lie, easily enough. He'd been watching the magnificent mountain peaks. He'd been watching where he put his feet. He'd been checking that her pack was on right. But what would've been the point? They both knew well enough what he'd been looking at, and the others had pushed on well out of earshot.

'I'm looking at your arse,' he said, shrugging his shoulders. 'Sorry, but it's a good one. No harm looking, is there?'

She opened her mouth angrily but he put his head down and trudged round her before she had the chance to speak, his thumbs hooked under the straps of his pack. When he'd got ten paces or so he looked over his shoulder. She was still standing there, hands on her hips, frowning up at him. He grinned back.

'What are you looking at?' he said.

They stopped for water in the cold fresh morning, on a ledge above a plunging valley. Through spreading trees heavy with red berries growing sideways from the bare rock, Jezal could see white water surging in its narrow bottom. Dizzying cliffs rose on the far side, sheets of grey stone not far from sheer, ending in towering crags high above, where dark birds flapped and crowed to each other, while swirls of white cloud turned in the pale sky beyond. A spectacular setting, if somewhat unsettling.

'Beautiful,' murmured Jezal, but taking care not to get too close to the edge.

Logen nodded. 'Reminds me of home. When I was a lad, I used to spend weeks at a time up in the High Places, testing myself against the mountains.' He took a swallow from the flask then handed it to Jezal, staring up through narrowed eyes at the dark peaks. 'They always win, though. This Empire's come and gone, and here they still are, looking down on it all. Here they'll still be, long after all of us have gone back to the mud. They looked down on my home.' He gave a long snort, then spat phlegm over the edge of the valley. 'Now they look down on nothing.'

Jezal took a swallow of water himself. 'Will you go back to the North, after this?'

'Maybe. I've some scores to settle. Some deep, hard scores.' The Northman shrugged his shoulders. 'But if I let 'em lie I daresay no one would be the worse off. I reckon they all think I'm dead, and no one's anything but relieved about it.'

'Nothing to go back to?'