‘Do you know where it takes you?’ Mappo asked.

Messremb stiffened. ‘You have seen the gates?’

‘No. What do you expect to find there?’

‘Answers, old friend. Now I shall spare you the taste of my veering by putting some distance between us. Do you wish me well, Mappo?’

‘I do, Messremb. And add a warning: we crossed paths with Ryllandaras four nights ago. Be careful.’

Something of the savage bear glittered in the Soletaken’s eyes. ‘I shall look out for him.’

Mappo and Icarium watched the man walk away, disappearing behind an outcrop of rock. ‘Madness lurked within him,’ Icarium said.

The Trell flinched at those words. ‘Within them all,’ he sighed. ‘I’ve yet to find an ascent, by the way. The cave reveals nothing.’

The sound of shod hooves reached them, slow and plodding. From a trail paralleling the cliff face, a man on a black mule appeared. He sat cross-legged on a high wood saddle, shrouded in a ragged, dirt-stained telaba. His hands, which rested on the ornate saddlehorn, were the colour of rust. A hood hid his features. The mule was a strange-looking beast, its muzzle black, the skin of its ears black, as were its eyes. No lightening of its ebon hue was anywhere visible with the exception of dust and spatters of what might have been dried blood.

The man swayed on the saddle as they approached. ‘No way in,’ he hissed, ‘but the way out. It’s not yet the hour. A life given for a life taken, remember those words, remember them. You are wounded. You are bright with infection. My servant will tend to you. A caring man with salty hands, one wrinkled, one pink – do you grasp the significance of that? Not yet. Not yet. So few ... guests. But I have been expecting you.’

The mule stopped opposite the cleft, swinging a mournful gaze on the two travellers as its rider struggled to pull his legs from their crossed position. Whimpers of pain accompanied the effort, until his frantic attempts overwhelmed his balance and, with a squeal of dismay, the man toppled, thumping into the dust.

Seeing crimson red bloom through the telaba’s weave, Mappo stepped forward. ‘You bear your own wounds, sir!’

The man writhed on the ground like an upended tortoise, his legs still trapped in their crossed position. His hood fell back, revealing a large hawk nose, tufts of wiry grey beard, a tattooed bald pate and skin like dark honey. A row of perfect white teeth showed in his grimace.

Mappo knelt beside him, squinting to see signs of the wound that had spilled so much blood. A smell of iron was pungent in the Trell’s nose. After a moment he reached under the man’s cloak and withdrew an unstoppered bladder. Grunting, he glanced over at Icarium. ‘Not blood. Paint. Red ochre paint.’

‘Help me, you oaf!’ the man snapped. ‘My legs!’

Bemused, Mappo helped the man unlock his legs, every move eliciting moans. As soon as they were free the man sat up and started beating his own thighs. ‘Servant! Wine! Wine, damn your wood-rotted brain!’