‘Mm.’ My thoughts were a jumble. The sooner he finished this odd building job, the sooner he’d be back home again. But right now I was filled with a need for him to stay, not to go to Wolf Glen anymore, to be here where I could see him and hear him and argue with him whenever I wanted to. Which was beyond stupid. I began to wish I had not written anything on the wax tablet. But I couldn’t erase it now, in full view. As for the remarkable words he had written there, maybe they proved that he was braver than I was, setting his feelings down for me to see. Or more foolish. Allow someone to become too dear to you and you give your enemy a weapon more deadly than the sharpest sword, more lethal than the strongest poison. I knew that all too well, and Grim knew it too. Time enough, when Mathuin was dealt with, to recognise what there was between him and me. If there was anything more than a close friendship. I shouldn’t have written those words. It was too soon. ‘Yes, we’ll go,’ I said. ‘Grim, what can they do? The king and Prince Oran? Laois is so far away, much too far for King Ruairi to retaliate with force, even supposing he wanted to. He’d have to take his men across Ulaid and Mide and into Laigin to reach Mathuin’s territory, and Mathuin’s known to have a strong personal army. I’m no expert in these things, but even I can see that would stir up even more trouble. It could draw in other leaders, perhaps against their will. Would Lorcan of Mide be prepared to fight alongside Ruairi?’

‘Folk say Lorcan’s a peacemaker,’ Grim said. ‘Sounds like he’s offered a safe place for Flidais’s parents and whoever got out with them. That might be as far as it goes.’

‘He’s a kinsman of Oran’s father.’

‘If he jumps into the conflict with his own fighters the whole thing gets bigger and bloodier. Nobody would want that.’

‘If Mathuin isn’t stopped it’ll get bigger and bloodier anyway. Morrigan’s curse, will that foul wretch be allowed to trample on folk all over Erin?’

‘Thing is,’ Grim said, ‘it’s got bigger than us now. You want to stop him, I want to stop him, any of those poor sods who were in his cesspit of a prison and managed to survive want the same thing. Same for all the ordinary folk he hurt. But what he’s done now, it’s a big step more. And maybe it’s for kings and chieftains to fix it, not the likes of us.’