‘Where are you?’ she called, and took a step forward, and another. No reply. She put her foot out for the third step, but the ground was not there. She fell into the dark.

Chapter Nineteen: Grim

19

~Grim~

I weigh it up, walk or ride back to Wolf Glen. Quicker to ride, only Bardán most likely can’t, with his hands. Too hard for him to go up behind me. Walking’s slow, but from what Osgar and the others have said, if we go quick we’ll get there before dark. Sounds like the way in’s a lot shorter from this end. Had to tell them about Bardán being up at the hut and working at Wolf Glen with me, or it would have looked odd, me heading off into the forest. Didn’t want to give offence, seeing as they’d offered a bed for the night. So I broke one of Master Tóla’s rules. More than one, if you count asking the fellows if any of them would be free to come and help, supposing there might be a building job on offer.

None of them knew Bardán was back. Not one. Thought he was gone forever, left the district or dead. They had heard Tóla was building the heartwood house again. They were interested all right, but nobody wanted to talk about it. And when I told them about Bardán they went quiet. Sounds like his wife was a local girl. But nobody wants to talk about him or her or any of it. Some kind of secret there, a big one, hanging over the whole place. And over the wild man most of all.

I’ll say one thing for him, he knows his way around the forest. And he can cover ground faster than you’d think. Bardán doesn’t fancy the main track, the one carts come up and down with lengths of pine for building. The fellows at Longwater said most of the timber ends up on Swan Island. I’ve heard of the place. School of warcraft over there, like something from an old tale. Mysterious. No wonder they need a wood supply. Place would be too windy for much to grow. Only a few trees, and they’d be all bent and twisted. Like a man getting beaten every day, and no escape from it. But alive. Hanging on.

A bit like Bardán. Lost his family, sounds like he lost a baby too, lost the good use of his hands. Lost any friends he had in Longwater, from the way the men were talking. Or maybe he never had them. But if his wife was a local girl that doesn’t make much sense. There’s a lot about the man that doesn’t make sense. Why did he go back to work for Tóla, after everything? Why’s he coming with me now?