We all have to eat, I said, my voice colder than I meant it to be.

I know. I was just saying —

I know. Its okay. Carry on.

After a moments silence, he continued.

There were no horses left by the time we reached the Black Mountains. The last one had died a long time ago. The majority of our people had died in the Deathlands too. Of the thousand or so whode begun the retreat, there were less than 200 left when we came to the mountains, and many of those had been born during the Walk. Me, your mother, your father, you---we were all children of the Walk. And we were the lucky ones. Most of those born in the Deathlands didnt survive. And the Dau didnt fare any better either---they suffered their losses just as much as us. At the time of the ambush they were down to less than a thousand, and all their horses had long since died too.

He went quiet again, gazing emptily at the shoreline for a minute or 2, then – without looking up – he carried on with the story.

The canyon was the only way through the mountains. There were trails that led up and over them, but they were too steep and treacherous for the wagons, and if wede chosen to go all the way round the mountains it would have taken us a lot longer, and the Dau were only a few days behind us. If wede gone round, and the Dau had gone through the canyon, they would at the very least have made up a lot of time on us, and they may even have overtaken us, and then all they would have had to do was lie in wait on the other side and wipe us out when we got there. So the canyon was our only choice. We knew it was dangerous, an ideal place for an ambush, and our scouts had told us theyd seen evidence of the Wild Ones in the mountains, but there were very few of them left by then, and their bands never numbered more than a dozen anyway. So as long as we stayed together, it would be suicidal for them to attack us. But unfortunately we underestimated them. We knew they were ferocious and savage, but the fault we made was in mistaking their savagery for stupidity, and it was a mistake that ultimately proved fatal.

Starry shook his head, and just for a second I sensed a deep-held anger in him, but it flickered and died almost immediately, and when he began speaking again – still staring blindly at the shore – he just sounded sad and resigned.