Alberich couldn’t watch; he felt as if he was intruding on what should have been a private moment. He wondered if she hated him for keeping her away from her father’s side; if she would ever forgive him for keeping her “safe” at the moment. But as he turned away, he caught sight of Healer Crathach sitting on the churned-up, bloody ground with Talamir’s head in his lap, both hands resting on the Herald’s forehead.

Kantor stepped carefully to the side, to stand over them. Crathach looked up as if he had felt Alberich’s gaze on him. His eyes were haunted, but fierce.

“He wants to die,” Crathach said, in a low voice, hoarse with shouting, screaming, and weeping. “He wants to follow Taver. But I won’t let him, not now. Selenay needs him. We can’t afford an untrained Queen’s Own, not now; she needs someone with every bit of international, Court, and political experience possible.”

“Hold to him, then,” Alberich agreed. “Jadus?”

“They’ve already taken him to the Healers’ tent. There’s nothing left of his leg to save, but he’ll live.” Crathach growled. “Bloody hell. Those bastards knew exactly what to do at the worst possible time. We were holding our own until they got us too crowded together for the hooves to come into play, then sent a man in to hamstring the Companions.”

Alberich bit back an oath. No wonder the two Companions had gone down so easily! And no wonder Sendar had faltered just long enough for the fatal blow to fall. “Stand fast, can you?” he asked.

“As long as I have to—the new Grove-Born should be coming as fast as he can; I just have to hold until he comes.” What he was saying made no sense to Alberich’s weary mind, but it was too much to try and think about. Jadus and Talamir were going to live; that was all that counted. A pair of stretcher carriers came up, then, and Crathach let them take Talamir up, though he kept one hand on the Herald’s head the whole time. They carried the Herald away, with Crathach, as it were, attached.

Alberich found himself swaying in the saddle, and dragged his attention back to Selenay. She had drawn the fabric over her father’s face again, and now she stood up.

“Gently bear him away, and prepare him for his journey,” was all she said, but there was a rush of volunteers, most of them still weeping, and when the stretcher was picked up there was not a finger’s width of it that did not have an eager hand supporting it.

As the body was taken through the crowd, men fell silent, removing their helms and standing with heads bowed until it had passed them. Selenay stood looking after it, with the last scarlet rays of the sun turning her golden hair to a red-gold crown.