‘You’ve not met my wit,’ Lasa warned in a low tone. ‘And you should thank the hoary rock-gods for that.’ She swung round again. ‘Bah, I need a bath. Hanako, dear youngling, when we reach the lake – unless it was ever a mirage, designed solely to haunt a woman’s need for a decent toilet – will you indulge my body with soap and oils?’

‘What of your husbands?’

‘Well, they’re not here, are they? No! The fools are probably well off the trail I set them. Picking berries, perhaps, with lips of blue as they natter endlessly about everything and nothing. Or they have found slabs on which to lie in the sun – as they often do when guarding the flocks. To think, they imagine that I can’t see them up in the hills! I have the sharpest eyes, Hanako. The sharpest! No, they are indolent and smug, slovenly and lazy.’

‘I will attend to you at the lake, then,’ said Hanako.

She pushed up against him once more. ‘Will you now?’

‘You tease me unduly, Lasa Rook.’

‘I but tease out what hides in you.’

‘Is it any wonder I remain wary?’

She waved a hand. ‘I will brush aside your temerity, Hanako of the Scars, Slayer of the Lord of Temper. My husbands can rot. I will take a lover, to spite them all. I might choose you, Hanako, what do you think of that?’

‘I see three deaths awaiting me, since surely my dying once will not be enough.’

‘What? Oh, them. Think on that some more, youngling. They already know I travel with company – oh, Erelan would give them no cause for jealousy, as his only love is the warrior’s vanity. But you, Hanako. Young, handsome, and are you not the tallest brave in the village? The strongest? Did you not just this morning tear the lower jaw off the Lord of Temper? And then break his neck? No, dear lover to be, it seems even you cannot light a fire to their heels. But look – is that a glimmer ahead, through those branches? Is the sun not directly above us?’

‘There is no way to—’

‘Hush! It is my blessing to experience synchronicity in life. Perfections meet wherever I make my island. Smile sweetly, and show sure hands in the spreading of soap and oil, Hanako, and I might let you walk upon my shore.’

There to fetch up like a half-drowned man. ‘I fear that lake will be as cold as was the stream.’

‘A challenge to your manhood, then.’ A moment later she halted and raised a hand.

Company ahead? Well, it seemed a decent lake. Perhaps the Dog-Runners have made a camp upon its shoreline.

Erelan edged up to join them, and then, drawing his long-handled mace, moved ahead in a low crouch.

Glancing across at Lasa Rook, Hanako saw her meet his gaze in the same instant, and she rolled her eyes. They set out after Erelan Kreed, stepping carefully.