‘I know,’ she replied. ‘We must be as shadows.’

‘You have stained your skin. That is good.’

She frowned. ‘I have done nothing.’ She raised a hand, squinting at it. Her skin was the hue of ash. Blinking, she looked across to Glyph. ‘You are the same. But I saw you smearing ash upon your faces when first I came among you. I considered doing the same, but then forgot. We are stained, but not by our doing.’

Shaken, Glyph glanced over to where Narad stood, still facing out into the forest. ‘I thought him made ill by his visions.’

‘We are Deniers.’ Lahanis claimed the title as if she had been born to it.

The other hunters were muttering, their expressions troubled.

It was startling that no one else had even taken notice. Glyph could think of nothing to say, no answer to give them, or Lahanis.

‘It was on this day,’ said Neerak, the first hunter to have spoken to him. His eyes were wide. ‘By the spring, lord, yesterday, I saw my own reflection, where we keep the ice clear. Pale, but not as pale as the Liosan. Pale, in the way that I have always been. But see my hands now, my forearms – has a plague come among us?’

A plague.

‘We chose neither,’ Lahanis said. ‘We defy the Andii. We defy the Liosan. We have made ourselves apart.’

‘But on this day?’ Neerak demanded, spinning to face her. ‘Why? What has changed?’

Glyph answered. ‘I spoke with the Watch. I asked him, do we begin our war today?’

‘He told us to kill the scouts,’ Lahanis said. ‘The war indeed begins. Glyph, he is a priest. I care not what title you give him, but he walks more than one world. Today, by his blessing, we become an army.’

He stared into her eyes, and saw in their eager light the promise of fire and destruction.

The Last Fish, who now walks, seeking an old enemy. The lake lies almost forgotten, the leagues uncountable between it and where he now stands. The water, he recalls now, was clear. Nothing in it to blind him to his future, a future awash in tears. From water he left, to water he must go. I end where I began. ‘The war claims us now,’ he said. He collected up his bow. ‘By the blessing of the Watch, we are made into slayers of men and women. Come, then. This forest is our home. Time to defend it.’

Pulling up the cloth that masked his face beneath his eyes, he set out, his pack close behind him.