‘Cheating the tithe? That’s pathetic.’

‘Sometimes it’s that. Sometimes it’s just people who don’t want to be seen.’

‘What kind of people?’

Beyond the boulders, Ribs vanished between two sheer outcrops.

‘We’re at the trail now,’ Rancept said. ‘Time for the talking to end. Night carries voices, and the hills can channel sounds a long way. If you need my attention, just tap my shoulder. Otherwise, we move quietly now.’

‘This is ridiculous – I can still see the keep’s light from here.’

‘If we’re going to argue, milady, we can turn round right now. But I’ll tell you this. Look at Ribs.’

The animal had reappeared and was seated just ahead. ‘What about him?’ Sukul asked.

‘Strangers in the hills, milady. That’s what Ribs is telling us.’

To her eyes the animal looked no different from any other time she’d seen it. There was no way to tell where it was looking with those crossed eyes. But as Rancept moved forward, the dog wheeled and raced up the trail again. Tugging tight her slightly oversized gloves, she followed.

For all his size, the castellan moved quietly, not once glancing back to see if she kept pace. This latter detail irritated her and she wanted to hiss at him, since she was getting tired and the trail seemed to go on for ever. Her boots pinched her feet; her nose was running and she’d begun using the back of one hand to wipe at it, and that was staining the fine leather of the glove. Even more annoying, there was nothing bold in this venture. She’d wanted a dozen well-armoured and grim-faced riders at her back, each one ready to give up his or her life at her word. She’d wanted the thunder of horse hoofs and the clatter of iron and wooden scabbards.

Beneath all of this was the conviction that an innocent little boy was lying dead somewhere ahead of them, killed for no good reason but the silence his death would ensure. She’d taken enough hints from Hish Tulla that there was trouble in the realm. The whole thing seemed ridiculous. Peace had been won, but she knew that the hunger for fighting was not yet done with. It was never done with, and there were people in the world who wanted nothing else, since lawlessness was their nature.

Sukul did not have to look far to see such people; she counted her sisters among them. They delighted in all manner of lusts, and the wilder their environs the more base their desires. If she was honest with herself, there was something of that in her as well. But the reality – including this cold, night-shrouded ordeal – was proving more crass than what the imagination offered in all those idle moments when boredom was a shout inside the skull.