Agalas spoke. ‘Have you seen soldiers of the Legion on this road?’

‘Urusander’s Legion or the Hust Legion?’

Cryl blinked. ‘Hust? No, Urusander’s, sir.’

The man shook his head. ‘Seen no one and been riding all day.’

‘Riding where?’ Agalas asked.

‘Kharkanas. Thought I might hire on. Did some caravan guarding once, might do it again. The country’s unruly these days.’

Agalas seemed annoyed with this response. ‘Where did you come down from?’

‘Riven Keep. Thought to try the Borderswords, but they wasn’t looking to take anyone on, now that peace has come.’

‘That’s a long journey,’ Cryl observed.

The man nodded. ‘Sorry I can’t help you. Of course,’ he added, ‘if there was soldiers about, there’d be less trouble on the roads.’

Cryl turned to the sergeant. ‘Let’s go. We’ll see what we see.’ To the stranger he said, ‘There’s an armed procession ahead of you. You’d be safe enough near to them if you rode a little quicker, sir.’

‘Thank you,’ the man replied. ‘That’s a decent offer.’

Agalas waved the Houseblades forward and they all rode past the stranger.

‘That wasn’t much help,’ Cryl said as they continued on up the road.

‘Sorry, sir,’ said Agalas, ‘but I’m not buying it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, sir, he wasn’t quite right. Not sure.’

‘I could see him as a caravan guard.’

She nodded. ‘But his horse was a damned good animal, well groomed and well fed, and the tack was clean.’

Cryl considered. ‘Any man long on the road would do well to take care of his mount and tack.’

‘As to that, sir, he wasn’t carrying much gear. I don’t know, is all I’m saying.’

‘Wonder who gave him that beating. He was armed, after all.’

She shot him a look and then reined in hard. The Houseblades veered past her, drawing up in confusion. Cryl halted his own horse and swung round to face the sergeant. ‘What is it?’

‘His sword, sir. It was Legion issue.’

Cryl frowned. ‘Hardly surprising – those weapons must have flooded the market stalls after the disbanding.’

‘You’d think so, sir, but they didn’t. Maybe you heard different, but I’m saying they didn’t. Soldiers kept their gear.’

‘No, I believe you. I only assumed.’ He looked back down the road but the stranger was already out of sight. ‘So he’s ex-Legion. Might be riding to join up with a renegade troop—’

‘Sir, we went with the Lord this morning. We saw the Deniers, that village, it was a place of slaughter. The killers just cut ’em all down. Children too. It was butchery.’

‘So what was he, then?’ Cryl asked. ‘A scout? If so, he was coming from the wrong direction and heading the wrong way.’

‘I don’t know, sir. I don’t know what to think, but it feels all wrong here. All of it.’

He studied her weathered face, the flat eyes. If she was in an excited state, he’d not know it from looking at her. ‘Sergeant, a word alone, please.’