Scara Bandaris smiled, and then he said, ‘Lacking his own, why, no better gift could we give him to celebrate his marriage! I happily yield to your genius, Silchas. Why, we’ll envigour the old man yet!’

‘Well, let us hope his new bride serves that purpose.’

‘And here I pondered long on what gift to give our old friend on his wedding day,’ said Scara, ‘and had thought of a settee to suit naps and the like, of which no doubt he’ll need many in the course of his amorous first week or so.’

Silchas laughed. ‘Generous in counting weeks, not days, friend.’

‘As his friend, could I be less generous?’

‘No less indeed. Now I regret the dismissal of the settee.’

‘It would fail in surviving a score of pups gnawing upon the legs, and so I could not give him a gift so easily destroyed. I would dread causing him guilt and grief. Why, then he might begin assiduously avoiding me, and that I would not enjoy, much.’

Silchas nodded. ‘We do miss his bright disposition, Scara.’

‘Speaking of brightness,’ Scara said, eyeing the man before him, ‘I see your skin still resisting the caress of Mother Dark.’

‘I have no answer for that, friend. I knelt alongside my brothers and so pledged my service.’

‘And you are without doubt?’

Shrugging, Silchas glanced away.

There was a moment of silence, and then Scara said, ‘I am told Kagamandra now rides for Kharkanas.’

‘So I have heard. In the company of Sharenas.’

‘A wager that he has not once availed himself of her charms, Silchas?’

‘If you need coin you need only ask for it, sir. You dissemble and so risk our friendship.’

‘Then I withdraw the gamble at once.’

‘Tell me,’ said Silchas with a nod to the Jheleck hostages, ‘have you seen them veer yet?’

‘I have, to smart the eyes with foul vapours. These will be formidable beasts in their maturity, and do not imagine them not clever—’

‘I would not, as I can see how they regard us even now.’

‘Think you Kagamandra can tame them?’

Silchas nodded. ‘But amusing as it is for us to contemplate Tulas’s expression upon the receipt, I admit to having given your dilemma much thought, and I believe that Kagamandra alone could heel these hounds, and indeed, that he alone would take great pride in doing so.’

‘May he return to us enlivened then and so double the miracle.’

‘A gift in kind would indeed bless this gesture,’ Silchas said, nodding. He straightened from the pillar. ‘Now, I must re-join my brothers. And you, Scara?’

‘As it is, now that we have a solution here, I can leave my soldiers to oversee the pups until Kagamandra’s arrival. Once I have penned a worthy note to him, I shall ride north to those of my company I left in the forest. From there, we shall return to our garrison.’

Silchas studied his friend for a moment. ‘You have heard of the other companies stirring about?’