He clambered on to the bank and then sank down on to his hands and knees – since the crossing had proved more onerous than he had thought it would – and the dog slid and scrambled down from his shoulders. It came round in front of him and then shook the water from its fur.

‘Aai, foul creature! Did you not see how I struggled to keep my hair dry? This mane need only glance at water and forest to twist into hopeless snarls and tangles. Beastly rain!’

Faintly crossed eyes regarded him, head cocking as if the dog were considering Grizzin’s bluster, and finding it far from threatening.

The Azathanai frowned. ‘You are a most starved specimen, friend. I’d wager you share every meal and the servings unfairly apportioned. Have we rested enough? I see yon road venturing south and it beckons. It ventures north, too, you say? We shall see none of that with our backs, however, will we? No, with eyes and intention let us narrow the world before us.’

Collecting his sack, he climbed grunting to his feet, and when he set off the dog fell in beside him.

‘Providence well understands me,’ Grizzin said, ‘and knows how better I fare for wise and wisely silent company. Lacking the pleasure of hearing my own voice is a torture I would not wish upon my worst enemy – had I enemies, and a worst one among them, whoever they may be. But think of the dread such an enemy would feel to hear me draw near! A true nemesis am I to him, or her – but no, we shall swing wide of her, lest we envisage a face for this imagined foe, and a pot wielded by a less than dainty yet no less vengeful hand. Him, then, this enemy cowering before us. Do you see a single bone of mercy in me, friend? One you would care to snatch away and bury? Of course not. My heart is cold. My eyes are ice. My every thought is unyielding as solid stone.’

The dog ran off ahead for a dozen or so paces. Grizzin sighed. ‘I can make an enemy of mice, it seems. To speak is to wield a weapon, with which I bludgeon friend and foe, friend unto foe, I mean, and lacking victim, why, I but wave it fiercely in the air, bold enough to shy a god. Tell me dog, have you any wine?’

It seemed the beast would trot in advance of him down this road, in the manner of an animal that well knew a master. The smell of smoke was in the evening air, and Grizzin had seen the grey pillars above the forest for much of this day’s travel. He disliked the meaning of such details, since they reminded him of all the places he had protected in the past. Strangers stepped carelessly in every garden he had ever tended, and that was a sad admission on all sides. ‘For they value only what is theirs, and covet all that is mine, and should we meet we might invent economy, or theft, or both. Dog!’