‘And so,’ Karsa replied, ‘if we do not kill your husbands, you will upon their return. I am pleased.’

‘You three will not survive the night.’

‘It will be interesting, do you not think,’ Karsa smiled, ‘who among Bairoth, Delum and me will find need for it first.’ He addressed all the women. ‘I suggest to each of you to be eager, so you are not the first to fail us.’

Bairoth appeared, nodded at Karsa.

The chief’s wife sighed and waved her daughter forward.

‘No,’ Karsa said.

The woman stopped, suddenly confused. ‘But ... will you not want a child from this? Your first will carry the most seed—’

‘Aye, it will. Are you past bearing age?’

After a long moment, she shook her head. ‘Karsa Orlong,’ she whispered, ‘you invite my husband to set upon you a curse – he will burn blood on the stone lips of Imroth herself.’

‘Yes, that is likely.’ Karsa dismounted and approached her. ‘Now, lead me to your house.’

She drew back. ‘The house of my husband? Warleader – no, please, let us choose another one—’

‘Your husband’s house,’ Karsa growled. ‘I am done talking and so are you.’

An hour before dusk, and Karsa led the last of his prizes towards the house – the chief’s daughter. He and Bairoth and Delum had not needed the blood-oil, a testament, Bairoth claimed, to Uryd prowess, though Karsa suspected the true honour belonged to the zeal and desperate creativity of the women of the Rathyd, and even then, the last few for each of the warriors had been peremptory.

As he drew the young woman into the gloomy house with its dying hearth, Karsa swung shut the door and dropped the latch. She turned to face him, a curious tilt to her chin.

‘Mother said you were surprisingly gentle.’

He eyed her. She is as Dayliss, yet not. There is no dark streak within this one. That is... a difference. ‘Remove your clothes.’

She quickly climbed out of the one-piece hide tunic. ‘Had I been first, Karsa Orlong, I would have made home for your seed. Such is this day in my wheel of time.’

‘You would have been proud?’

She paused to give him a startled look, then shook her head. ‘You have slain all the children, all the elders. It will be centuries before our village recovers, and indeed it may not, for the anger of the warriors may turn them on each other, and on us women – should you escape.’

‘Escape? Lie down, there, where your mother did. Karsa Orlong is not interested in escape.’ He moved forward to stand over her. ‘Your warriors will not be returning. The life of this village is ended, and within many of you there shall be the seed of the Uryd. Go there, all of you, to live among my people. And you and your mother, go to the village where I was born. Await me. Raise your children, my children, as Uryd.’