She waited for him to sit down again. ‘You mean to tell me that you came all this way and didn’t get the full tour?’

‘Hodge was a little sketchy on some of the details, like where all the food’s going.’

Ita began picking through her meat. ‘The food doesn’t stay in Carmarthenshire, that’s for sure. Most is transported west and loaded onto ships.’

He wondered if King Edward was aware of that.

‘Word from inside the camp is that the marcher lords are running quite the lucrative business,’ Ita added.

Isabel leaned forwards. ‘Did you say word from inside the camp?’

‘Yes, those who make it out are often armed with more information than Hodge is comfortable with.’

‘And how does one make it out?’ Blackmane asked.

Ita swallowed her mouthful of meat before answering. ‘There are only two ways out of that place—as a corpse on the back of a wagon or escaping over the fence.’

Blackmane’s eyebrows came together. ‘The fence is heavily guarded. They would be caught before they’d even secured a rope.’

Ita nodded in agreement. ‘Oh, there’s no time for rope. The only way out is via the woodpile against the fence at the back of the kitchen. If you get a run up, you can use it as a step to reach the top. Of course, the wood needs to be stacked correctly or it can result in spectacular failure.’ She threw bones on the fire. ‘But it’s not for the faint of heart or the unfit. Any prisoner caught outside the fence line without permission is publicly executed. They never waste an opportunity to teach those inside a lesson—comply or die.’

Isabel looked down at her lap. ‘But how do they know who is from the camp and who is not?’

‘You’ve been gone too long, my darling friend.’ Ita tucked her legs in beside her. ‘There are only two kinds of people left in the wastelands: criminals who have been caught and criminals yet to be caught. They don’t care which one you are. Both are enslaved or killed in the end.’

Blackmane picked up a stick to move one of the burning logs, and immediately Isabel moved back from the fire. He put the stick down. ‘What form of execution do they use?’ He wanted to better understand their mind-set.

Ita closed her eyes for a moment. ‘At first it was a simple hanging, but when the message didn’t get through, they became graphic events. It’s not uncommon for people to be drawn and quartered, disembowelled, or burned alive.’

Isabel stared off into the dark. ‘Now I understand why your mother did not want to leave with me. Leaving is not freedom.’

Ita watched the flames. ‘You should know better than anyone that no one is free anymore. There are just different forms of prisons outside the camp. It’s understandable why most choose the safety of shackles.’

Isabel shuffled forwards slightly until Ita looked at her. ‘I need to know what happened the night of the fire.’