“Same thing as in the other villages: opportunity,” said Kurkas. “Makrov’s tidying up before the wind changes.”

“He’s right,” said Halvor. “They’d prisoner wagons out front. They weren’t empty, neither. Two lads and a lassie. One of them more banged up than Kurkas here. Anyone suspected of being a wolf’s-head is dragged up to Cragwatch. Word is that most who survived the Hadari are up there too.” She brought her fist down on the table. Her face scrunched tight. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

Kurkas knew better than to meet her gaze and settled for meeting that of the Queen in Twilight. “Lord Akadra will put it right.”

He felt the fury of her gaze fall on him. “Can’t put right the dead, can he?”

“Wouldn’t be a popular fellow if he could. Different kind of trouble, that.”

“Can you not spring the wagons?” asked Ardel.

“With who?” Halvor replied. “What’s left of my phoenixes have scattered. Running for the coast or the Thrakkian border, if they’ve any sense. Everyone else too, I shouldn’t wonder.”

Kurkas chuckled. “So, what do we do?”

“You’re staying here. I’m a fugitive, but you’re a loyal servant of the Republic. Ardel found you on the battlefield and nursed you back to health. Try not to die on him. It’ll raise questions.”

Halvor’s story wasn’t too far from the truth. Only Ardel hadn’t “found” him – Revekah had fetched Ardel from his tiny hilltop farm.

Kurkas sniffed. “I’m feeling much better.”

“Feeling better?” Halvor replied. “How far can you walk without that stick?”

Kurkas patted the crudely padded and cut-down spear-staff resting against his chair. “Reckon that if Lumestra meant us to walk unaided, she’d not have given us the idea of crutches.”

“You’re impossible.”

“And I’m hearing a lot about what I should be doing, and nothing of what you intend.” He shrugged. “If you don’t trust me, just say so. I can take it.”

She tipped forward, head falling into her hands. “What I want to do more than anything is pull the ground up over my head and sleep. I feel like I’ve barely closed my eyes in days.”

Kurkas couldn’t deny that Halvor had lost a good deal of her spark. She looked every bit as grey and miserable as the weather, and with about as much prospect of sunlight breaking through. She’d almost killed him a few days back. Now, a determined field mouse could have given her a stiff challenge. It was upsetting, and not just because that same field mouse could have settled him with two paws tied behind its back.