The supplicant stumbled back through the maze of rotten timber. Apara waited for the latch to click once more before claiming the offering. A bite confirmed the quality of the coin and the supplicant’s desperation both.

“You heard?” she called.

Nikros unfolded himself from his perch amid the beams, his thin face bright with wicked anticipation. “I heard, dear cousin. I’ll leave at once.”

Ten

Ten

The wolf-howl jolted Rosa awake from dreams of battle. She reached for the sword beneath her haversack. One wolf, she didn’t mind. But a pack? You heard tales about the wolves of Tevar Flood. Old stories of flesh and fur running like water into new forms.

Another howl, this time further away from the roadside dell. Or did it only seem so with comforting steel in her grasp? Peril always lessened if one had the means to face it.

Every sound, every sensation took on heightened significance. Motes and insects dancing above the fire’s smouldering embers. The rustle of branches in the breeze. Dull pain in her ribs, warning too late that she’d slept atop an exposed root. The soft rumble of the horses’ breath. The stutter of Kasamor’s snores. Even the slow hammer of her own pulse.

A third cry split the air. Distant, this time. Pack or loner, ephemeral or myth, the creature had moved away. Rosa let go of her sword and strove for sleep. It was no good. Kasamor’s arrhythmic snore juddered like the beat of a drunken parade drummer, and the anticipation of the next snorting gasp was somehow worse than the sound itself.

At last, Rosa could take no more. Abandoning all hope of reclaiming her dreams, she sat bolt upright, hugged her knees and stared across ashen embers.

“For pity’s sake, Kas,” she hissed. “Bad enough you wouldn’t let us spend a civilised night back at Callastair. Can you not let me get a little sleep?”

The unconscious contempt of Kasamor’s snore was her only reply.

But the snore was only an excuse, wasn’t it? Even without it, there’d be no refuge from her own thoughts, and the dread of imminent loss. But could you lose someone who wasn’t yours to begin with?

“Why am I even here?” Rosa muttered. “I should have made Viktor come instead.”

But then she wouldn’t have seen for herself. Wouldn’t have the chance to say something – anything – to change Kas’ mind. If she spoke at all.

It was ludicrous. She’d stood the tests of shield wall and cavalry charge without a flicker of fear. But this? Fear was all she had. Fear at what would happen if she spoke her heart’s truth and Kasamor rejected her. Fear at where that course would lead if he did not. For someone who’d long made habit of keeping family and friends at a distance, success provoked as much dread as failure.