It felt as if something had woken him. A scream? Was it a dream? He rubbed his eyes, stopped himself when he realized he was still wearing his wolven gauntlet, and climbed to his feet. They had made camp close to the river; the trees were widely spaced here. The ground was damp with dew, the world fresh and new for a few moments beneath the sun’s first rays, yet Corban felt tired already. He had hardly slept, the weight of his decision bearing down upon him, though it seemed that the rest of the world had snored quite contentedly around him.

We will fight. He had felt sure yesterday, once he’d made the decision, determined. Now, though, he found himself hoping that Rhin’s warband would turn away and march east or west, anywhere but across their path – wishful thinking. By now they would have come across the trail of Corban’s warband. He was resigned to battle now.

An idea had formed in his mind yesterday when he’d seen the terrain of the land, based on his memory of an ambush that Camlin had orchestrated back in Cambren. He had consulted with Meical, Tukul and Balur, and they had agreed on his strategy. The bulk of the warband would remain within the woods where they were camped and would emerge to face the enemy warband head on. A smaller force, a score of giants and a hundred Jehar, were hidden on the slopes to the west, a flanking ambush. Meical would lead them. Between them the plan was to pin Rhin’s warriors against the banks of the river and crush them.

A Jehar appeared close by – Akar, captain of the Jehar that had travelled with Nathair. He held a warning finger up to his lips.

Corban heard it again then. A scream to his left, distant, filtering through the woods. At first he thought it was a fox, the cry high pitched and childlike. Then he heard another, closer, straight ahead. Akar gripped the sword hilt upon his back but did not draw, other Jehar guards moving about them, more rousing from sleep. A figure emerged from the shadows – a Jehar running swift and silent, a guard from deeper within the wood.

‘People are out there, coming this way,’ he breathed to Akar and Corban.

‘Who? How many?’ Akar asked.

‘Hard to tell. They sound scattered through the forest.’

Hooves drummed behind him and he turned to see Coralen riding into the camp, back from a night’s reconnoitring to the south. Storm and Buddai were with her, Jehar riders at her back.

That’s where you’ve been, he thought, looking at Storm.

Coralen reined in before him, opened her mouth to speak, then her eyes stared past him, deeper into the woods.