She couldn’t express how happy she was about that. It had been raining all day, a soft drizzle that had soaked her through long before highsun. Maquin’s hard pace had allowed no time for rest, keeping her breathless and exhausted as usual. She was glad to stop before the darkness settled about them.

‘Is a fire safe?’ she asked as Maquin searched for kindling that wasn’t soaked through, cutting away at a rotted branch to reach the dry wood within.

‘So much cloud, and it’s so low, smoke shouldn’t give us away, and we’ve gone a ten-night since we last saw any Vin Thalun. I can bank and hide the fire, keep the flames low and covered. Reckon it’s worth the risk, eh? Feels like my bones are damp.’

I’m glad to hear him say that. He seems inhuman, all of him distilled down to strength and will. Maquin skewered the quartered meat of the rabbit and set it on a spit above the small fire.

They were a ten-night into the heartland of Tenebral, keeping as much as possible to the dense woodlands that carpeted the undulating landscape.

After that night in the woods when Maquin had slain the Vin Thalun – with some help from me – they had set out east. Fidele had still not recovered from that night – she had killed a man. She’d put her spear through his throat, and had had nightmares about it ever since. Idiot woman. He was my enemy, would have killed Maquin and then me.

‘Teach me how to do that,’ she asked abruptly, nodding at the rabbit.

‘Don’t think it’s something for a fine lady’s hands,’ Maquin said.

‘Well, it should be,’ Fidele snapped. ‘What use am I, otherwise? I am like an infant, unable to fend for myself.’

Maquin shrugged. ‘We all learn what we need to,’ he said. ‘People like you learn how to govern, give orders. People like me, to do what we’re told. To learn something useful.’

‘And what is your useful trade, then?’ Fidele asked him.

‘Death. I deal in death.’

His gaze dropped to his hands, and her eyes followed. They were surprisingly fine and long-fingered, like a musician’s hands at court, though as he turned them she saw thick calluses on his fingers and palms, the whorls of his skin marked by earth or blood.

‘I’ll teach you to catch a rabbit, prepare it for cooking, make a fire, if you’d like. Though there may not be another opportunity before we reach Ripa.’

If we reach Ripa.