‘So did I,’ Fidele breathed as she helped him stand. ‘What now?’

‘Didn’t think we’d get this far.’ He glanced down the trail at the onrushing warriors, then over his shoulder at the river.

‘Time to get wet,’ he said. He gripped her hand in his and together they ran at the ravine’s edge, leapt into the air and plummeted towards the river below.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

LYKOS

Lykos wandered in a world of grey. Grey plains undulating into the distance, a charcoal river curling through it like some fluid serpent. Grey trees, branches swaying, slate-grey clouds boiling above him. In the distance he saw a structure, arching out of the land.

A bridge?

On its far side was a wall, stretching into the sky, merging with the clouds. Or was it a wall . . . ?

He squinted, saw that there was movement within it, a billowing, like sails in a fickle wind.

It is not a wall. It is mist. A fog bank.

He saw a rock and sat to assess the situation.

Pain spiked, in his face and back. He put his hand to the greater pain, his back, and his fingers came away red. Blood red.

‘How did that happen?’

He felt a flicker of worry, but almost as soon as it had come it was gone. It was hard to care in this world leached of all colour. Of all life.

He looked about again, knew where he was.

The Otherworld. He had been here before, since he had made his pact with Asroth, summoned here on rare occasions by Calidus for some clandestine communication or other. But this time it felt different. Time was different here, hard to measure, but he knew somehow that he’d been here . . . a while? How long?

‘Long enough. Longer than ever before.’

Is this death?

‘No,’ a voice said beside him, startling him. ‘But near enough.’

It was Calidus, sitting upon a boulder. He looked younger, his white hair softer, less brittle, the creases in his face lines instead of grooves. He wore a coat of chainmail, dark leathery wings folded behind him. A smile spread across his face.

‘You look pleased with yourself,’ Lykos commented.

‘I am. Things are going well.’

‘So why am I here?’ Lykos asked him.

Calidus’ smile disappeared. ‘I have not summoned you this time. You found your own way here. You are dying.’

‘Oh.’ I guessed as much. I should feel scared, but I don’t.

‘And that, over there?’ He pointed to the bridge and the wall of mist.

‘The bridge of swords, and what comes next,’ Calidus told him.

‘What does come next?’

‘Death. Whatever that is.’

Lykos felt indifferent to it. Not even any hint of curiosity.

‘I don’t want you to die,’ Calidus said. ‘I need you to live.’

Lykos shrugged again.