The door creaked open and Alben entered. He paused when he saw Maquin sitting up, then looked over his shoulder and said something. Footsteps echoed, fading quickly.

‘Welcome back to the land of the living,’ Alben said with a smile.

‘How long?’ Maquin said, his voice a dry croak. He sipped some more water.

‘Twenty nights. You should be dead.’ Alben put a hand upon Maquin’s forehead, then held two fingers to the pulse in Maquin’s wrist.

‘Lykos?’ Maquin asked. The Vin Thalun was suddenly all that Maquin could think about. He had an overwhelming urge to find a knife and sheathe it in Lykos’ heart.

‘We are under siege. You remember the attack on the tower?’

‘I do.’

‘We fought them back. They have ventured a few sorties against our walls since then, but nothing has come as close to success as that first attempt.’

Fidele appeared in the doorway. She froze when she saw him sitting there. She smiled at him, and he smiled in return, feeling a flutter in his belly as he did so.

‘I knew you wouldn’t die,’ Fidele said, crossing the room to him as Alben left. Tentatively she reached out, her fingertips brushing the back of his hand.

Memories flowed, sharp and vivid. Standing on a bridge, one of the Ben-Elim before him. You have a choice to make.

‘I was standing upon the bridge of swords,’ he breathed. ‘One of the Ben-Elim stood guard upon it.’

‘You have been racked by fever for almost a moon. You have had many dreams,’ Fidele said. ‘Fever dreams.’

‘It was no dream. The Ben-Elim, he gave me a choice. Go forward or go back. I wanted to cross over, to be with my kin, my friends. To find peace.’

‘Why did you come back, then?’ Fidele asked him.

‘Three reasons. Three people. Jael. Lykos. You.’ He paused and looked up into her eyes. ‘Two for vengeance. One for love.’

She stared at him a long, timeless moment, then she leaned forwards and kissed him.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

RAFE

Rafe stared across the river at the wall of trees on the opposite bank.

‘The Darkwood,’ Braith said beside him, with something close to real affection in his voice.

And beyond it Ardan. Home.

It had been a long journey, two moons of hard riding on Halion’s trail.

And now they were just a few leagues away. It was a strange feeling after being away so long.

The dogs were down by the bank, worrying at the mud and silt that edged the estuary.

They’d follow Halion’s trail right into the water if they could. Best scent hounds I’ve ever known.