I’d be too scared to do that to her. Dark shapes appeared on the far side of the stream, Storm taking form first, her bone-coloured fur seeming to glow in the last rays of dusk. Buddai ran beside her, a brindle shadow. Cywen was shocked at how much bigger than him Storm had grown. Buddai was tall, his back as high as Cywen’s waist, but Storm was a head taller than that, and broader and longer besides. They tumbled in meadow grass together, nipping at each other’s fur.

‘You wouldn’t think we were knee-deep in a God-War, looking at them,’ Corban said.

‘Ignorance is bliss,’ Brina agreed.

Coralen snorted.

Storm leaped the stream in a single bound, circling then pushing in tight against Corban. She folded her legs beneath her and laid her big head across his lap. He grunted with her weight but didn’t push her off, instead tugging absently at one of her fangs. It was about as long as one of Cywen’s knives. Buddai followed, not quite clearing the stream and splashing them in ice-cold water. He curled up against Cywen.

‘Dun Cadlas, the capital of Narvon, is only a half-day’s ride ahead. Balur One-Eye tells me the border of Narvon and Ardan is close, Uthandun and the giantsway only two days’ ride from Dun Cadlas,’ Corban said. ‘Coralen saw the fringes of a great forest during her scouting. It can only be the Darkwood.’ He turned and reached a hand out to Cywen, squeezing her hand.

He remembers Ronan, too. They were friends.

‘In many ways it feels like the place this all started. When Rhin sprung her trap, ambushing Queen Alona, kidnapping you and Edana. Uthan being murdered, Brenin blamed for it.’

‘And Craf found you, lost in the trees,’ Craf muttered.

‘That you did, Craf. You saved us,’ Corban agreed.

‘Yes, Craf did. Clever Craf.’

Corban stared at Craf a while. ‘I miss Fech,’ he said.

‘Craf miss Fech too.’

‘That bird,’ Corban said. ‘It was Kartala, Ventos’ hawk.’

Of course, Cywen thought.

‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘It brought a message to Calidus about you.’

‘It’s been following us, ever since Fech,’ Corban said. ‘We need to do something about that. Calidus and Nathair cannot know our every move.’

‘Unless you can fly I don’t know what you’re going to do about it,’ Brina said.

‘How’s your needlework?’ he asked her.

‘I stitch my clothes,’ Brina shrugged. ‘How’s yours?’

‘The same. Mam and Da taught us both to sew – Mam our clothes, Da leather – boots and the like.’

‘Why?’

‘I’ll talk to you about it after. First, though . . . It’s time for me to choose which way we’re going to go. Dun Crin or Drassil.’

‘Well, what’s it to be?’ Brina asked him.

‘That’s what I was hoping to ask you,’ Corban said.