‘We will,’ they cried, Cywen raising her voice with the rest of them, the sound of their voices like a clap of thunder, making the flames in the fire-pits flicker.

Gar nodded to Dath and Farrell, and one by one they stepped forward and gripped Corban’s blade, their blood mingling with his, then stood either side of him. Gar stepped forward and did the same, all the while his eyes locked to Corban’s. He stood aside, let the next person step forward. Cywen followed, smiling at her brother as if it was Midsummer’s Day, both joyful and solemn, then Coralen, Brina, all of Corban’s captains. Then the crowd behind began to file forward, each and every one of them performing the same ritual, Corban sharing more than words with each one of them.

Eventually it was done and then food and drink was filling the tables, boar and deer turning on spits above fire-pits. Cywen finally fell into her bed exhausted, but also filled with a sense of something she’d almost forgotten.

Peace. I feel at peace, for the first time since . . . She did not know, giving the last shreds of her sleep-slipping attention to that thought.

Since Ronan was slain.

One last thought flitted through her mind before sleep took her.

We are going to win.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

ULFILAS

Ulfilas wiped sweat from his brow. It was freezing cold, there was snow beneath his boots, and the ground was as hard as iron beneath that, and yet still he was sweating.

This road-making is hard work, there’s no denying.

Behind him close to three thousand warriors laboured from sunrise to sunset, felling trees, levelling ground, laying a timber road wide enough for a dozen horsemen to ride abreast. At the rear of the column King Jael rode with his honour guard of twenty Jehar warriors, and Sumur. Ulfilas had ridden with them for the first moon, but he found those black, dead eyes of the Jehar harder to bear than the backbreaking life of a road-layer, so he chose to fill his days with hard work and his nights with exhausted, dreamless sleep.

Up ahead Ulfilas heard shouting, saw men stop what they were doing.

Better go and see what all the fuss is about.

Running feet caught him up as Dag joined him.

‘What’s that all about?’ Ulfilas asked the huntsman.

‘We’ll find out soon enough.’

Ulfilas felt a flush of pride as he looked at the road they were building and thought of both the leagues behind them and the conditions under which they’d accomplished this mammoth task.