‘I need to get out, some air,’ Veradis mumbled. He was so furious he couldn’t even look at Nathair as he made for the door, slammed it open to see Calidus striding towards him. Beside him walked a strange figure, a girl, tall, fair-haired and long-limbed. Something about her reminded Veradis of Tain, the giantling, though she appeared travel stained, half-dead, skeletally thin and shivering uncontrollably. They passed each other, Calidus’ eyes fixing Veradis as he went by.

He is Kadoshim. His skin goose-fleshed.

Calidus steered the girl into Nathair’s chamber.

A dozen paces along the corridor Veradis swayed, reached a hand out to the wall to steady himself. He heard Calidus’ voice.

‘You told him, then.’

‘Aye. It was time.’

‘He didn’t look as if he took it too well.’

‘What did you expect?’

‘Perhaps I should bring him back,’ Calidus said.

‘No, leave him. Where can he go? We are in the middle of Forn Forest. All will be well, he just needs some time to think it through, to readjust. He will be back of his own accord.’

‘We shall see.’

‘He must come back to me, our friendship is too strong. And I need him . . .’ That last was only a whisper.

‘And who is this?’ Nathair said, firmer again.

‘Answer your high king, child,’ Calidus said.

‘My name is Trigg, my lord,’ a frail voice replied.

‘And tell your King what you told me, Trigg,’ Calidus said. There was a new note in Calidus’ voice that Veradis had not heard before. Excitement.

‘I can take you to Drassil,’ the girl said. ‘I saw their secret way.’

‘And why should I trust you?’ Nathair asked her.

A silence settled, broken finally by the girl’s voice. ‘All my life I thought them my kin, my family,’ she muttered. ‘But they betrayed me, sent me away.’

‘What are you talking about, be clear, girl,’ Nathair snapped. ‘Why should I trust you?’

‘Because there are those in Drassil that I would see dead,’ the girl snarled.

Veradis pushed himself from the wall and strode away.

Traitors. It seemed the world was full of them.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

MAQUIN

Maquin sat in a cold cell with iron bars, off a corridor deep in the bowels of Brikan.

Life is strange, and cruel, he thought. It was not so long ago that I sat in the halls above, and ate, laughed and sang with Kastell and my Gadrai brothers. Orgull, Tahir . . .

The world has gone mad.

He was not alone in these cells. Earlier the giantess Raina and her bairn had been herded in and shut away at the very end. Maquin had heard them talking in giantish, like two landslides grating back and forth, and he had heard a sniffling sound which he had presumed was weeping. That had all ended some time ago, though, and since then the only sound had been the steady drip of water from walls.