‘They can run, these Kadoshim,’ Salach said to Uthas after they had covered three or four leagues. Uthas grunted his agreement. The Kadoshim had settled into their new bodies now, and they ran with a supple power, their stamina seeming to match the giants’.

They moved into the hills; Calidus, ordering the pace to slow, sent a dozen of the Kadoshim fanning out ahead.

‘He is teaching them,’ Salach observed.

‘Aye, and they are quick learners.’

They crested a low hill and Calidus reined in his horse.

A dell spread before them. The grass had been flattened by many people, a section burned by a large fire. A row of cairns sat close to the stream, Uthas counted sixteen and saw that three of the cairns were bigger than the others – cairns built for giants.

Asroth below, let Balur lie in one of those.

Beyond the cairns was a stand of trees, bent and twisted by the wind. Headless corpses dangled from their branches like the tattered banners of a defeated foe.

Calidus watched as the Kadoshim spread through the camp, scratching at the ground, sniffing, some snarling and growling like animals.

‘They are gone,’ Calidus said as Uthas reached him. ‘Probably the day after the battle, two days ahead of us. Where will Meical take them, though? That is the question.’

‘Let him run,’ Salach sneered. Calidus frowned at him. Some of the Kadoshim reached the cairns and began pulling away the stones.

‘You have outmanoeuvred him every step thus far,’ Uthas said.

‘Aye, thus far. We must never underestimate Meical, though. I never have, and that is why we are ahead. That is why this will end with his wings sheared and his head on a spike.’ Calidus looked up at the corpses dangling from the trees, heads severed. ‘But we must not forget that Meical is no fool, and he has some powerful allies.’

Balur One-Eye not least amongst them. ‘And he has the starstone axe,’ Uthas said. ‘So what now? Where has Meical gone with his rabble?’

‘It does not matter.’ Calidus shrugged. ‘He has too few about him to challenge us for the cauldron. And we cannot change our course. The cauldron must be taken to a safer place. We will continue to Tenebral, and Meical will continue to plot and scheme, but he is undone. His more powerful allies are dead, his attempts at power blocked, thwarted. The war is won, as long as we keep our heads.’

Literally, Uthas thought, glancing at the headless corpses swaying above them.

Calidus looked up, Uthas following his gaze to a dot in the sky. A bird, high above. It circled lower, huge wings spread, riding the current until it was close enough for Uthas to see the curve of its beak.

I recognize that bird.

Calidus held an arm out, and with a beat of its wings the great hawk alighted on his forearm. Calidus scratched its chest.

‘Kartala,’ he said. ‘Your master is dead, then.’