Kartala beat her wings and lifted into the air, the power of her departure making the corpses sway and creak in the trees.

‘That should go a long way to avoiding any more unannounced interruptions,’ Calidus said.

‘Indeed.’

The Kadoshim had now uncovered the giant cairns and Uthas looked in, scowling when he didn’t see Balur amongst the dead.

Calidus held up a hand as one of the Kadoshim reached the cairn he was standing beside. He leaned over, picking up the purple flower of a thistle that was resting upon it and sniffed at it like a hound. Calidus nodded for the Kadoshim to proceed and it tore at the cairn, heaving stones and hurling them with a strength even more prodigious than its companions’.

‘He’s a strong one,’ Salach remarked.

‘When the starstone axe was taken from Alcyon the cauldron’s link with the Otherworld was broken; my kin felt it happening. Many of them sped through the veil in those last moments, swarmed into one body before the gateway was severed. That is the body.’

‘What’s his name?’ Uthas asked.

‘His name is Legion, because . . . well, it’s self-explanatory, really.’

Uthas raised an eyebrow.

In short moments a body had been uncovered – a woman, dark hair, skin waxy in death. ‘Ahh,’ Calidus said, smiling. ‘I recognize her. She put a knife or two in me during the battle.’ He looked at the thistle between his fingers, twirled it, then slipped it inside his cloak. ‘Take her head,’ he ordered Salach. He gestured to the Kadoshim already sniffing at the corpse. ‘And they can have the rest.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MAQUIN

Maquin ran through the trees, the sound of Fidele’s footfalls just behind.

Running away, again. This is becoming a very bad habit.

They had been running a long time, Maquin’s lungs burning with each breath. Evening was not far off.