‘What about me?’ Craf squawked.

‘Stay with me,’ she said, clicked her tongue and touched her heels to her horse, spurring it to a canter.

Coralen lay hidden amongst gorse and heather, studying the village in front of her. She had led Dath and a dozen Jehar wide around the village and approached through woodland from the south, leaving the majority of them hidden in the trees. Coralen and Dath had crept closer for a better look, accompanied by Kulla, a young Jehar warrior who always seemed to be somewhere close to Dath. Coralen just ignored her.

The small village spread along the riverbank, consisting of forty or fifty buildings of undressed stone and turf roofs, a large round-house at its centre. Women were scrubbing clothes in the river shallows, bairns playing on the riverbank under their watchful eye. Men worked in fields of wheat and rye spread to the west, and to the east Coralen saw a herd of goats dotting the valley slopes, their bleating drifting on the wind.

As Coralen watched the women about their work she saw a girl – six or seven summers, maybe – creep up on one of the women and splash water over her back, then run away in a burst of spray and giggles. The water must have been icy cold, fresh from the mountains, but the woman didn’t turn, just continued her scrubbing against a boulder. In time the girl crept back again with exaggerated stealth, but just before she put her cupped hands into the water, the woman turned and dashed after her, sweeping her up and kissing her repeatedly. Coralen heard them both laughing.

As she watched she felt something tighten in her chest, and to her horror she felt tears bloom in her eyes. I can’t remember one moment in all my life like that with my mam. I was never the child she wanted. She blinked, sending a fat tear rolling down her cheek, and sniffed.

‘You all right?’ Dath asked beside her.

‘Fine,’ she snapped, swiping at her face. ‘A fly in my eye.’ She paused a moment, then crept back to her horse and swung into the saddle. Dath and Kulla followed her.

‘Where are you going?’

‘To the village.’ The original plan had been to stick to their position until Corban and the warband appeared, and make sure that no one headed south from the village in an attempt to spread word of the warband’s coming. Suddenly, though, the fear and panic that the villagers would feel were things she wanted to try and avoid.

‘Why?’ Dath asked her. ‘It’s dangerous.’

‘You should stay here,’ she said as she rode towards the village. Dath caught up with her.

‘You’re mad, but Corban and Farrell would have my stones if I let you go riding into that village alone.’

‘Displeasing the Seren Disglair must be avoided,’ Kulla said, a horrified expression creeping across her face. ‘At all costs.’