“Heya!” he said to the sergeant. “I know how to carve up a sheep.”

“Heh! Heh! Seems you do. But we’re eating these, not devouring them.” He walked away without handing Shai a knife. Indeed, the soldiers did all the work skinning and butchering the sheep, keeping the prisoners away from anything sharp. The big open hearth soon blazed, and Shai’s mouth watered as meat began to sizzle.

Yudit crept up beside him and slipped a pair of nai cakes, like flat bread, into his hand. “How did you know?” she whispered.

“Eh, ah, it’s a trick we did at home, eh?” He gulped them down when no one was looking.

She pressed leaves into his palm. “Se leaves. Very nourishing.”

They had an unpleasant, spicy flavor, but they went down easily and for all that they weren’t much to taste, they were filling. For the first time in days, he didn’t feel light-headed.

“Did you really?” she asked him.

“With sheep? I did not!”

She laughed, and he saw she’d been teasing, that she’d understood all along, and the sight of a smile briefly on her face made it all worth it.

“Heya, girl!” called the sergeant, beckoning to Yudit. She winced, let go of Shai’s hand, and rose. “Heh. He may have broad shoulders and brawny arms, but he’s not fashioned for the likes of you, eh?” The soldiers chortled. Head bowed, Yudit trudged over to the sergeant, and he led her into one of the longhouses. The men’s blood was up after the fight, and they quarreled, there being too many soldiers who wanted a piece and too few captives old enough to be marked for the taking.

“What about one of the younger ones?” said one of the soldiers, eyeing Vali and Dena, who sat apart with their perfectly groomed hair now rather undone by a day’s hard walking.

The others jeered and cursed. “What? That’s disgusting.”

“If the lord does it, it must be good for the rest of us—”

“Shut up! You gods-rotted imbecile. You want to get us all punished?”

“Hush! Lookya. Here he comes.”

The lord, his leaf-green cloak swagged behind him, walked into the clearing leading his winged horse. All fell silent, heads bowed, and after a troubling silence in which no one spoke, the sergeant burst out of the long-house, tying up his trousers.

“Eh, lord, sorry to keep you waiting. What’s your wish?”

“Why have you stopped marching while there’s still light for walking?”

“Ah, eh, had a bit of a fight with some locals, here, and afterward I thought we might cook up two sheep to strengthen our blood.”

The man’s gaze cowed all. Shai watched with bent head, kneeling in the dirt with the other prisoners. “This lack of discipline is what got you defeated in Olossi. We must keep moving.” He glanced at the sky, and licked his lips. He had a prim face, bland and ordinary, that of a man who in other circumstances you might meet with equanimity in the market about unexceptional business. “Anyway, I’m tasting a flavor in the air. We’re being followed, but I can’t . . . quite . . . grasp it. Still, the meat will strengthen you. Dena and Vali, come along.”