They rode south towards Navarre, the narrow pocket of land lying between the coast and the eastern border of Aragon. Blackstone had to travel through the kingdom north of Castile to reach the beleaguered Don Pedro across the Pyrenees. When they crossed the River Ardour at Bayonne the broken peaks appeared closer than they were, a trick of the light making their passage onward seem more daunting. They reached Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and turned their backs to the ocean. The steady climb through the wooded foothills and defile through the pass at Roncevalles was where they made the most time once the road widened and Blackstone could urge the bastard horse forward at the trot and canter. The defensive mountain peaks allowed few safe passages through the high-sided passes and as they climbed higher the fall to the gorges and rivers below became more precipitous.

‘What do we do with the boy when we get to Pamplona?’ said Killbere. ‘Leave him with the old man?’

‘I don’t know, Gilbert. It might be the safest place for him. No one knows his true identity or what he witnessed but you know how slippery Navarre is. He might root out the truth and sell the boy to gain favour with Don Pedro or even Aragon. The boy’s testimony has value to them all. I’ll decide when we get there.’

‘Navarre holds the key to Castile. We have to get through those passes before early snowfall. Bad enough now with rockfalls. Thomas, I fear the Prince sends us on an unwelcome mission. We are risking ourselves for a half-crazed Spanish king.’

‘Navarre or Don Pedro?’

‘Both.’ Killbere spat dust from his throat. ‘Goddamn peacocks, the lot of them. Remember when we fought the Jacquerie and Navarre was there with his knights? It looked like a damned coronation with all that pomp.’

Blackstone indulged him. ‘You’re right. They’re both tyrants. But I think you will like Spain.’

‘I will?’

‘It’s like Italy without the Visconti. Don Pedro is a lesser tyrant.’

‘Oh, that’s comforting. I can see why I would warm to the place.’

‘Their women are as beautiful, their wine is as rich and the weather is agreeable.’

‘Unless we are caught on the mountain passes in winter.’

‘That aside.’

‘So we will rescue King Don Pedro of Castile with our few men against thousands of routiers paid for by the Pope and the King of France, keep the boy Lázaro with us if Navarre is inhospitable, ignore the fact that Pedro has Moors riding for him, that he has been excommunicated, murdered his wife, executed his closest advisers and is rumoured to be in league with the devil… but all of this is agreeable because the women are beautiful and their wine is good.’

‘It could be worse.’

‘I don’t see how.’

‘The wine might have soured in the barrel or the women less attractive.’