Tibalt and Ariz stood over their friend’s body. ‘I knew he wouldn’t go along with it,’ said Ariz. ‘You have the money?’

Tibalt reached into his saddlebags and pulled out two leather drawstring purses. He tossed one to Ariz, the other to Santos. The purses’ weight was enough to tell them they had been well paid.

‘Is he dead?’ said Santos before raising the wineskin again to his lips.

Tibalt grabbed it from him. ‘No more! You stay sober. You need your wits to convince Blackstone about the route.’ He looked at Ariz. ‘Is he?’

Ariz grabbed a dirt-encrusted rock and smashed it down onto the mace wound. ‘He is now.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Santos and Ariz rode back in at dawn. Blackstone and the men had struck camp; the horses were saddled. Saustin’s body was draped across his horse.

Blackstone and the captains gathered around them.

‘His horse stumbled and he fell,’ said Ariz. ‘Caught his head on a boulder. It was treacherous out there no matter what this foul-smelling drunk told you.’

Meulon held the horse’s reins as Will Longdon looked at the back of the dead man’s head. ‘Caked with blood and dirt.’ He looked at Blackstone. ‘Must have been a hell of a fall.’

Blackstone examined the wound. There was no evidence to contradict the story. ‘We’ll bury him and then ride on.’

‘Sí, my lord,’ said Ariz and heeled the horse away, followed by Santos.

Blackstone grabbed the startled guide’s reins. ‘The route?’

‘Clear, lord.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Lord?’

‘When Saustin fell did you stop and turn back or did you go on to check the bridge?’

Santos licked his lips. ‘I saw the bridge in the moonlight. It was bright enough for me to see it. Like daylight. All is well.’

‘Did he fall before you saw the bridge or after?’

Santos’s face creased with uncertainty. ‘We reached a turn in the track, we saw the bridge, as I said, and then his horse stumbled and he fell. So we did not need to ride on further, which is why we turned back. With your man.’

‘Then how did his horse stumble? Were you riding hard?’

‘No, lord. I... I do not understand the question.’ Santos looked from one face to the other as Blackstone and his captains stared at him.

‘Bright moonlight, the horses at the walk, an open track, it’s hard to see how a horseman like Saustin could fall.’

Blackstone saw the panic in Santos’s eyes. ‘There must have been a rockfall. There were boulders and stones in our path.’

Blackstone nodded, a look that said he accepted the version of events. Santos relaxed, convinced he had said all the right things to the scar-faced knight whose expression still frightened him.

‘Then you will take us back along the same route where the rockfall caused his horse to stumble?’