“I see. And where is Cadal?”

“I think he thought I’d run for home, and he must have gone after me. At any rate he didn’t follow me down here.”

“That was sensible of him,” said Belasius. His voice was still quiet, sleepy almost, but cat-sleepy, velvet sheathing a bright dagger-point. “But in spite of—what you heard—it did not in fact occur to you to run for home?”

“Of course not.”

I saw his eyes glint for a moment under the long lids. “‘Of course not’?”

“I had to know what was going on.”

“Ah. Did you know I would be here?”

“Not before I saw Ulfin and the horses, no. And not because you told me to keep to the road, either. But I—shall we say I knew something was abroad in the forest tonight, and that I had to find it?”

He regarded me for a moment longer. I had been right in thinking he would not look surprised. Then he jerked his head. “Come, it’s cold, and I want my cloak.” As I followed him up the grating shingle he added, over his shoulder: “I take it that Ulfin is still there?”

“I should think so. You have him pretty efficiently frightened.”

“He has no need to be afraid, as long as he keeps away and sees nothing.”

“Then it’s true he doesn’t know?”

“Whatever he knows or doesn’t know,” he said indifferently, “he has the sense to keep silent. I have promised him that if he obeys me in these things without question, then I shall free him in time to escape.”

“Escape? From what?”

“Death when I die. It is normal to send the priests’ servants with them.”

We were walking side by side up the path. I glanced at him. He was wearing a dark robe, more elegant than anything I had seen at home, even the clothes Camlach wore; his belt was of beautifully worked leather, probably Italian, and there was a big round brooch at his shoulder where the moonlight caught a design of circles and knotted snakes in gold. He looked—even under the film which tonight’s proceedings had drawn over him—Romanised, urbane, intelligent. I said: “Forgive me, Belasius, but didn’t that kind of thing go out with the Egyptians? Even in Wales we would think it old-fashioned.”