‘They would!’ Galen watched Raffi stir and roll over. ‘But Mardoc got out. Something that big would have killed him.’

‘And what about the Crow?’

She said it slowly, deliberately. Raffi, half-awake, stared at her in astonishment; Galen slid his eyes to her instantly.

‘What about him?’ he asked, after a cold moment.

Carys smiled, but Raffi knew she was uneasy. ‘All right. I suppose I should tell you. I listened at Lerin’s door.’

Galen’s hand clutched his stick; for a moment Raffi thought he would use it on her and scrambled up, gasping, ‘No!’ but Carys only laughed scornfully. ‘I’m not your scholar, Galen. Don’t think you can beat me into silence.’

He stared at her, and Raffi caught the strange taints of anger and despair that wreathed him. Finally, in a voice choked with wrath, he said, ‘How much did you hear?’

‘That the Crow is here in Tasceron. That you’d had messages. That you thought, if you could find him, he could destroy the Watch.’

She leaned forward, her hair glossy in the flamelight. ‘That was all. I’m sorry, Galen, but I had to know what was happening! I’m here to find my father, and I don’t know where to start. But the Crow! With him we could do anything!’

The silence was terrible. Raffi pulled the blanket around him and rubbed his face nervously with a filthy hand. Galen sat absolutely still, watching Carys with a bitter stare that made her hand creep towards the crossbow. When he spoke his voice was hoarse. ‘Never spy on me again, girl. Never.’

The threat was cold, and real. Chilled, she nodded. It took all her courage to say, ‘I want to stay with you. I want to help.’

But Galen got up abruptly. Taking his stick, he flung the wood from the doorway. ‘Stay here. I’ll be back.’

‘Where are you going?’ Raffi asked, scrambling up.

‘Out!’ The keeper stared at him grimly. ‘To breathe!’

When he was gone, they both relaxed. Raffi drank some water from the flask and passed it across; kneeling up, he felt for the bread in the pack.

‘Was I wrong to tell him?’ Carys asked quietly.

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. We’d have had to explain to you soon, I suppose. And he would have found out. He’s a keeper.’

‘He hadn’t yet,’ she said drily.

Raffi glanced at her, then away. ‘How could you listen at the door, Carys! We thought we could trust you!’

Looking down at the flask, she said, ‘You can. Of course you can.’

Galen was a long time away. When he finally came back he said nothing about Carys or the Crow. Crouching, he crammed the blankets into the pack. ‘There’s a fountain not far from here, still running. The water’s tainted, but drinkable. And you can wash.’

His own hair was wet and his face clean.

‘Then what?’ Carys asked.