‘I’ll sound the alarm over poor Hesso, then say I saw someone running off the other way. You must have ditched me in the gardens, lost in the rain, poor me.’ Chel smiled, but something sharp and regretful needled his innards. ‘Wait behind there until the gate guards come running past, then run for it. There are three of them. Don’t get seen, whatever you do – if it looks like you made it to the river, they won’t bother pulling the dogs from the kennels. Get it?’

They nodded.

‘Good luck, then, sell-swords.’

Rennic ducked his head in acknowledgement, then scrambled through the rain and down beside the muddy track that led down to the gate. Chel was left before her, fumbling for suitable words.

‘Rasha, I don’t—’

She took his elbow and pulled him to one side, behind a chicken coop and out of sight of the track’s far side.

‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

She stood before him in the drizzle, dampslick, her eyes shining up in the dim glimmer of distant lamps. ‘Take care of yourself, outlaw,’ she said, her arm still on his. ‘When this is over, once you’ve stopped your war, come this way again, and we’ll take our walk.’

She kissed him then, before he could speak, pulling him down to her, her lips cold and soft, their faces slippery with rain. She pressed against him, the cool of her hands on his cheeks at first startling, then soothing, their warmth growing. He felt dizzy, breathless, enraptured by the sudden inexplicability of it all. And then she broke away, her hands leaving his cheeks, her breath steaming before them. Chel’s lips were numb, bereft, her warmth on him already fading.

‘Stay safe,’ she said, then turned and hurried away into the soggy night. Chel stood, rolling his lips against each other, marvelling at the lingering tingles that shivered over him. He thought about calling after her. Wait. Come back. I want to do that again.

A fat slug of rain slopped from the edge of the coop and down the back of his neck. The spell broken, he made for the ditch where Rennic lay, just as her first cries of counterfeit alarm drifted over the rain.

***

They stomped down terraced fields in the darkness, Rennic hissing and cursing at every slurping mud pocket, damning the hill and those who built upon it. Chel concentrated on keeping his footing, the dark near absolute despite the rain’s abatement. He strained his ears at the shouts and bells from above them, softened by mist and distance, the tell-tale barking of hounds so far little more than excited accompaniment to the buzz of activity. But in his head, her voice spoke again and again. When this is over …

‘What’s the plan …’ Rennic muttered, his breath coming hard as he crested another of the rugged humps of earth, ‘… for the outer wall?’