A hoot from the tree-line drew Rennic and Chel out of the open, into the cool darkness of the woods. Behind them, the tower consumed itself, the fire’s mad light bathing the hilltop and those around it. Those of the resistance who had made it out stood scattered, shocked and sooty.

‘For once,’ Chel snapped at Rennic as branches closed over them and the night wind sapped the heat from their skin, ‘can you let go of your pride just long enough to do what’s necessary?’

Flames lit one side of the big man’s face. ‘Look who’s talking.’ Behind them, a flaming roof timber crashed down into the structure. Chel flinched away, but Rennic did not. ‘If our pal Corvel didn’t know where they were before, he will now.’

Chel looked back, worry tightening his chest in tandem with the smoke.

Whisper lurked in the trees, ever watchful, bow drawn. Blinking in the shifting, tree-split light, Chel picked out the others further back, making out Sab, his chest easing a little. He ran to her first, checking her for damage as she did likewise. The small Nort, Kosh, watched them with quiet, angry eyes, while Tarfel sat beneath a tree, huddled beneath his cloak and shaking. Eka was there too, along with two of her people. She was kneeling by the prone form of another, a young man, still and bloodied. Her lone eye wept.

‘She saved me,’ Sabina said softly, her eyes on the weeping archer. ‘Then Whisper saved her.’

‘You made it, then? We were beginning to worry.’ Lemon was soot-streaked but cheerful. Whisper signalled something beside her, something Chel recognized as a question. An angry one.

Rennic wiped his hand across his forehead, leaving a smear of bloodied charcoal. His hair and beard were singed, small, truncated hairs curling away at odd angles here and there.

‘Had to make sure Spider wasn’t coming after us.’

‘And did you?’ Lemon asked.

Behind them, the rest of the tower’s roof collapsed, dropping in on itself in a gout of rolling fire.

‘He’s not coming back,’ Chel said, eyes shielded against the glare.

‘That right? Saw him die, saw the body, did you?’

‘Well, no, but—’

‘Then you can’t be certain. You don’t see a body, you can’t be certain. Ever. Remember that, wee bear.’

Whisper motioned again, softer this time, just at Rennic. He grunted.