Sab was sitting beneath a frozen tree, lacing up her boots. She gave him a tight smile as he wandered over. She looked marginally better rested than him, which wasn’t saying much.

‘Morning,’ he mumbled. Somehow his little sister was making him feel two feet tall.

‘Good morning, Brother Bear,’ she replied, springing to her feet. ‘Have you decided what you’re going to do?’

‘That’s what I wanted to—’

‘And if you go south, would you be expecting me to come too?’

He paused, his breath coming in plumes in the chilly air. ‘I hadn’t really thought about it,’ he said.

‘Oh, that’s just fucking priceless, Bear! Am I an inconvenience to you?’

‘No, not at all, Sab, nothing like that!’

‘Then what is it like?’

‘I …’

‘Far too dangerous for silly young girls, right? Trekking to the arse-end of nowhere, in the hands of a monstrous reaver? What would you do when you got there? If you got there?’

He let out a long puff of air, watching it billow amber and vanish into the morning.

‘I—’

‘—don’t know, of course. Who does.’ She cuffed him on the arm. ‘I don’t like you with these people, Bear. Killers and thieves, itinerants, bad influences. I don’t think Mum would approve, do you?’

He cracked a grin. ‘I don’t suppose she would.’

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. ‘I’m the only one who should be a bad influence on you.’ When she stepped back her eyes were glistening. ‘I’m going home, Bear. I’ve had it with sneaking around in disguise, hiding in shadows and passing messages. It’s time to spread the word, get organized. I’m going back to whip up some resistance and defend our family, just in case those weasel-fuckers decide to come knocking in our neck of the woods.’

Something lurched hot in his gut at the thought of riders at the manse, Corvel’s pennant stiff in the wintry breeze, Brother Hurkel stomping toward the door. Sab saw it in his eyes and put a cold hand on his cheek.

‘Don’t fret, Brother Bear, they won’t catch us with our breeches round our ankles. I’m going to raise some forces, open some eyes. You can trust me. I survived long enough in the citadel on my own, didn’t I?’

He nodded, feeling his cheeks burning against the cold with shame and gratitude. ‘You did. You surely did. But—’