They followed the tracks out of Sorn, moving towards the Godroad. It was all as Pari suspected but something didn’t seem right, though she couldn’t put her finger on what.

‘Here!’ said Nidra, running ahead to a particularly thorny bush. Amid the spikes were some strands of grey, threads torn from human clothing. ‘That’s his.’

They upped the pace, moving parallel to the Godroad, and Pari wondered if Varg might have seen anything. Knowing Varg, he may even have caught them by now. She chuckled to herself, making Nidra turn and glare.

‘What?’

‘Oh, just laughing at my own naive optimism.’

A few more threads were found, then the tracks turned towards the Godroad. Nidra ran to the side of it and leapt, scrambling up the sheer crystal side to stand on top. Her face was lit blue from beneath as she stared first one way, then the other. ‘Nothing. We’re too late.’

Pari didn’t follow, staying amid the mud and dead plants that bordered the Godroad. Her intuition was trying to tell her something if she could just be quiet enough to let it. She took a deep breath and released it slowly, then looked from the road to the trees and back again. She allowed her eyes to rest on details as she did so, trying to be open to anything. She even looked up at the sky, her eyes drawn across the swirling mass of cloud.

‘If they had a carriage waiting for him,’ said Nidra, ‘they could be halfway to Sagan by now.’

‘Mmm.’ Pari’s attention came back to the tracks. She was vaguely aware of Nidra jumping down, curses spilling from her lips.

‘Damn that bastard! I should have killed him when … no, I should have done more to break him. Then this wouldn’t matter. All that time. He’s been in my grasp all that time and I could have … I should have …’

‘Does this look odd to you?’ said Pari, pointing at the tracks.

Nidra came to join her. ‘What do you see?’

‘It’s not easy to climb onto the Godroad here. You had to jump and pull yourself up.’ She pointed to where Nidra had just been. ‘And that’s where you disturbed the ground to do it. If we assume they walked fairly directly from the trees to the Godroad, we should be able to see some sign of their climb but there’s nothing. When we first tracked them, there were signs of dragging, but they’ve gone. It may be that they found a better way to carry Rochant between them but if so, I’d expect the tracks to get heavier, and yet this set, the bigger footprints, seem lighter here than they did before.’

Nidra stared at them. ‘Maybe the other one carried Rochant.’