‘You may be right, my dear, but I’m not sure they actually took the Godroad at all, and even if they did, there’s no evidence that they still had Rochant at this point.’

‘You think they hid him somewhere?’

‘Yes, or gave him to another party. Either way, I think we’ve lost him.’ She received another of Nidra’s suspicious looks and decided to ignore it. She’s like dry wood waiting for a spark. ‘We don’t know where he is but we can make an educated guess that he’ll be going home. If I can get there ahead of him, I’ll be able to watch the roads at least.’

‘To what end?’

‘I don’t know. Perhaps an opportunity will present itself, perhaps it won’t, but better to try something than do nothing, I always say.’ The truth was, Pari didn’t always say that. She actually felt that doing nothing was often far better than making things needlessly worse. However, she was gripped by a powerful urge to keep talking, saying whatever popped into her mouth in an effort to keep things upbeat. There was a growing sense of darkness around her companion, one that threatened to suck them both in if she didn’t fight it.

‘One thing we do know,’ said Nidra, her eyes narrowed. ‘This isn’t the work of my brother. If it was, there would be hunters everywhere and we’d both be facing our last lifecycles.’

‘Some good news at least.’

‘Which means,’ Nidra continued, ‘that it’s Rochant’s people, or a force from the Wild, or random travellers.’

‘As you say, speculation doesn’t help us now. The best thing is for me to get moving.’ She turned to go but Nidra hadn’t finished.

‘Those tracks look human, and things of the Wild go deeper with their victims, they wouldn’t come here. We can rule them out. Travellers avoid Sorn, have ever since the Corpseman came. No reason for that to change.’ Her body was rigid with tension, gloves creaking around the hilt of her sapphire dagger. ‘Which leaves Rochant’s allies. But why now, after all this time? Why not take him ten years ago, or just after it happened?’

She glanced up at Pari, the unsaid words hanging between them. Because I was between lives. She thinks I did this! Don’t laugh, Pari. Whatever you do, don’t laugh. She might burst an eyeball.

‘I honestly don’t know, my dear, but I intend to find out.’

But Nidra wasn’t having it that they had lost Rochant. ‘You retrace these tracks to Sorn, see if you can find anything new. I’m going back. If only two found him, they may have hidden Rochant somewhere nearby while they went to get backup.’