‘I thought so myself, My Lord,’ Eck agreed. ‘I hid in that ruin for two days, and then one morning, I heard the strangest sound. It seemed to be music of some kind. I thought it might be a shepherd, but it turned out to be a little girl with a few goats. She was making the music on those pipes that herders carry. The little girl seemed to be about six or so, and I knew as soon as I saw her that she was Styric. Everyone knows that it’s bad luck to have anything at all to do with Styrics, so I stayed hidden in the ruins. I certainly didn’t want her to give me away to any of the people who were looking for me. She came right up to me as if she knew exactly where I was, though, and she told me to follow her.’ He paused, his face troubled. ‘Now, I’m a grown man, Your Grace, and I don’t take orders from children – and particularly not from Styric ones – but there was something very strange about this little girl. When she told me to do something, I went right ahead and started to do it before I even stopped to think about it. Isn’t that odd? To make it short, she led me out of those ruins. The men who were looking for me were all around, but they just acted as if they couldn’t even see us. The little girl led me all the way across Arcium. Now, that’s a long, long way, but for some reason it only took us three days – four actually when you count the day when we stopped so that one of her nanny-goats could give birth to a pair of kids – cute little beasts they were, too. The little girl even insisted that I carry them on my horse when we moved on. Well sir, we reached the castle where King Wargun’s army was laying siege to some Rendors inside, and that’s when the little girl left me. It’s the oddest thing. I don’t like Styrics, but I actually cried when she went away. She gave me a little kiss before she left, and I can still feel it on my cheek. I’ve thought about it a lot since then, and I’ve decided that maybe Styrics aren’t so bad after all.’

‘Thank you,’ Sephrenia murmured.

‘Well, sir,’ Eck went on, ‘I went to the army and told them that I had a message for King Wargun from the Hierocracy. The soldiers took me to His Majesty, and I gave him the document. After he read it through, he gathered up his army, and we made a forced march to get here. That’s about all there was, My Lords.’