I woke again to a night that was dark and still and very cold. Remembering the clouds, I guessed the sky was completely overcast, for there ought to be a near full moon, by my reckoning. The others sat a little distance away around a small campfire, talking in low voices. The smell of food hung in the air, and my stomach rumbled. The strength of my hunger told me that I had been unconscious for some time, as did the fact that my headache had faded. My mouth only hurt a little, but one of my front teeth was chipped. I probed my other teeth with an anxious tongue and was relieved to find that the rest were intact.

‘Do you wish to have water to drink?’ asked a deep voice.

I turned my head warily to find Ahmedri sitting by me, his big hands closed around one of his tisanes. I wondered vaguely what this one was for. Then the memory of my meeting with his brother flooded back, and I realised with dismay that I had not thought to tell Straaka that Ahmedri was travelling with me and seeking him. ‘Are you in pain?’ the tribesman asked.

‘Water,’ I managed to croak, and with surprising gentleness, he raised me up and fed water to me until I shook my head. ‘I fell,’ I said.

‘It might be more accurate to say the mountain threw you off and then jumped on you,’ the tribesman said, sounding almost amused. ‘It is a marvel that you were not more seriously hurt. For a time we feared that something inside you had been injured, because you were bleeding from the mouth and your skin was clammy. But it must just have been the shock of the accident, for the bleeding ceased and your colour returned.’

‘Maruman?’ I managed.

‘No one else was hurt,’ he assured me, and he nodded pointedly towards my feet. I lifted my head gingerly and saw the old cat was sound asleep on the edge of the blanket that had been laid over me. I relaxed and looked at Ahmedri, wanting to tell him of his brother, but it was such a strange, unlikely story and I was full of the heavy weariness that always followed a period when my body had been expending itself healing me, and I had used my spirit strength besides. No wonder I felt so bad.

‘How long have I been unconscious?’ I croaked, and the tribesman fed me some more water as he told me that it had been a night and day since I had fallen. The wolves had come the night before and had gone again, after sniffing at me and speaking to Darga. The dog had signalled to Swallow that they would return in two days. ‘Tomorrow,’ he added. ‘But I do not think you will be strong enough to travel so soon.’