I had too little energy to argue. Ahmedri rose in his fluid way, saying that he would get Analivia to look at my wounds, but before he came back with her, I fell asleep again.

When next I woke, it was so early in the morning that there were still stars in the sky, and the heavy cloud cover of the previous night had eased so that patches of the clear dark-blue sky were visible. The smell of cooking in the air made me so hungry I felt ill. I turned my head to find it was now Dameon sitting next to me. Though blind his empathy told him at once that I was awake, and he was already leaning forward.

‘You feel better,’ he said.

I could not help but smile. ‘Was that a question or a command?’

He laughed softly, but sobered quickly. ‘We all feared you were mortally wounded. I can hardly believe that you took so little harm.’

‘My quest will not let me go so easily,’ I quipped, wondering how ill I had truly been. Straaka had told me that only a spirit whose flesh was near death could come to those high realms where we had met, or some great force of spirit. I had assumed the latter, but perhaps I had been wrong. I bade the empath help me to the fire, saying I was ravenous. It was not until I had eaten two bowls of porridge spiced with cloves and honey that I thought of anything but filling my belly. The light-headedness I had been feeling since waking had gone when I stood up gingerly and tested my limbs. My first steps were shaky, but after I had walked carefully away to relieve myself, I felt less stiff. Only then did I look around and notice that, once again, Rasial and Gavyn were absent.

‘They have been roaming since yesterday,’ Swallow said, when I asked about them.

‘The wolves?’ I asked.

The gypsy gestured west, to my surprise. ‘There is a track that goes down to the left of the weeping archway. The wolves went that way and it seems that is where we are to go next. It is unnoticeable unless you know it is there. Ahmedri scouted it after they had gone and it goes down to another remnant of an old road that runs under this plateau and gradually winds its way east through the mountains. The wolves are to return at dusk. How do you feel?’

‘Well enough to go on when they come,’ I said firmly.

Swallow and Analivia exchanged a look, but Ahmedri only said calmly that Darga had come with him and that according to the dog, there were great tainted stretches of terrain they would have to cross, if the wolves led them in that direction.