‘I will talk to the pack leader,’ I said. I went to Rheagor, who offered me a cool greeting, so I took advantage of the contact he had established to say, ‘We expected you at dusk yesterday.’

‘This one/this pack did come twice to tha and still tha was not ready,’ the wolf countered frostily. But then he seemed to reconsider, and said, ‘The rhenlings did attack the Brildane thisnight. Two of the pack did die.’

I stared at him in dismay. ‘I am sorry for the deaths, pack leader, but what is a rhenling?’

‘They do be small vicious beasts with sharp teeth and long claws. They do fly and eat meat, and they do hunt at night but only in deepest darkness.’

A coughing bark made the pack leader look around and I saw that it was Descantra. She was alongside Sendari, sniffing at Dragon, who was lightly bound to the travois. ‘That one does have a new companion,’ I heard her say, because of my link to Rheagor.

‘She travels with us now,’ I told him.

The pack leader padded over to sniff at Dragon’s supine body and then he sent, ‘That one do be injured. Better tha snap her neck, lest she do slow us in the graag.’

Chilled by his ruthless pragmatism, I said firmly, ‘I need her for my quest even as I need the Brildane.’

‘Come tha then,’ he said gruffly.

‘There is fresh water and clean ground here,’ I said. ‘Maybe your pack would like to drink and rest before we travel into the Blacklands.’

‘They did drink already and this do be no time for resting,’ he sent shortly. ‘It do be time for running, for we must reach the graag ere the sun does rise on the morrow. The Brildane will lead tha where the ground poisons do be weak.’

He broke contact and turned to pad away down the canyon, and I watched with a muttered curse as the other wolves flowed after him, wondering why, every time I had the chance to speak to Rheagor, my wits deserted me. Why hadn’t I asked about water and why had we to reach the graag by sunrise? Was it because the wolves needed to be out of the sun, or some other reason, and where would they take shelter on an open plain, anyway? And how could Rheagor be so certain the day would be cast over?

I sighed.

‘What did he tell you?’ Swallow asked.