Analivia helped me to sit up and I realised that I felt better, aside from being dreadfully thirsty and hungry. Analivia, on the other hand, looked pale and gaunt and there were dark circles under her eyes.

‘It has been a bad night for us all one way and another,’ she said, laughing shakily. ‘You seem to have slept away the worst of it. The rest of us have been vomiting and shivering all night long. To think this is mild taint poisoning! I saw the teknoguilders like this sometimes but I did not imagine how horrible they must have felt. The horses are all right though, and so are Maruman and Dragon, but the dogs have been ill.’

‘The wolves?’

‘I don’t know how they fare,’ she said. ‘They came for a drink a few times, but you could see the light was hurting their eyes and they didn’t stay long. I would have offered to bathe their eyes with a soothing herb, but when I signalled to ask Darga to offer, the pack leader refused.’

‘You have been standing watch?’

‘Only for an hour,’ she said wanly. ‘Swallow was up before me.’

‘Well, I am monstrously hungry so I will get up now and take the watch,’ I said, and hustled her into my blanket. She thanked me, adding that she had left some food for me by the fire. It was not much, she said apologetically, but they had dug the food out of all the packs to inventory it and we had very little left. I thanked her and went to check on the horses. Gahltha was awake and confirmed that he and the equines had not been ill, but that both dogs and Gavyn had vomited. I went to look at Dragon. If she had been affected by taint poisoning there was no sign of it. She lay asleep looking exactly the same, though her clothes had been changed and Maruman was now lying by her side rather than beside her head. Had he moved or had someone moved him? I wondered. I was tempted to lift him into my arms, but if it woke him and they were dreamtravelling together, my touch might drag him back, leaving her stranded somewhere.

Reluctantly I left them and went to find the food Analivia had left out for me. It was no more than a few mouthfuls of stew and some nuts and my stomach was still growling when I finished it, but given our diminishing supplies, I drank water until my belly felt full and then walked around to check on the others.