I asked Darga what exactly Rheagor had told him, but he only repeated what Analivia had said, that the wolves would return when the sun had set.

But the wolves did not return at dusk, and when dawn came, still they had not come.

Chapter 31

31

Gazing out over the shimmering white desert, I sensed that something had gone wrong. It was not a premonition, but a bone-deep certainty, and though none of the others had said it, I did not doubt that, like me, they feared the wolves had been attacked by the rhenling horde, though I had a disquieting memory of the huge dark thing I had seen moving in the canyon where we had slept in the spring caves.

The other possibility was that the wolves had ventured into the desert and had fallen foul of the efari, who might well roam beyond the limits of their city, given what Miryum had said about her captors carrying her there.

‘What now?’ Swallow asked, coming to stand by me.

‘We will wait until dusk,’ I decided. ‘The horses can spend the day grazing and we have water and food for the nonce. You and Ahmedri and Gavyn might go foraging and see if you can find us anything to add to our supplies.’

‘And if the wolves do not come at dusk?’

‘Then we will head east, and seek out this path of stone trees that is supposed to lead to the city of the efari.’

‘You know that Jacob only thought that Pellmar Quadrans had become the city he dreamed of,’ Swallow said. ‘What if it is not the same place as the city of the efari?’

‘If it is not, then we will learn it by going there,’ I said. ‘Indeed, we will know for sure when we come to the path of stone trees, and it leads us north-east.’

‘The trouble is we could pass right by this path of stone trees if it begins one dune away from us,’ Swallow said.

‘I would prefer to wait for the wolves, but we cannot wait forever,’ I said. ‘And Rheagor bade us go east and he would catch us up.’

‘Let us hope this path runs right across our way, then, and that there is water to be found in the desert, for the horses will need a good deal more than we can carry and they will not last more than a threeday without it,’ Swallow said. ‘Nor will we.’

The sun rose and the morning unfolded hot and bright and still, for the slight wind that had been blowing the night before had fallen to little more than a faint stirring of the air. I had thought it quiet before, but now the silence was almost palpable. Every movement we made was audible, and when no one stirred, there was the soft distinct sound of the spring water dropping from stone bowl to stone bowl and the deeper note it sounded overflowing into the lake.