He heard a sound behind, faint, blending with the sigh of the wind in the grass. He turned and looked back along the giants’ road, seeing a dark smudge in the distance. Dath hovered with him. It was a horse and wain, gradually gaining on them; something walked alongside it — a hound?
‘Dath, run ahead and let them know we’ve got company.’
Dath sprinted along the column, returning soon with Marrock and Rath behind him. They studied the wain, which was clearer now, seemingly driven by a solitary man. It was close to highsun when the wain caught up with them and Rath called a halt, some of the riders taking their horses down a steep embankment to a stream.
The wain’s driver slowed, a wiry man with sharp eyes who was obviously wary of such a body of grim-looking warriors filling the road. His wain was piled high, a patchwork of skins tied over whatever was underneath. Not that long ago it would have been a tempting sight to Camlin and the type of men he used to mix with.
Camlin looked closer and realized he recognized this man — a trader who had passed through the Darkwood more than once. He was one of those that had come to an arrangement with Braith and paid a toll rather than be robbed and left for dead.
One of the practical ones.
The man saw something on the road that made him yank on his reins: the wolven, Camlin realized. His hound was crouching low, hackles raised. Then Corban was approaching the wain.
‘Ventos, is that you?’
The trader frowned, then jumped from his seat, smiling. He snapped a command at his hound and met Corban in the road. They clasped wrists and spoke to each other like old friends, any tension that there had been draining from the air.
Corban introduced the man to them as Ventos, a trader whom he knew. Camlin kept his head down; for some reason he did not want the man to see him.
He probably won’t recognize me, but just in case. .
Camlin did not even quite understand why that would bother him, but it did. Maybe I want no association with my past. I am a different man, now.
They shared some bread with the trader, his hound lying beneath the wain, watching Storm suspiciously through the spokes of a wheel. Soon after, the man was back in his bench seat and urging his sturdy, thick-boned horse on.
‘Remember,’ Rath called out to him. ‘Not a word of us to anyone. If we get to Dun Taras and anyone seems forewarned, I’ll know who to come looking for.’
‘No chance of that,’ Ventos called back, and soon he was blurring into the horizon.
Shortly afterwards a band of riders appeared on the road ahead, coming towards them; Rath approached them and exchanged some words with them. They were only a handful, four or five, and wearing cloaks of the same woollen checks as Rath and his comrades. Camlin kept one eye on them as he sipped from his water skin, his other hand resting on the pouch where he kept his bowstrings safe from the damp. I am a mistrustful soul, he thought, then shrugged to himself. Old habits die hard, and besides, it’s better to be mistrustful and live a little longer, in my book.
Rath returned to them and spoke to Edana. ‘We are close to Dun Taras now; they were Eremon’s men from the fortress. I’ve sent them on their way, though. I still have some influence here — amongst the warriors, at least.’
‘My thanks,’ said Halion.
‘I trust your judgement, Rath. Whatever you think best,’ Edana said.
Camlin had heard this situation discussed already. Rath suggested that if surprise could be engineered it would be best. That way they would stand a good chance that their first meeting with Eremon would be free of Roisin, his young wife. She had been mentioned around the campfire after their first night of travelling with Rath. Apparently she was growing in influence and ambition in Domhain, Eremon becoming more content to listen to her counsel. ‘It’s not the best time to have returned to us, Halion. You’re da is fading and she is on the rise,’ Rath had said.
‘I had little choice in the matter,’ Halion had replied. ‘And it is Edana’s safety that I’m thinking of, not my own.’
‘She’ll be safe enough; don’t worry about that,’ Rath had said.
‘And so will you be, brother, or I’ll have Roisin’s scalp for a trophy,’ Coralen had snapped. Camlin had smiled at that. Fiery little thing.
It had not been so much of a worry to Camlin when they had been sitting around a campfire, a ten-night away from this Roisin. Now, though, Camlin felt a creeping anxiety take root in him.
As they rode on, Edana dropped back, Marrock and Halion walking beside her.
‘I wanted to talk to you,’ she said, looking seriously at Camlin.
‘What about, my lady?’ Camlin said. Those words still don’t fit well on my tongue.
‘You have served me well, during our journey here.’
He looked up at her, not really knowing what to say. ‘The way I’ve seen it, the task has been t’stay alive,’
‘Yes, it has. But you would have had an easier time of that if you’d just walked away.’
He blinked at her. Have I been talking in my sleep? Thinking out loud?
‘But you did not. You stayed and guided me, advised me, fought for me. Risked your life, time and again, when you need not have done so. Can I ask you: why?’
He was caught by surprise, stunned. Same question I’ve been asking myself since we landed in Cambren. ‘I don’t know,’ he mumbled.
Marrock snorted laughter. ‘You see, he is more honest than you may be prepared for.’
‘Honest? I’m a thief from the Darkwood — not been called honest since, well, never.’
Marrock laughed again, Edana and Halion joining in.
I suppose I’m still here, with you all, because I want to be,’ he said, only realizing at that moment that it was the truth. He looked about, at Dath and Corban and the others. ‘I like being here — not here as in Domhain, but here.’ He waved a hand and flushed. ‘With you all.’
Edana smiled at him then, warm and genuine. ‘That is what I thought,’ she said. Her expression changed, became serious. ‘And I want you to know this, Camlin. I may not have a kingdom, or wealth, but I am a queen, and I mean to win back what is rightfully mine. If-’
‘When,’ Marrock interrupted.
‘When I do that,’ Edana continued, ‘I will not forget those who have helped me and, more than that, been loyal to me, through the dark times, when death looked like the only road, when winning a kingdom was the furthest thing from my thoughts.’ She smiled again. ‘If I ever sit a throne again, you shall have no need to return to thieving in the Darkwood, I promise you.’
He shrugged. ‘We’ll cross that bridge of thorns when we get to it, eh?’
‘Indeed. But for now, we have moved from one danger, but only to slide into another one, I fear, one more sly and devious. An ambitious woman. We must keep our wits about us. Our eyes and ears open. And where we are going you may be more practised at doing that unnoticed. I would ask you to learn what you can of this Roisin and her followers when we reach Dun Taras. It may well save our lives.’
‘I will do all that I can, my lady.’
She reached down and squeezed his shoulder. ‘I do not doubt that.’
Rath called out from the front of their column. ‘Dun Taras. Dun Taras is in sight.’