the spar version of her name.'
She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and the unistag picked its way over to join her. When it did she wound her fingers through the unistag's mane and whispered to him.
Within a few moments Unace and the healer entered the clearing. Both of them stared at the white unistag. Nimble as a mountain goat but twice the size, fiercely shy and independent, unistags were rarely sighted. To see one calmly standing with several people was enough to make anyone stare.
'Lady Unace, Monk Seagrass,' Byren greeted them.
Unace laughed softly and approached him cautiously. 'You said you'd do it, and you did. I shall never doubt you again, Byren.'
'Indeed,' Seagrass marvelled. 'When Unace rides into camp on this unistag no one will doubt the gods are with her!'
'No.' Byren's lips twitched. 'But there is one small hitch. You'll have to take this disreputable goatherd with you.' He nodded to Piro, who beamed through her dirt.
Piro brought the unistag to a halt in a hollow just before the first camp lookout. She patted the beast's neck as Unace climbed onto the healer's cupped hands and gently swung onto the unistag's back. The beast shuffled, made uneasy by the sudden weight. Piro had accustomed him to carrying her on the journey to the spar. Luckily, he was sturdy despite his forty years. Piro suspected the unistag would never have lived so long in the wild.
'I feel strange with no reins to hold,' Unace muttered. Piro could tell she was still awed by the beast, which had walked beside them all afternoon on their way back to camp.
'Use your knees to guide him,' Piro explained. 'He's gentle really, but if he gets frightened he'll try to gore his attacker.'
Both the healer and Unace looked worried.
'That's why I'll be just to one side, in front of you,' Piro reassured them. 'He knows me. If he can see me he'll stay calm, and I can help if he gives you trouble.'
Unace nodded. 'Very well, Pi - Depiro.'
It was one of those sunny winter afternoons when the snow seems sprinkled with sparkling diamonds and shadows are so rich a blue it made your eyes hurt to look at them. Piro never felt happier.
Unace wore her woolen cloak of emerald-green, and carried a hastily embroidered emblem, the white unistag on the green background. She had confessed to Piro that the white material was made from Ostronite silk and had been cut from her best chemise.
'Ready?' the healer asked.
Unace met Piro's eyes. 'I am, if you are.'
Piro nodded, repressing her uneasiness, for if the unistag panicked, she would have to call on her Affinity to soothe it and she feared the healer would notice. As one of Halcyon's monks, he had been trained to recognise and deal with untamed power.
Piro pressed her forehead to the unistag's cheek, to whisper soothingly. While she spoke, she concentrated on warm, safe images. 'It is a beautiful afternoon, King Unistag, and after so many years you are coming home. Stand tall and proud. No harm will come to you.'
Then she pulled back and smiled up at Unace. 'Ready.'
Piro and the healer fell into step ahead of the unistag. As they rounded the bend a greeting cry echoed across the rocks, followed by a startled exclamation when the lookout spotted the unistag.
Piro straightened her shoulders and inhaled deeply, smelling the camp's cooking fires: roast lamb with sage tonight. Her stomach rumbled. She was hungry, but first they had to get through this.
The lookout had been waving madly and, when they breasted the crest, people already lined the path. Beyond them, she saw the camp spread across the steep slope. It was hard to pick because their shelters were snow-caves, only the smoke of cooking fires giving them away.
The healer began to hum under his breath. Piro recognised the tune, a spar song of praise for their icon, the unistag. She took up the words, thankful for her mother's tutoring.
In awe and wonder, Lady Unace's warriors dropped to their knees, some in the snow, others on the bare rocks, and a deep-throated version of the song sprang from many fighters' lips, embroidered by the high voices of the shield-maidens, who harmonised around them.
Piro glanced behind her. Unace sat astride the unistag, black hair dark against the vivid green cloak, pale skin glowing in the afternoon sun. She carried the spar's emblem so proudly, no wonder her people responded.
The sound of their voices carried across the deep valley