been any other child, Styrax would dismissed them all, maybe even violently, but she knew herself how difficult it was to tear oneself from the warm embrace of Ruhen’s eyes.
‘I can’t be sure of that,’ Styrax said.
Ruhen gave him a guileless smile. ‘He isn’t hurting any more,’ the little boy said again, firmly.
It looked as though a weight had lifted from his shoulders, the lines softening on the huge lord’s face. Then he remembered himself and carefully lifted Ruhen off his knee again, nudging him towards Natai.
‘Duchess, I have heard your plea,’ he said in a calmer voice. ‘You are correct that the Circle City is under my control and my subjects deserve my protection. I will find a way to kill or drive off this dragon, you have my word. For now, however, I will be left to my mourning.’
Mihn jammed his spade into the freshly turned earth and wiped the sweat from his face. The day was unusually bright for the time of year, but the brisk breeze that skipped off the glinting lake kept it cool. No birdsong cut the air, only the wind through the leaves and the rushes over at the water’s edge. The smell of wet earth surrounded him.
‘The day smells of hollow victories,’ he said to the Land in general, finding solace in the words of others, ‘a grave freshly dug, the rain on my cheek and a prayer in the air.’
‘But who is it you pray to?’ asked the witch of Llehden. He turned to see her standing behind him, her face shadowed from the late morning sun by a white mourning shawl. ‘Myself, I find I do have not the strength for it.’
She carried an oak sapling in both hands, one recently pulled from the ground, to be planted over Xeliath’s body in the Yeetatchen fashion.
‘Yet you wear the devices of Gods on your mourning shawl,’ Mihn pointed out, though he didn’t recognise the images.
Her hand automatically went to the old brass brooches pinned to the shawl.
‘They are Kanasis and Ashar, the local Gods of Llehden.’
‘Aspects of Amavoq?’
She shook her head. ‘Kanasis is a stag Aspect of Vrest and Ashar’s the Lady of Hidden Paths, an Aspect of Anviss. The God of Woods is more welcome here than his queen and mistress. We prefer not to fear the creatures of the forest.’
Mihn snorted and looked around at the dark trees of Llehden. ‘That’s something of a surprise; these woods are as unfriendly after nightfall as the Farlan eastern forests.’
‘Llehden is a place of power, it attracts all kinds of creature, but that doesn’t mean we should live in fear. Enter a gentry den and you’ll be torn limb from limb; see one in the wood and your luck will hold all day, I’m told.’
‘You’re told? Surely you see them more than most?’
She shrugged. ‘A witch makes her own luck. Even a drunk on a winning streak wouldn’t be so foolish as to gamble against a witch.’
Mihn turned back to the grave he’d dug. ‘Even a drunk knows luck will eventually run out,’ he said with a heavy heart. ‘Only I failed to see it coming.’
‘Don’t be a fool. You knew it was coming; you just assumed the price would be one you could bear to pay.’
‘So what do I do now then?’ he snapped. ‘Just accept it?’
‘Unless you are about to place yourself above the Gods, yes.’
The witch’s calm voice angered Mihn, but as he scowled at her the trees nearby shuddered under a breeze he couldn’t feel on his face.
‘Death’s a part of life, had you forgotten that? Don’t start getting above yourself, Grave Thief.’
His head dropped as the dull ache in his gut intensified and eclipsed the anger of grief. ‘How can you be so accepting?’
‘Because there is no other choice. Xeliath was one of the Chosen; and she died in the boat with us, not on Ghain. She isn’t bound for Ghenna - and what more can we ask of Lord Death? To choose the time and manner of one’s death? She died to save Isak when he could not protect himself - a charge given to her by the Gods themselves when she was Chosen - and she died fighting, strong and fierce. Do you think Xeliath would have had it any other way?’
Mihn reluctantly shook his head. ‘I know you’re right, but — Is there nothing I can do?’
‘You can remember her fondly, and thank her for her sacrifice. I suggest you keep away from the