‘He will have his father’s size and his mother’s speed. No bully will take exception to his name more than once.’ She pulled Doranei’s hand tighter against his chest. ‘He will be a fine older brother to little Sebetin, the one whose smile melts the hearts of even his fierce gaggle of sisters.’
‘Sebe,’ Doranei whispered, ‘named for their favourite uncle, who still manages to get me into daft scrapes when we’re both old, rich and fat.’
‘The very same; who wakes early when he comes to visit and drags the children out with the dawn so we can have these few quiet moments together. These moments that mean as much to me as anything - these moments that last as we grow old together and watch our children make all the same mistakes we did when we were young.’ Zhia smiled and squeezed his hand. ‘Except the ones involving jumping off buildings or petting guard dogs; they’ll have the sense not to do those.’
‘What fools we are,’ Doranei said bitterly. ‘You, who doesn’t grow old; I, who’ll not survive to do so.’
‘It is not too late for you,’ Zhia said with a shake of the head. When she tried to continue, however, she felt the words catch in her throat. Neither of them could believe that; it wouldn’t matter what she said.
They lay together in silence until sounds began to emanate from elsewhere in the building and the tavern servants started their day. With the quiet broken Doranei eased himself away from Zhia, who let him go and watched while he dressed. Her eyes were closed when he bent to kiss her forehead and only opened again when the door clicked shut behind him.
CHAPTER 8
Low shafts of sunlight pushed between the trees as the witch of Llehden walked towards the lake. It was early enough to be crisp and cold still - two hours after dawn, and the sun hadn’t yet warmed the frost off the rusty bracken. The witch wore a wolfskin cloak, fastened at the throat by a bronze stag’s head clasp that looked incongruous with the rest of her clothes, and in her arms was a large, awkward-shaped bundle. Occasionally the bundle would wriggle, prompting the witch to shift her hold a little and whisper soothing words.
At the end of the path the trees opened up and afforded her a view across the still water. The other side of the lake was punctuated by rampant clumps of reeds standing higher than a man, beyond which stretched the long, undulating expanse of Tairen Moor. Several villages bordered the moor, but the only people you would ever find on the moor were travellers using the single road and the few peat-diggers and herdsmen who lived there.
The witch headed for the cottage on the lake’s shore. The sound of chopping wood rang out from the trees behind as she left the path, but stopped when she called loudly, ‘Grave Thief!’
As she reached the cottage door Mihn appeared from around the corner, sweat-slicked and red-cheeked from his exertions in the cold morning air.
‘Good morning,’ he called, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. ‘You have something for us?’ he added, when he noticed the bundle in her arms.
‘For your patient.’
Mihn smiled faintly and came around to open the door for the witch. ‘I am glad to hear it. He is not much better since you last visited. The man is still there, but he is hiding deep inside.’
They entered, and the witch lost no time in crossing to where Isak was lying. He was not so tightly curled up as before, and it looked as if he had reacted slightly to the sunlight shining through the door, but he was a far cry from the arrogant, ebullient youth she had first met.
‘Is he biddable?’ she asked.
‘Just about.’ Mihn went to the square brick stove in the centre of the room and lifted the lid of a pot that was bubbling away on top of it. He stirred the contents, sniffing appreciatively, and replaced the lid before adding, ‘I have managed to get him up off the bed - I even got him outside once, but he went and fell into the water not long after so I do not know if that counts as a success.’
The witch frowned at him a moment, then crouched at Isak’s bedside. Her lips moved silently, and one hand reached out towards him. After a while she glanced back at Mihn.