was clothed in cloak and furs, seemed dressed for winter travel.
‘This is as far as I can come,’ the shorter one said, a woman’s voice. Bleda heard Riv hiss, her body become tense as a warrior’s under inspection. ‘You must go on alone, now.’
‘I don’t want to,’ the taller one said. Also a woman.
‘I wish I could come further, be with you through—’
‘No. I mean, I don’t want to do this. Any of it.’
A silence.
‘You have to. You have no choice,’ the shorter woman said.
‘There’s always a choice,’ the taller one answered, a whisper.
‘Aye, and you made yours. Now you must see it through. The bad with the good.’
‘What good!’ the tall one spat. ‘I tell you now, the only reason I’m leaving is because I cannot bear one more day around them. If I am I might …’ A hand reached to a sword hilt.
‘Don’t be an idiot,’ the shorter one. ‘Go. Now.’
A sniffing sound, the taller one wiping at her eyes.
A silence, even Bleda’s own breath sounding loud in his ears. He could feel the tension leaking from Riv.
‘I don’t think I can do this,’ the tall one said into the quiet. ‘I … can’t.’
‘You must, else you’ll kill us all,’ the shorter one said, pushing something into the other’s hand. They embraced, a whispered goodbye, and then the tall one was striding along the road, turning off a dozen paces on, down the embankment on the far side and breaking into a loping run. Within moments she disappeared into the shadows of Forn Forest.
The shorter one stood still as stone, staring after her companion long after she’d disappeared. Just when Bleda thought he couldn’t bear it any longer she turned and marched back down the road, towards Drassil.
‘Wait,’ Riv whispered, her hand gripping Bleda’s wrist. He could feel the strength in her grip, iron-edged.
They stood there a hundred heartbeats. Then another hundred. Finally, Riv breathed out a long sigh and without a word walked back to the road. Bleda followed.
It may have been too dark for me to recognize them, but Riv knew who they were.
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
SIG
Sig sat at the end of the Queen’s bench in Uthandun’s feast-hall, her legs stretched out to the side of the too-low table. A ten-night had passed since the rescue of Keld and the lighting of the beacons. Six days spent travelling back to Uthandun, four more as Sig prepared to leave. Keld had needed time to heal, as had his hound Fen. And although Sig was eager to be gone, she lingered an extra day or two so as to hear news as it trickled in to Queen Nara. Sig hoped for clues as to what the lighting of the beacons signified.
Nara was reading over a newly arrived parchment now, as servants cleared food from the table where they had all gathered to break their fast.
Nara’s eyes were narrowing the further she read. She screwed the parchment into a ball and looked up with a glare.
‘Attacks on my people, my towns, up and down the long length of Ardain,’ she said. ‘Kadoshim have been sighted, though from these early reports the bulk by far of the perpetrators are these new acolytes.’ She swore in an unqueenly fashion and threw the screwed-up parchment on the floor.
Elgin was sitting beside her, and Madoc, the Queen’s first-sword, stood at her shoulder. His eyes tracked the ball of parchment and he bent and picked it up.
‘Looks like we were a little late in stamping on the hornets’ nest,’ Elgin said.
Maybe all I achieved was to kick and stir it up, Sig thought.
‘The Order will help you fight this,’ Sig growled, feeling a deep anger. The thought of Kadoshim and their servants striking at the people of Ardain like this, a close ally and friend to the Order …
She felt her fists bunching.
‘I am loath to leave, when my coming may have begun this,’ Sig said. ‘But I must return to Dun Seren first, tell Byrne of what is happening. There is more to this, I feel it, and I do not like the not knowing. The beacons – I suspect they were not confined to Ardain.’
‘No, they were not. My scouts have reported them blazing beyond my borders. Into the Land of the Faithful,’ Nara said. ‘I wonder what the Ben-Elim will make of this outbreak.’
Sig shrugged. She and her Order were not on the best of terms with the Ben-Elim. They tolerated one another, mostly because they shared a mutual enemy, but there