up the rear of their company, while blurred shadows of red, black and slate flitted either side of them through patches of gorse and banks of fern, the three wolven-hounds guarding their flanks.
As the ground levelled, the white bear started growling, a low rumbling in its belly, sounding more as if it had gut-ache than that it was being aggressive. Dalgarth was looming tall ahead of them, now, thick palisaded walls circling the town, columns of smoke rising into the air from countless fire-pits. There was a hum of sound emanating from the place: voices, hammers, cattle, wheels turning, blacksmiths, street traders, children shrieking, dogs barking, all melding into an undefined cacophony of noise.
The white bear growled louder. Drem looked back over his shoulder to see it lagging fifty or so paces behind Hammer, and it was waving its head from side to side, nostrils wide and flaring. Then it sat on its haunches.
Drem strode back to it, shrugging off his pack and delving inside, pulled out the honey jar Alcyon had given him. He unstopped the cork and scooped out a handful, waiting for the white bear to invite him closer.
It is a wild animal, after all, not like Hammer and used to people all of her life.
The bear sniffed the air, then waved its paw.
Drem approached the bear, holding his hand out, and the bear licked it.
“Come on, lad,” Drem said, filling his other hand with the thick white fur and scratching the bear’s cheek. It seemed to like it. “I don’t like towns either. Too loud, too crowded, and they smell bad. But we’ve got to go through. For once, it’s more dangerous to stay out here, in the wild.”
The bear stopped its licking and looked at him with bright, intelligent eyes, then went back to scraping Drem’s glove clean.
Drem took a step away from the bear, took his last honey jar from his pack and opened it, wafted it in front of the bear’s nose. Took a few steps backwards.
The bear rose onto all fours and took a hesitant step after him, then stopped and stared at him. It looked from the honey jar to Drem, and then over Drem’s shoulder at Hammer and the town beyond.
It sat down again.
“All right, then, lad,” Drem said. “But know this, I’ll miss you.” He scooped the jar clean and pooled the honey on a rock for the bear, then turned and walked away. Hammer gave a rumbling, mournful sound, but the white bear stayed where he was and Drem rejoined the rest of his party.
Dalgarth’s gates were open and Balur One-Eye led them through. Drem paused to look back at the white bear and saw that it was gone. With a sigh he turned and walked into the town.
People in the packed streets of the town cleared a path before Balur and Alcyon, some stopping and staring, a gang of excited children running along beside them, every now and then a brave one darting in to tread close to Balur or Alcyon. The giants ignored them, until Alcyon jumped round and growled at them, sending the children bolting and shrieking, mostly with laughter.
Drem tried to take long, slow breaths, as Olin had taught, to help calm himself. It wasn’t working. The smell was repulsive, rotting food, sweat, urine and excrement, and people everywhere, closing in on him. He hawked and spat, feeling a pressure in his chest building, as if he were too long underwater, not walking through a town. No matter how hard he tried to control his breathing, he found he was slipping towards short, shallow breaths.
It is too big. Kergard I could cope with, but this…
He hoped to be through it as soon as possible.
Stepor stepped away from them, slipping into the crowds, but Balur led them ever onwards.
And then they were through the town, exiting through wide gates and following a road that wound towards a river, its waters so dark they looked black.
Running feet behind them and Drem looked back to see Stepor emerge from the gates, jogging to catch up with them.
“What news?” Keld said, looking at the sour twist of Stepor’s face.
“Plague,” Stepor said. “Or at least, some are calling it that. A wasting disease, sudden and deadly. Thirty dead of it in the last two days.”
Drem looked back at the town. The smell of it made it easy for Drem to imagine disease running amok. He felt unclean just walking through the town.
As they put some distance between them and