Fear returned to the rider’s face, then he made a lunge towards a knife in his belt. The attempt ended in his crying out in pain and collapsing back.

‘I did tell you you’d broken your shoulder,’ Rhavvan said, shaking his head. ‘But then I suppose if you’d been the kind of person to listen to advice, you’d never have ended up in the Wardens, would you?’

With a deft movement he produced his own knife and brandished it significantly in the man’s face. Then, none too gently, he heaved him into a sitting position, cut a length from his surcoat, bound the injured arm across his chest, and dragged him to his feet. It was swiftly done, but it was a noisy procedure which made Hyrald and the others wince openly and left the young man gasping with pain and leaning heavily on Rhavvan.

‘Listen to me,’ the big man said forcefully.

He had to say it twice more before the rider looked at him, eyes ill-focused.

‘How many are in your company? Where are they?’

The rider’s face became sullen.

Rhavvan gave up. ‘All right. We can’t help you further. Go back along your tracks. You’ll find help eventually.’

‘We can’t leave him,’ Nordath objected. ‘He can hardly stand, let alone walk.’

‘What the hell else can we do with him?’ Rhavvan retorted.

Nordath stammered. ‘I… I don’t know, but we haven’t seen even a farmhouse for two days and if there were only these three, he’ll die of exposure… or starvation, or something.’

‘So might we all, before we’re through,’ Rhavvan snapped. He pressed the palm of his hand against his forehead and voiced the question that kept returning to Hyrald. ‘What in the name of all that’s sane is happening?’ He flicked a thumb towards Thyrn. We start off chasing this errant Caddoran. “A discreet matter,” Vashnar tells us – Warden to Warden. No Cry to be called – no public fuss. Then, no sooner do we find him than theDeath Cry’s proclaimed against us. I didn’t even know it was still legal. And against all of us! It’s madness. What are we doing wandering about in a part of the country where no one lives, no idea where we are, where we’re going…’