'To reunite with the resistance in Ardan. To take back her crown.'

'It was never hers,' Rhin muttered. Halion stared ahead.

'And where is this resistance? What is Edana's destination?'

'Dun Crin, the giant ruins in the marshes of western Ardan.'

Rhin smiled triumphantly. She reached out and stroked Halion's cheek. 'Thank you. You have been most helpful.'

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

CORALEN.

Coralen looked up as Craf spiralled down to her. She drew her horse to a halt and waited for him, twisting in her saddle to check on the main company emerging from the woodlands of the mountain slopes, as small as ants from this distance.

'Village,' the crow squawked as he drew nearer, alighting on her saddle pommel.

'Where?' she asked.

'Ahead. On the road.'

Typical. She'd known it was inevitable that they would encounter other people at some stage but had hoped they'd have escaped detection a little longer than this. They had spent two nights travelling through the mountains and entered Narvon only yesterday.

Enkara and Storm approached her. Even relaxed they both radiated strength and menace. Coralen grinned, for a moment lost in the strangeness of the company she kept. The world has changed immeasurably since I tracked half a dozen Benothi giants into the mountains between Domhain and Cambren. That had been where she'd first encountered Corban and his company.

'What is it?' Enkara said as she rode over. She was one of Tukul's Jehar, one of the Hundred that had ridden out in search of the Bright Star nearly twenty years ago. Coralen had a healthy respect for all of the Jehar their martial prowess and dedication was verging on inhuman, and the fact that the women amongst the Jehar ranks were easily as skilled as the men impressed Coralen. But Enkara had become more than that: a mutual respect had developed, and out of that a hesitant friendship.

'A village, not far ahead,' Coralen said. As she stared she saw faint columns of smoke. Cook-fires.

'Can we go around?' Enkara mused.

'If we numbered a score, yes, we would go around. Three hundred . . .' Coralen shook her head. 'There's no point. We would have to march leagues out of our way not to be spotted. And this is only the first of many villages that we are going to come across.'

'So we just go straight through it?'

'Yes. Fast.'

Enkara thought about that a moment, then smiled. 'I like it.'

The rest of the scouting party joined them.

'So what now?' Dath asked, sitting relaxed and confident in his saddle. He was starting to lose the nervousness that had seemed to cloak him like a mist. He's found something he's good at. He's made to be a huntsman, can track, scout, has a remarkable eye for details. And he's a better shot with his bow than I am, or anyone else I've known.

Coralen gave them her orders, splitting the crew, Enkara and two others leaving to warn Corban and the warband, the rest going with her to scout out the village. It still felt strange, giving orders. She had ridden with a hard crew most of her life, with Rath and his giant-killers, but they had numbered around a score or so, and she had grown up with them. And she'd never given them orders. Now she was responsible for three hundred lives and was making decisions that could mean the difference between life and death for them all.

If it is strange for me, how must it feel for Corban, sitting at the head of this warband, having the Jehar, Benothi giants and one of the Ben-Elim looking to him?

'What about me?' Craf squawked.

'Stay with me,' she said, clicked her tongue and touched her heels to her horse, spurring it to a canter.

Coralen lay hidden amongst gorse and heather, studying the village in front of her. She had led Dath and a dozen Jehar wide around the village and approached through woodland from the south, leaving the majority of them hidden in the trees. Coralen and Dath had crept closer for a better look, accompanied by Kulla, a young Jehar warrior who always seemed to be somewhere close to Dath. Coralen just ignored her.

The small village spread along the riverbank, consisting of forty or fifty buildings of undressed stone and turf roofs, a large round-house at its centre. Women were scrubbing clothes in the river shallows, bairns playing on the riverbank under their watchful eye. Men worked in fields of wheat and rye spread to the west, and to the east Coralen saw a herd of goats dotting the valley slopes, their bleating drifting on the wind.

As Coralen watched the women about their work she saw a girl six or seven summers, maybe creep up on one of the women and splash water over her back, then run away in a burst of spray and giggles. The water must have been icy cold, fresh from the mountains, but the woman didn't turn, just continued her scrubbing against a boulder. In time the girl crept back again with exaggerated stealth, but just before she put her cupped hands into the water, the woman turned and dashed after her, sweeping her up and kissing her repeatedly. Coralen heard them both laughing.

As she watched she felt something tighten in her chest, and to her horror she felt tears bloom in her eyes. I can't remember one moment in all my life like that with my mam. I was never the child she wanted. She blinked, sending a fat tear rolling down her cheek, and sniffed.

'You all right?' Dath asked beside her.

'Fine,' she snapped, swiping at her face. 'A fly in my eye.' She paused a moment, then crept back to her horse and swung into the saddle. Dath and Kulla followed her.

'Where are you going?'

'To the village.' The original plan had been to stick to their position until Corban and the warband appeared, and make sure that no one headed south from the village in an attempt to spread word of the warband's coming. Suddenly, though, the fear and panic that the villagers would feel were things she wanted to try and avoid.

'Why?' Dath asked her. 'It's dangerous.'

'You should stay here,' she said as she rode towards the village. Dath caught up with her.

'You're mad, but Corban and Farrell would have my stones if I let you go riding into that village alone.'

'Displeasing the Seren Disglair must be avoided,' Kulla said, a horrified expression creeping across her face. 'At all costs.'

Dath raised an eyebrow and Coralen scowled. 'I can look after myself,' she snapped.

'I know that.' Dath shrugged. 'But I'm still coming.'

'We,' Kulla amended.

'Suit yourself.'

They rode into the village. Dogs barked, children shouted and people gathered about them, more filtering from the surrounding fields. Coralen saw many making the ward against evil as they saw her, causing her to scowl. Strangers obviously weren't welcome and in these troubled times she could understand why. But if they fear me, wait until they see Corban with a warband of giants and wolven. She pulled on her reins, saw the gauntlet of wolven claws she wore on her left arm and realized she was also wearing her wolven fur, the head draped across her shoulders, jaws gaping and teeth bared.

Perhaps they have good reason to fear me.

A man stepped out of the crowd surrounding them. Dath and Kulla looked around warily, prepared for trouble.

'Greetings,' he said. 'Excuse the poor welcome strangers are rare this far north.' Despite his polite tone he clutched a thick-hafted boar spear in his hands. With disapproval Coralen noted the blade was rusted. Other men were moving forward, most hefting woodcutters' axes. One had a battered sword sheathed at his side. She saw the mother and child that she'd watched in the river huddled together and remembered her purpose.

'You're about to see a whole lot more,' Coralen said. 'I've come to warn you that a warband is approaching from the north. They'll be here soon.'

Gasps rippled around the crowd, a hint of panic, some faces sceptical. Questions flew at her, raised voices.

'There is nothing to fear, they are peaceful and just travelling south. They will not stop, they will not attack. They want nothing from you. You'd be best going to your homes and closing your doors.'

Coralen saw expressions of doubt, disbelief, fear spreading through the crowd.

'Peaceful! When is a warband peaceful?' someone yelled.

'They mean you no harm is what I mean.' Coralen felt her temper fraying.

'Who are you?' the man who had greeted her shouted. People filtered away from the crowd's edges. A group began to hurry to the east, towards the wooded valley slopes. Some made to pa.s.s her, heading south, and she turned her horse, blocking the road.

'This isn't going well,' Dath whispered to Kulla, which didn't make Coralen any calmer.

'Go where you wish, except south,' Coralen said, then stood in her saddle. 'No one heads south.'

'They mean to slaughter us all,' a cry rose up, and hands grabbed at her bridle. She slapped them away, clenched her fist, causing her wolven claws to chime, and gripped her sword hilt. More people surged towards her.

Dath shot an arrow into the ground at the spokesman's feet and Kulla drew her sword.

'Stay back, or die,' Kulla said, her voice flat and cold.

I've managed to bring someone less gifted at diplomacy than me.

'Next man goes to lay a hand on her gets an arrow through the eye,' Dath said, loud and clear.

This isn't going as I planned.

Men were gathered in a half-circle about her, Dath and Kulla, a score at most, balanced on the brink of violence.

There was a moment's hush, and in it another sound grew, a distant thunder. Coralen looked to the north, saw figures appear on the valley's horizon, more pouring from the woodland. Mounted warriors, beside them the giants striding on long legs. Ahead of them ran a hound and wolven.

Corban.

'They are here. Go back to your homes,' Coralen shouted, and the crowd was suddenly moving in all directions. Most of them headed into the village, some broke away east and west. A handful swerved past her, heading south.

My scouts will send them back.

Coralen leaned down and rea.s.sured the woman from the river, who was standing frozen, wondering what to do, her daughter gripped in her arms.

'Trust me,' Coralen said. 'Go to your home. No harm will come to you.'

The woman looked at her, obviously torn between fight and flight. The girl just stared, big brown eyes unblinking.

'I'll do as you say.' The woman took long strides and disappeared into the village.

Corban's warband was soon upon them, a wing of Jehar warriors a hundred strong riding west of the village, thundering across fields of wheat and rye, the rest marching down the centre of the valley and through the settlement. Corban rode into the silent village, Meical on one side of him, Farrell on the other, a huge grin splitting his face.

Corban nodded a greeting at Coralen's group.

'How are you, girlie?' Farrell winked at Coralen.

'Well enough, and don't call me girlie. I've spoken to you about that before.'

'Sorry habit.' He winced, a hand moving protectively to his groin. Dath chuckled.

'Everything all right?' Corban asked, frowning as Coralen fell in beside him.

'Aye. Just trying to prevent a ma.s.s panic.'

Corban looked around; the village appeared almost deserted. Here and there a face could be spied peering from shuttered windows.

'Looks like you succeeded.'

'It wasn't easy,' Dath said. 'Don't think they're used to seeing even one or two new faces up here. The sight of you lot coming towards them . . .'

'What's the road ahead like?' Meical asked.

'I've sent Craf and the Jehar scouts ahead. Haven't heard anything, so it must be clear. I'm going to wait until everyone's through the village, then I'll join them.'

'Something bothering you?' Corban asked.

'No. Just want to make sure there's no harm done.'

'We've no quarrel with these people.'

'I know, but fear can lead to rash acts.'

'True enough. You've done well.'

She felt a smile twitch at her mouth, then scowled at herself. I'm not a bairn to blush at praise.

'I'll see you after,' she muttered, and reined in at the side of the road, Dath and Kulla silently joining her. Together they watched the warband sweep past, three hundred of the Jehar, Gar and Tukul leading them, a cl.u.s.ter of giants, Balur with his black axe at their centre. Brina and Cywen rode by, heads close in conversation. The bird Fech sat on Brina's saddle, his head bobbing, beak opening and closing as if he were joining in their discussion.

Craf won't be happy about Fech getting a ride while he's off working for his supper.

'You're supposed to be our rearguard eyes,' Coralen called out to the raven.

'Fech is educating me,' Brina said to her.

The last of the warband pa.s.sed through, the Jehar Akar riding rearguard with a score of his warriors. Coralen waited a moment and then followed.