They had buried the fires’ remains well before the sun began to rise. Except of course there was no sun. The sky lit itself slowly and evenly, the eastern part no brighter than the rest.
Now they walked deeper into a forest with a floor of brittle grass, the thin light showing no more than a few metres ahead. Undergrowth crunched beneath their boots.
Anfen’s mood was far brighter than it had been the night before, and at their first rest break it became clear why: he was about to part company with Kiown. He called the group together. ‘We separate here. Sharfy, Loup, Siel, the Pilgrims, myself. The rest of you stay with our contacts by the Godstears Sea until you’re sent for. Enjoy the fish, don’t be noticed. Doon, we are visiting your aunt; I will send your greetings. But you need to be with this group to protect them. Kiown knows the roads best, and for that reason he leads you, wisely I hope. Be well.’
The group departed, though it was clear most of them weren’t pleased with the orders. ‘Watch out for magpies,’ Kiown called to Anfen, referring to the Invia. ‘I won’t be here to save you next time.’ Anfen did not indicate he’d heard. Kiown turned to Eric. ‘You! I will make you a good deal for that scale. Don’t crush it up for visions. And be careful of Sharfy. Among his collection of dirty secrets is a … shall we say fondness for scale visions. Can’t help himself, you wait and see.’ He leaned close and lowered his voice. ‘I see how you look at her. I see how you look at me now. You don’t approve of my sleeping arrangements last night. Probably you plain don’t like me at all. I understand! But it went no further than sharing a blanket. Never bedded her proper and never would. Be careful, you smitten thing. She’s a killer. Don’t be fooled by her age.’
Eric frowned. ‘Her age … wait a second, how old is she?’
‘Fourteen. Thanks for the “tie”. Be safe!’
As those remaining prepared to leave, Loup took Anfen aside and they had a long, quiet chat. After it, Anfen seemed very pleased. He clapped Case on the shoulder. ‘Loup has uncovered some of your charm’s secrets! You, my friend, have collected a mine full of treasures. This could be a pivotal moment in history. Well done.’ But he said no more about it, and the group resumed their march through the trees in waxing light.
‘Glad he’s happy,’ Case muttered.
Eric was still on the brink of throwing up, in a dizzy, reeling world of remorse. He snapped, ‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘I don’t trust these people, Eric. What I saw at the castle was pretty bad, but I haven’t seen anything from this lot yet to convince me they’re the good guys.’
‘Good guys? Case, is this a movie or are we trying to survive here?’
‘I don’t know, but the only ones here who showed me any goodness at all was Stranger and that wings woman, whatever they call em.’
‘Didn’t the Invia put you in harm’s way? She put you inside the castle and made you see all those bad things.’
‘She had her reasons.’
‘Oh, come on.’
‘She also gave me that necklace and saved me from falling down a cliff. You should see em up close, Eric. They’re beautiful. And last night, that Stranger lass, she came to visit, just beyond the camp there. Well, that woman who never smiles or talks shot an arrow at her.’
‘Not woman, Case. Girl.’
‘No warnings, nothing, just whoosh! They tried to kill Stranger, Eric, after she helped me out and all, sent me back here to you.’
‘They don’t know who she is yet. Did you hear them? They were nervous because she can do serious magic. Why doesn’t she come and introduce herself?’
‘Maybe she tried last night. And by the way, are they keeping us captive or do they plan to let us go if we find a town or something?’
Eric felt reluctant to admit it in Case’s present mood, and he wondered how much the old guy was just in need of a drink. Yet … ‘We are … I think not quite captives, but not quite free, either.’
‘There!’ said Case, triumphant. ‘I want out of here, Eric. I want my charm back and I want to go.’
Eric laughed. ‘Case! Where are you going to go? You don’t have a map, don’t know anything about this place.’
‘I don’t care. I had a long enough innings already. If something gets me, well and good. I’m done with this shady bunch. They never tell us outright who they are or what they’re doing. You stay with em and keep the gun. Just don’t tell them what I’m doing.’
‘Maybe I should, before you get yourself killed.’
‘Oh no you don’t. I get myself killed that’s my business, I don’t give a shit. You got years ahead of you, I got weeks or days, I’ll spend em how I want. Wouldn’t be here at all’ — Case bit off the words which Eric thought were likely to be: if you hadn’t jumped through the door like a lemming off a cliff.
‘Case, I would dearly love this conversation to be over, because I have hard work to do glossing over something I feel extremely guilty about. But let me ask you something. And don’t get mad, OK? This Stranger woman. Did she really come last night just to see you? Do you think she’s going to follow you around and keep you safe, if you leave the group?’ And maybe conjure you another drink or two? And, maybe in your heart of hearts, give you a little kiss …?
That touched a nerve, perhaps what he hadn’t said as much as what he had. Case stormed away from him, not before turning and whispering fiercely, ‘I tell you what, I’m gonna wait for my chance. And don’t you tell them. You owe me that much.’
‘I guess if you don’t measure what’s owed or not in a material way, you’re right,’ said Eric, thinking of the money he’d spent on this geezer’s alcohol alone.
Case frowned. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Nothing, forget it. OK, Case. You got it. My lips are zipped.’
It was several hours before Eric discovered Kiown had been joking about Siel’s age. She was really nineteen. When Sharfy told him this, he suddenly shared every violent wish Anfen may or may not have had for the lanky redhead, although the relief he felt was like a gift from the heavens.
Meanwhile the ground bore no path for them across its sloping turf; the bush was thick in parts, then thinning away to bare fields of stiff grass; and the trees were mainly kinds not dissimilar to pine and eucalyptus, some hugely tall with thick, strong branches, others skeletally thin. There was small game to hunt: creatures that seemed cousins of deer and rabbit. They were easily caught, full of good meat, and seemed to live for little purpose other than to feed travellers. Eric tried to think of what bothered him on sight of the creatures, why they seemed less real than they should. He thought, sketched by a different nature. Each looks pretty much the same as every other of its kind. But it’s not like that with people, or with the animals you see of our world, like crows and horses …
As days and nights of marching took them deeper into the woods, mist which never lifted covered the ground in a white shroud. It was so thick in parts that they lost sight of each other, and the march became a blind stagger with arms extended to stop head-on collisions with trees. There was no sign yet of the ghosts Sharfy had feared, unless the peculiar echoing calls of birds they never saw, seeming to report their progress, came from the throats of ghosts.
Occasional clearings held the corpses of old villages: longneglected huts of log and stone. They stopped to explore these, finding in them no recent signs of life, human or animal — just abandoned stone water wells and the trees keeping silent vigil. Their feet began kicking up old bones in the undergrowth. Eric overheard Sharfy and Anfen quietly talking of massacres, mass executions of soldiers marched here in lines from trapped or surrendering armies, their bodies left in shallow ditches and the woods left full of angry spirits.