She curled her lip. ‘What of them?’
He grunted. ‘Of course. Greed and power are her only lovers-in that, she is no different from us men.’
‘What do you want with Hetan?’
‘Nothing. Never mind.’
‘You no longer trust me. Perhaps you never did. It was only the pool of blood we’re both standing in.’
‘You follow me. You stand just beyond the firelight every night.’
I am alone. Can’t you see that? ‘Why did you murder him? I will tell you. It’s because you saw him as a threat, and he was surely that, wasn’t he?’
‘I–I did not-’ He halted, shook his head. ‘I want to steal her away. I want it to end.’
‘It’s too late. Hetan is dead inside. Long dead. You took away her husband. You took away her children. And then you-we-took away her body. A flower cut from its root quickly dies.’
‘Estaral.’
He was holding on to a secret, she realized.
Bakal glanced at her. ‘ Cafal. ’
She felt her throat tighten-was it panic? Or the promise of vengeance? Retribution? Even if it meant her own death? Oh, I see now. We’re still falling.
‘He is close,’ Bakal went on under his breath. ‘He wants her back. He wants me to steal her away. Estaral, I need your help-’
She searched his face. ‘You would do this for him? Do you hate him that much, Bakal?’
She might as well have struck him in the face.
‘He-he is a shaman, a healer-’
‘No Barghast shaman has ever healed one of the hobbled.’
‘None has tried!’
‘Perhaps it is as you say, Bakal. I see that you do not want to wound Cafal. You would do this to give to him what he seeks.’
He nodded once, as if unable to speak.
‘I will take her from the children,’ Estaral said. ‘I will lead her to the west end of the camp. But, Bakal, there will be pickets-we are at the eve of battle-’
‘I know. Leave the warriors to me.’
She didn’t know why she was doing this. Nor did she understand the man walking at her side. But what difference did knowing make? Just as easy to live in ignorance, scraped clean of expectation, emptied of beliefs and faith, even hopes. Hetan is hobbled. No different in the end from every other woman suffering the same fate. She’s been cut down inside, and the stem lies bruised and lifeless. She was once a great warrior. She was once proud, her wit sharp as a thorn, ever quick to laugh but never with cruelty. She was indeed a host of virtues, but they had availed her nothing. No strength of will survives hobbling. Not a single virtue. This is the secret of humiliation: the deadliest weapon the Barghast have.
She could see Hetan up ahead, her matted hair, her stumbles brought up by the crooked staff the hobbled were permitted when on the march. The daughter of Humbrall Taur was barely recognizable. Did her father’s spirit stand witness, there in the Reaper’s shadow? Or had he turned away?
No, he rides his last son’s soul. That must be what has so maddened Cafal.
Well, to honour Hetan’s father, she would do this. When the Barghast came to rest at this day’s end. She was tired. She was thirsty. She hoped it would be soon.
Kashat pointed. ‘See there, brother. The ridge forms half a circle.’
‘Not much of a slope,’ Sagal muttered.
‘Look around,’ Kashat said, snorting. ‘It’s about the best we can manage. This land is pocked, but those pocks are old and worn down. Anyway, that ridge marks the biggest of those pocks-you can see that for yourself. And the slope is rocky-they would lose horses charging up that.’
‘So they flank us instead.’
‘We make strongpoints at both ends, with crescents of archers positioned behind them to take any riders attempting an encirclement.’
‘With the rear barricaded by the wagons.’
‘Held by mixed archers and pike-wielders, yes, exactly. Listen, Sagal, by this time tomorrow we’ll be picking loot from heaps of corpses. The Akrynnai army will be shattered, their villages undefended-we can march into the heart of their territory and claim it for ourselves.’
‘An end to the Warleader, the rise of the first Barghast King.’
Kashat nodded. ‘And we shall be princes, and the King shall grant us provinces to rule. Our very own herds. Horses, bhederin, rodara. We shall have Akrynnai slaves, as many of their young women as we want, and we shall live in keeps-do you remember, Sagal? When we were young, our first war, marching down to Capustan-we saw the great stone keeps all in ruin along the river. We shall build ourselves those, one each.’
