‘I am sorry,’ said Sigarni. ‘I have obviously not seen the best of him. Have you been married long?’
‘Fourteen years come summer.’ She smiled. ‘He hasn’t changed much in those years, save to lose some of his hair. It’s beautiful here, isn’t it, the sun gleaming on High Druin?’
‘Yes,’ Sigarni agreed.
Layelia rose. ‘I have taken too much of your time. I will leave you to your thoughts.”
Sigarni stood. ‘Thank you, Layelia. I feel refreshed, though I don’t know why.’
‘You’ve spent too long in the company of men,’ said Layelia. ‘Perhaps we should talk again?’
‘I would enjoy that.’
Layelia stepped forward and embraced the silver-haired warrior woman, kissing her on both cheeks. Sigarni felt hot tears spill to her face. Abruptly she pulled clear and turned back towards High Druin.
‘You shouldn’t have brought me,’ grumbled Ballistar. ‘I’m slowing you down.’
‘That’s true,’ grunted Sigarni, as they faced yet another deep snow-drift. ‘But you’re such good company!’
Ballistar shifted on her shoulders. ‘Put me down and we’ll see if we can crawl along the top of it. There should be solid ground about thirty feet ahead. Then it is just one more hill to the Falls.’
Sigarni swivelled and tipped the little man from her shoulders. He fell head-first into the drift, and came up spluttering and spitting snow. ‘You are heavy for a small man,’ she said laughing.
‘And you have the boniest shoulders I ever sat upon,’ he told her, brushing snow from his beard. Turning to his stomach, Ballistar began to squirm across the snow. Sigarni followed him, using her arms to force a path. After an hour of effort they reached solid ground and sat for a while, gathering their strength. ‘I’m freezing to death,’ muttered Ballistar. ‘I hope you left enough firewood in the cave. I’m in no mood to go gathering.’
‘Enough for a couple of hours,’ she reassured him.
The Falls were still frozen at the centre, but at the sides water had begun to trickle through the ice. ‘The thaw is coming,’ said the dwarf.
‘I know,’ said Sigarni softly.
Inside the cave Sigarni started a fire and they shrugged out of their soaked outer clothing. ‘So why did you bring me?’ asked Ballistar.
‘I thought you’d enjoy my company,’ she told him.
‘That’s not very convincing.’
She looked at him, and remembered how out of place he had seemed back at the encampment, how lonely and sad. ‘I wanted company,’ she said, ‘and I could think of no one else I would rather have with me.’
He blushed and looked away. ‘I’ll accept that,’ he said brightly. ‘Do you remember when we used to play here as children? You, me, Fell and Bernt built a tree house. It fell apart in the big storm. Fell was climbing and the floor gave way. You remember?’
Sigarni nodded. ‘Bernt stole the nails from Grame. More nails in that structure than wood.’
‘It was fun, wasn’t it?’
‘Fun? You were always arguing with the others, getting into scrapes and fights.’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘I was young then, and not growing like the rest of you. But I look back on those times as the happiest of my life. Do you think the others would?’
‘Bernt no longer looks back,’ she said, her voice almost a whisper.
‘Oh, I’m sorry, Sigarni. I wasn’t thinking.’ Reaching out, he took her slender hand in his own, his stubby fingers caressing her wrist. ‘It wasn’t your fault, not really. I think if you had gone he would still have killed himself had you turned him down. It was his life; he chose to take it.’
Sigarni shook her head. ‘I don’t think that is the whole truth. Had I known the outcome beforehand I would have acted differently. But now I think about how I was lying in bed with Asmidir, enjoying myself utterly.’ She sighed. ‘And while I was being pleasured, Bernt was tying a rope around his neck.’
Ballistar looked away and fiddled with the fire, poking small sticks into the flames. ‘Now I have embarrassed you,’ she said.
‘Yes, you have,’ he told her, reddening. ‘But we are friends, Sigarni. We always will be. I don’t want you to feel there are words you cannot say in my presence. When is the wizard due?’ he asked, changing the subject.