He had relatives among the Wingoras and the Farlain, but with a price on his head he would only endanger them by seeking their aid. No, Fell, he told himself, you are a man alone now, friendless and hunted. You have killed an Outlander and they will hunt you to your dying day. A roll of thunder boomed across the sky and lightning forked across the heavens. Fell shivered and watched as the rain hammered down on the surface of the pool, falling in sheets, thick and impenetrable. Stepping back from the cave-mouth, he returned to the fire and the sleeping Sigarni.
‘We will cross the sea, my love,’ he said, ‘and I’ll do what I should have done. We’ll marry and build a home in distant mountains.’
‘No, you won’t,’ said Taliesen from the cave-mouth. Fell smiled and swung to see the old man, his feather cloak dripping water, his wispy hair plastered to his skull. In his hands he carried a long staff, wrapped in sacking cloth.
That’s a more pleasing entrance,’ said the forester. ”Now I believe you are flesh and blood.’ Taliesen removed his cloak and draped it over a rock. Squatting by the fire, he held out his ancient hands to the flames.
‘You did well, boy,’ he said. ‘You have evaded the first hunters. But they will send more, canny men, skilled in tracking. And with them will be a Finder, a seeker of souls, a reader of thoughts. If you survive this, which is doubtful at best, they will send the night-stalkers, creatures from the pit.’
‘No, no,’ said Fell, ‘seek not to cheer me, old man, with your boundless optimism. I am a grown man, tell it to me straight.’
Taliesen hawked and spat. ‘I have no time for your humour. We must protect her, Fell. Her importance cannot be overstated. You must go from here to her cabin. Gather her weapons and some spare clothes; give them to the dwarf. Tell him, and the others there, what has occurred. Then you must find the hunters and lead them deep into the mountains.’
Fell took a deep breath, fighting for calm. It didn’t work. ‘Find the hunters? Lead them? What say you I just attack the Citadel town single-handed and raze it to the ground? Or perhaps I could borrow your feather cloak and fly south, invading the Outland cities and slaying the King? Are you insane, old man? What do you expect me to do against thirty soldiers?’
‘Whatever you can.’ The old man looked into Fell’s eyes, his expression as cold as ice on flint. ‘You are dispensable, Fell,’ said Taliesen. ‘Your death will matter only to you. You can be replaced. Everything can be replaced, save Sigarni. You understand? You must earn her time, time to recover, time to learn. She is the leader your people have yearned for. Only she has the power to win freedom for the clans.’
‘They’ll never follow a woman! That much I know.’
Taliesen shook his head. ‘They followed the Witch Queen four hundred years ago. They crossed the Gateways and died for her. They stood firm against the enemy, though they were outnumbered and faced slaughter. They will follow her, Fell.’
‘The Witch Queen was a sorceress. Sigarni is merely a woman.’
‘How blind you are,’ said the old man, ‘and rich indeed is your male conceit. This woman was dragged to a cell and raped, sodomized and beaten senseless by four men. Like animals they fell upon her …’
‘I don’t want to hear this!’ roared Fell, half rising.
‘But you shall!’ stormed the wizard. ‘They struck her with their fists, and they bit her. They cut her buttocks with their sharp knives, and forced her to unspeakable acts. Then they left her upon the floor of the cell, to lie on the cold stone floor in a pool of her own vomit and blood. Aye, well might you look shocked, for this was men at play, Fell. She lay there and after an hour or so a new guard came into the cell. He too wanted his piece of her flesh. She killed him, Fell. Then she hunted down the others. One she slew upon the dungeon stair. Two she killed outside a tavern. And the last? You saw him, in his fine red cloak of wool. Him she tore the throat from. Just a woman? By all the Gods of the Nine Worlds, boy, in her tortured condition she killed six strong men!’