Gallowglass considered wandering over to where the newcomers were gathering. He decided against it. They didn’t look very welcoming. Instead he walked back to the line of tents, trying to recall which one he was sharing with Taybard Jaekel and Lanfer Gosten. Most of the flaps were drawn shut. Gallowglass opened several and peered inside before moving on. Just when he had decided to crawl into the next damned tent that had a space he saw Taybard emerge some twenty yards further along. Gallowglass waved and strolled over to him.
‘Found the whore,’ he said. ‘Mighty fine she was.’
‘I need to piss,’ said Taybard.
‘Me too.’
Together they walked back to the castle wall and emptied their bladders. ‘How do you feel about being home?’ asked Jakon.
‘I’m not home,’ said Taybard.
‘What are you talking about?’ responded Gallowglass, tying the front of his leggings. ‘This is where you come from, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. This is where I come from.’
Taybard moved away. Gallowglass watched him go. The man had not been the same since Shelding. The deaths of Kammel Bard and Banny Achbain had changed him in a way Gallowglass did not understand. People died in war. That was a fact of life. Indeed most of the men Gallowglass had known at the start of the war were now in the ground. Old Tamor had been the first to go, his face blown off. They had identified him by a red birth mark on the back of his neck. His death had saddened Gallowglass, but it hadn’t turned him weird.
He saw that Taybard had not gone back to the tent, and caught sight of him wandering along the line of the wall. Gallowglass ran after him. ‘Wait up,’ he said. ‘Where you headed?’
‘Just walking.’
‘You want to walk alone?’
‘I don’t care.’
‘Not like you to leave your rifle behind.’
‘No. Hanging offence to lose your rifle.’
‘What the hell is wrong with you, Jaekel? Are you drunk?’
Taybard suddenly sat on the ground. ‘I’m not drunk,’ he said. ‘I just want to go home.’
‘You are home.’
‘We marched past my house yesterday. Only it didn’t seem like my house. Nothing is the same, Gallowglass. Old Hills, Eldacre, the Five Fields . . . it’s all changed.’
‘New buildings, you mean?’
‘No, they’re all the same. But they’re not home any more. They’re just buildings. I want to go home. I want things to be as they were. I want to see Banny, and hear him making jokes. I want to hear Kammel complaining about everything.’
‘They are dead, Jaekel. You are not.’
‘I know they are dead. I know things will never be the same. I just thought that when I came home I would be free of … I don’t know what I thought.’
‘You should get some sleep. Sleep is good. You haven’t slept much since Shelding.’
‘I think I’ll walk a bit.’ Taybard rose to his feet and wandered off. Gallowglass followed him. They approached the area where the newcomers were camped. Fires had been lit, and groups of men were sitting around. Taybard Jaekel ignored them and kept walking.
‘This is a Rigante camp,’ said someone. ‘You Varlish can stay clear of it.’
‘I’m Rigante,’ said Taybard Jaekel. ‘She told me that. She said . . .’
‘I don’t care what she said,’ snapped the man, surging to his feet. ‘Get your stinking carcass away from us.’
Gallowglass moved in. ‘Rigante is it?’ he said. ‘Well watch yourself, Rigante, or I’ll rip off your head and piss in the hole.’
‘The Wyrd said I was of the line of Fiallach,’ said Taybard Jaekel tonelessly. ‘He was a general, you know. He served Connavar the King. Don’t know much about him. The books don’t say. Don’t know who I am really. Don’t know anything any more.’ A silence fell on the scene. Jaekel just stood there, lost in dark and gloomy thoughts.
A tall, fair-haired man stepped forward and approached Gallowglass. ‘What is wrong with your friend?’ he asked.
‘Too much death, I reckon.’
The man who had first insulted them moved alongside Taybard. He was tall and sharp-featured, his dark hair close cropped and receding, leaving a pointed widow’s peak at the centre of his brow. ‘Drink this,’ he said, offering Taybard a small, leather-covered flask. Taybard drank deeply. ‘Sit you down,’ the man went on, no anger now in his voice. ‘I’ll tell you of Fiallach and his Iron Wolves. Then you’ll know who you are and where you came from.’