‘Luck had little to do with it,’ he said, happier to be on firmer ground.
‘I heard – you were attacked. Still, the clans won.’
‘Yes.’
‘They will win again.’
‘At this moment I don’t see how,’ said Gaelen. ‘Nothing has gone right for us. We have lost thousands and the Aenir are hardly touched.’
‘I have eight hundred warriors at my command,’ she said.
‘What? Where are you hiding them?’
‘They are not hidden. They are here, with me.’
‘You mean the women?’
‘If that patronising look does not fade soon, you Farlain pig-swill, then you’ll be leaving here faster than you came.’
‘I… apologise,’ he said.
‘Well, stop apologising!’ she snapped. ‘It seems you’ve done nothing else since you arrived. You’re the lowlander Caswallon brought home, are you not?’
‘I am.’
Then, this once, I will forgive you for not thinking like a clansman. All our women are skilled with the bow. We can also use knives, though swords are a little unwieldy. Our men are dead and our clan finished. We none of us have any reason to go on living like beasts in the mountains. Even if we survive and smash the Aenir, there will be no Haesten. Our day is gone. The best we can hope for is to find husbands from other clans. Believe me, Gaelen, that is not a happy thought.’
‘Let us start again, Lara,’ he said. ‘I did not wish to insult you. And, though I was once a lowlander, I am well aware of the skill of clan women. I will accept your offer, if you still hold to it. You must forgive me. It has been a long spring and much has happened; I have been hunted, attacked, and seen my closest friend slain. The enemy that destroyed your people did this to me when I was a child in Ateris,’ he told her, pointing to the blood-red eye and the jagged white scar above. ‘I had few friends in that city, but those were brutally murdered. Youngsters I grew to like among the Farlain are now rotting corpses. I was sent here to gather an army that could descend upon the enemy and, perhaps, turn the tide of battle. I do not patronise you, I admire you. But still I am disappointed.’
‘That I can understand,’ she said, her voice softening. ‘You were one of the Beast Slayers, were you not?’
‘That seems so long ago now. There were five of us – and one of those lies dead back in the forest… or at least he would, had he not been devoured by another demon beast.’
‘Who died?’ she asked.
‘Layne.’
The handsome brother of the mighty Lennox,’ she said. That is indeed a loss. You say there are more of these creatures still roaming the mountains?’
‘One only. We slew the others.’
‘Good,’ she said, with a smile. ‘You know you are now part of clan myths.”
He nodded. ‘A small part.’
The lowlander and the ghost Queen.’
‘Is that what they call her?’
‘Yes. The story is that she was the daughter of Earis returned from the grave.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ he told her. ‘Her name was Sigarni, and she was a mighty warrior Queen – the sort of woman you would follow into the caverns of the damned,’
‘I like the sound of her. I’ll get us something to eat,’ she said, rising and taking his empty goblet.
Tell me,’ he asked suddenly, ‘was your man killed?’
‘I had no man.’
‘Why?’
‘What business is it of yours?”
‘I . . .’
‘And don’t apologise!’
He watched her leave the chamber, too aware for comfort of her sensual grace and the sleek lines of her body.
Maggrig was horrified when the young druid, Metas, brought him the news of Taliesen’s death. The Pallides leader was still reeling from the trap that had been sprung on him that morning when the Aenir encircled his force. He had escaped, but only by good fortune.
Now he was thunderstruck. He sent a message to Leofas and retired with Intosh to the forest caves to await him. It was late afternoon when Leofas was led to him; with the old warrior was his giant son, Lennox.