Finn lit the fire and joined the two men. ‘I have seen them,’ he said. ‘In the mountains. They move at night – hunting, I think.’
‘Then we will wait for moonlight,’ said Chareos. ‘Then we shall try again.’
The hours passed slowly. Finn cooked a meal of venison, the last of the choice cuts he had taken from the deer killed the previous evening. Beltzer wrapped himself in his blankets and slept, his hand on his axe. Kiall wandered away from the fire, walking to the crest of a nearby hill. There he sat down alone and thought of Ravenna, picturing the surge of joy she would feel when he rode to her. He shivered, and depression struck him like a blow. Would he ever ride to her? And if he did would she just laugh, as she had laughed before? Would she point to her new husband and say, ‘He is my man. He is strong, not a dreamer like you’?
A sound came from behind and Kiall turned to see Finn walking towards him. ‘You wish to be alone?’ asked Finn.
‘No, not at all.’
Finn sat down and stared over the rugged countryside. ‘This is a beautiful land,’ he said, ‘and it will remain so until people discover it and build their towns and cities. I could live here until my dying day – and never regret it.’
‘Maggrig told me you hated city life,’ said Kiall. The hunter nodded.
‘I don’t mind the endless stone and brick – it’s the people. After Bel-azar we were dragged from city to city so that crowds could gawp at us. You would have thought we were gods at the very least. We all hated it – save Beltzer. He was in a kind of Heaven. Chareos was the first to say, “No more”. One morning he just rode away.’
‘He has had a sad life, I understand,’ said Kiall.
‘Sad? In what way?’
‘His wife. Beltzer told me about it.’
‘Beltzer has a big mouth, and a man’s private business should remain so. I saw her in New Gulgothir three years ago. She is happy at last.’
‘She is dead,’ said Kiall. ‘She became a street whore and killed herself.’
Finn shook his head. ‘Yes, Beltzer told me that but it’s not true. She was a whore, but she married a merchant – bore him three sons. As far as I know they are still together. She told me she had seen Beltzer – it was the lowest point of her life. That I can believe. Every time I see Beltzer I feel the same way. No, Beltzer heard of a whore who drowned and the rest was wishful thinking. She was happy when I saw her – for the first time in her life. I was pleased for her.’
‘You did not hate her, then?’
‘Why should I hate her?’ asked Finn.
‘She betrayed Chareos,’ Kiall answered.
‘She was sold to him by her father. She never loved him. She was fey and high-spirited – reminded me of a fawn I saw once. I was hunting and the creature saw me. It did not recognise a bow or a hunter, it had no fear. When I stood with bow bent, it trotted towards me. I dropped the arrow and the fawn nuzzled my hand. Then it went its way. Tura was like that. A fawn in search of a hunter.’
‘You liked her, then?’
Finn said nothing but stood and walked back down the hill. The sun was setting, and a ghostly moon could be seen shimmering behind the clouds.
*
Chareos waited as the moon rose higher. Silver light bathed the clearing and the ancient stone Gateway shimmered and gleamed like cold iron. He stood and rolled his head, stretching the muscles of shoulder and neck, trying to ease the tension born of fear. Something deep within him flickered, a silent voice urging him to beware. He sensed himself on the verge of a journey that would take him where he did not want to go, on pathways dark and perilous. There were no words of warning, merely a feeling of cold dread.
‘Are you ready then?’ asked Beltzer. ‘Or would you like me to try it?’