The sound of horse’s hooves caused him to curse and he straightened, slipping his dagger into his sheath. Returning to the clearing he found Danyal unconscious. Across her naked breasts someone had laid a goose-feathered arrow. Waylander snapped it in half.
Cadoras!
Lifting Danyal, he walked back to the wagons, where he left her with the baker’s wife and returned to the grove. The first man who had attacked him lay where he had fallen; Waylander had hoped to question him, but his throat had been cut. Swiftly he searched the body, but there was nothing to identify him. The second man had three gold coins in a belt pouch. Waylander took the coins back to the camp and gave them to Lyda.
‘Hide them about your person,’ he told her.
She nodded and lifted the canvas flap, allowing Waylander to climb into the wagon.
Danyal was awake, her lip swollen and a bruise on her cheek. Caymal sat beside her. The wagon was cramped and the baker’s two young children were sleeping beside Danyal.
‘Thank you,’ she said, forcing a smile.
‘They will not trouble you again.’
Caymal eased himself past Waylander and climbed out over the tailboard. Waylander moved up to sit beside Danyal.
‘Are you hurt?’ he asked.
‘No. Not much anyway. Did you kill them?’
‘Yes.’
‘How is it you can do these things?’
‘Practice,’ he said.
‘No, that’s not what I meant. Caymal tried to stop the man … and Caymal is strong, but he was brushed aside like a child.’
‘It is all about fear, Danyal. Do you want to rest now?’
‘No, I want some air. Let’s walk somewhere.’
He helped her from the wagon and they walked to the cliff face and sat on the rocks.
Tell me about fear,’ she said.
He walked away from her and stooped to lift a pebble.
‘Catch this,’ he said, flicking the stone towards her. Her hand snaked out and she caught the pebble deftly. ‘That was easy, was it not?’
‘Yes,’ she admitted.
‘Now if I had Krylla and Miriel here, and two men had knives at their throats and you were told that if you missed the pebble they would die, would it still be easy to catch? Think of those times in your life when you were nervous, and your movements became disjointed.
‘Fear makes fools of us all. So too does anger, rage and excitement. And then we move too fast and there is no control. You follow me?’
‘I think so. When I had to give my first performance before the King in Drenan, I froze. All I had to do was walk across the stage, but my legs felt as if they were carved from wood.’
‘That is it. Exactly! The onset of fear makes the simplest of actions complex and difficult. No more so than when we fight … and I can fight better than most because I can bring all my concentration to bear on the small things. The pebble remains a pebble, no matter what hangs upon success or failure.’
‘Can you teach me?’
‘I don’t have time.’
‘You are not obeying your own maxim. This is a small thing. Forget the quest and concentrate on me, Waylander – I need to learn.’
‘How to fight?’
‘No – how to conquer fear. Then you can teach me to fight.’
‘Very well. Start by telling me what is death?’
‘An ending.’
‘Make it worse.’
‘Maggots and grey rotting flesh?’
‘Good. And where are you?’
‘Gone. Finished.’
‘Do you feel anything?’
‘No … perhaps. If there is a paradise.’
‘Forget paradise.’
‘Then I feel nothing. I am no longer alive.’
‘This death, can you avoid it?’
‘Of course not.’
‘But you can delay it?’
‘Yes.’
‘And what will that give you?’
‘The prospect of more happiness.’
‘But at worst?’
‘The prospect of more pain,’ she said. ‘Old age, wrinkles, decay.’
‘Which is worse? Death or decay?’
‘I am young. At the moment I fear both.’
‘To conquer fear, you must realise that there is no escape from what you dread. You must absorb it. Live with it. Taste it. Understand it. Overcome it.’
‘I understand that,’ she said.
‘Good. What do you fear most at this moment?’