'Of him? Come now. You didn't seem afraid of Scale and he's a deal more worrying. And you walked forty miles with my apprentice over your back, and that shows courage, and compassion too. A rare combination, indeed. Violence and restraint, calculation and compassion and you speak to the spirits too.'

Logen raised an eyebrow. 'Not often, and only when there's no one else around. Their talk is dull, and not half so flattering as yours.'

'Hah. That's true. The spirits have little to say to men, I understand, though I have never spoken with them; I have not the gift. Few have these days.' He took another swallow from his cup, peering at Logen over the rim. 'I can scarcely think of another one alive.'

Malacus stumbled from the trees, shivering, and set the wet bowls down. He grabbed his blanket, wrapped it tightly around him, then peered hopefully at the steaming pot on the fire. 'Is that tea?'

Bayaz ignored him. 'Tell me, Master Ninefingers, in all the time since you arrived at my library, you have never once asked me why I sent for you, or why now we are wandering through the North in peril of our lives. That strikes me as odd.'

'Not really. I don't want to know.'

'Don't want to?'

'All my life I've sought to know things. What's on the other side of the mountains? What are my enemies thinking? What weapons will they use against me? What friends can I trust?' Logen shrugged. 'Knowledge may be the root of power, but each new thing I've learned has left me worse off.' He sucked again on the pipe, but it was finished. He tapped the ashes out onto the ground. 'Whatever it is you want from me I will try to do, but I don't want to know until it's time. I'm sick of making my own decisions. They're never the right ones. Ignorance is the sweetest medicine, my father used to say. I don't want to know.'

Bayaz stared at him. It was the first time Logen had seen the First of the Magi look at all surprised. Malacus Quai cleared his throat. 'I'd like to know,' he said in a small voice, looking hopefully up at his master.

'Yes,' murmured Bayaz, 'but you don't get to ask.'

It was around midday that it all went wrong. Logen was just starting to think that they might make it to the Whiteflow, maybe even live out the week. It felt as if he lost his concentration for just a moment. Unfortunately, it was the one moment that mattered.

Still, it was well done, you had to give them that. They'd chosen their spot carefully, and tied rags around their horse's hooves, to muffle the sound. Threetrees might have seen it coming, if he'd been with them, but he had an eye for the ground like no other. The Dogman might have smelled them, if he'd been there, but he had the nose for it. The fact was, neither of them were there. The dead are no help at all.

There were three horsemen, waiting for them as they rounded a blind corner, well armed and armoured, dirty faces but clean weapons, veterans each man. The one on the right was thickset and powerful-looking, with almost no neck. The one on the left was tall and gaunt with small, hard eyes. Both of them had round helmets, coats of weathered mail, and long spears lowered and ready. Their leader sat on his horse like a bag of turnips, slouched in the saddle with the ease of the expert horseman. He nodded to Logen. 'Ninefingers! The Brynn! The Bloody-Nine! It's right good to see you again.'

'Blacktoe,' muttered Logen, forcing a friendly smile onto his face. 'It'd warm my heart to see you too, if things were different. '

'But they are as they are.' The old warrior's eyes moved slowly over Bayaz, Quai, and Logen as he spoke, taking in their weapons, or the lack of them, working out his game. A stupider opponent could have evened up the odds, but Blacktoe was a Named Man, and no fool. His eyes came to rest on Logen's hand as it crept slowly across his body towards the hilt of his sword, and he shook his head slowly. 'None of your tricks, Bloody-Nine. You can see we've got you.' And he nodded over at the trees behind them.

Logen's heart sank even lower. Two more riders had appeared and were trotting forwards to complete the trap, their muffled hooves barely making a sound on the soft ground by the road. Logen chewed his lip. Blacktoe was right, damn him. The four horsemen closed in, lowered spear-points swaying, faces cold, minds set to the task. Malacus Quai stared at them with frightened eyes, his horse shying back. Bayaz smiled pleasantly as though they were his oldest friends. Logen would have liked a touch of the wizard's composure. His own heart was hammering, his mouth was sour.

Blacktoe nudged his horse forward, one hand gripping the shaft of his axe, the other resting on his knee, not even using the reins. He was a masterful horseman, famous for it. That's what happens when a man loses all his toes to the frost. Riding is quicker than walking, that has to be admitted, but when it came to fighting Logen preferred to keep his feet firmly on the ground. 'Better be coming with us now,' said the old warrior, 'better all round.'

Logen could hardly agree, but the odds were stacked high against him. A sword may have a voice, as Bayaz had said, but a spear is a damn good thing for poking a man off a horse, and there were four of them closing in around him. He was caught outnumbered, off-guard, and with the wrong tools for the task. Yet again. Best to play for time, and hope some chance might show itself. Logen cleared his throat, doing his best to take the fear out of his voice. 'Never thought you'd make your peace with Bethod, Blacktoe, not you.'

The old warrior scratched at his long, matted beard. 'I was one of the last, truth be told, but I knelt in the end, same as all the rest. Can't say I liked it any, but there it is. Best let me have the blade, Ninefingers.'

'What about Old Man Yawl? You telling me he bows to Bethod? Or did you just find a master to suit you better?'

Blacktoe didn't get upset by the jibe, not in the least. He just looked sad, and tired. 'Yawl's dead, as though you didn't know. Most of 'em are. Bethod doesn't suit me much at all as a master, and nor do his sons. No man likes licking Scale's fat arse, or Calder's skinny one, you should know that. Now give up the sword, the day's wasting and we've ground to cover. We can talk just as well with you unarmed.'

'Yawl's dead?'

'Aye,' said Blacktoe suspiciously. 'He offered Bethod a duel. Didn't you hear? The Feared done for him.'

'Feared?'

'Where've you been, under a mountain?'

'More or less. What's this Feared?'

'I don't know what he is.' Blacktoe leaned from his saddle and spat in the grass. 'I heard he's not a man at all. They say that bitch Caurib dug him out from under a hill. Who knows? Leastways, he's Bethod's new champion, and far nastier even than the last, no offence.'

'None at all,' said Logen. The man with no neck had moved in close. A little too close perhaps, the point of his spear was hovering only a foot or two away. Close enough for Logen to grab a hold of. Maybe. 'Old Man Yawl was a strong hand.'

'Aye. That's why we followed him. But it done him no good. This Feared broke him. Broke him bad, like he was no more'n a dog. Left him alive, if you could call it that, so we could learn from his mistake, but he didn't live long. Most of us knelt right then, those with wives and sons to think on. No sense in putting it off. There's a few of them still, up in the mountains, who won't bow to Bethod. That moon-worshipping madman Crummocki-Phail and his hillmen, and a few beside. But not many. And those there are, Bethod's got plans for.' Blacktoe held out a big, calloused hand. 'Better let me have the blade, Bloody-Nine. Left hand only, if you please, slow as slow and none of your tricks. Better all round.'

So that was it. Out of time. Logen wrapped the three fingers of his left hand round the hilt of his sword, the cold metal pressing into his palm. The big man's spear point edged a little closer. The tall one had relaxed a little, confident they had him. His spear was pointing up into the air, unready. There was no telling what the two behind were doing. The desire to glance over his shoulder was almost irresistible, but Logen forced himself to look ahead.

'I always had respect for you, Ninefingers, even though we stood on different sides. I've no feud with you. But Bethod wants vengeance, he's drunk on it, and I swore to serve.' Blacktoe looked him sadly in the eye. 'I'm sorry it's me. For what it's worth.'

'Likewise,' muttered Logen, 'I'm sorry it's you.' He slid the sword slowly from the scabbard. 'For what it's worth,' and he snapped his arm out, smashing the sword's pommel into Blacktoe's mouth. The old warrior gave a squawk as the dull metal crunched into his teeth and tumbled backwards out of the saddle, his axe flying from his hand and clattering into the road. Logen grabbed hold of the shaft of the big man's spear, just below the blade.

'Go!' he bellowed at Quai, but the apprentice only stared back, blinking. The man with no neck pulled hard at the spear, nearly jerking Logen out of the saddle, but he kept his grip. He reared up in the stirrups, raising the sword high above his head. Neckless took one hand from his spear, his eyes going wide, and held it up on an instinct. Logen swung the sword down with all his strength.

He was shocked by the sharpness of it. It took the big man's arm off just below the elbow then struck into his shoulder, cleaving through the fur and the mail beneath and splitting him to his stomach, near in half. Blood showered across the road, spattering in the face of Logen's horse. It was trained for riding but not for war and it reared and span around, kicking and plunging in a panic. It was the best Logen could do to stay on top of the damn thing. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bayaz smack Quai's horse on the rump, and it sped off with the apprentice bouncing in the saddle, the packhorse galloping along behind.

Then everything was a mess of plunging and snorting beasts, clashing and scraping metal, curses and cries. Battle. A familiar place, but no less terrifying for that. Logen clung to the reins with his right hand as his horse bucked and thrashed, swinging the sword wildly round his head, more to scare his enemies than hurt them. Every moment he expected the jolt and searing pain as he was stuck through with a spear, then the ground to rush up and smack him in the face.

He saw Quai and Bayaz galloping away down the road, hotly pursued by the tall man, his spear couched under his arm. He saw Blacktoe rolling to his feet, spitting blood, scrambling for his axe. He saw the two men who'd come from behind fighting for control of their own twisting horses, spears waving in their hands. He saw the body of the one he'd just killed loll in half and topple slowly out of the saddle, blood pouring out over the muddy ground.

Logen squawked as he felt a spear-point dig into the back of his shoulder, and he was shoved forward, almost over his horse's head. Then he realised he was facing down the road, and still alive. He dug his heels into the flanks of his horse and it sped away, sending mud flying from its hooves and into the faces of the men behind. He fumbled the sword across into his right hand, nearly dropping the reins and falling into the road. He shrugged his shoulder but the wound didn't feel too bad he could still move the arm alright.

'I'm still alive. Still alive.' The road flashed by beneath him, the wind stinging his eyes. He was making ground on the tall man the rags on his horse's hooves were slowing him down now, slipping on the muddy ground. Logen gripped the hilt of the sword as hard as he could, raised it behind him. The head of his enemy snapped round, but too late. There was a hollow bonk of metal on metal as sword smashed into helmet, leaving a deep dent and sending the tall man sprawling. His head bounced once against the road, foot still caught in one stirrup, then he came free and tumbled over and over on the grass, arms and legs flopping. His riderless horse galloped on, eyes rolling at Logen as he passed.

'Still alive.' Logen looked over his shoulder. Blacktoe was back in the saddle and galloping after him, axe raised above his head, tangled hair flying out behind. The two other spearmen were with him, urging their horses forwards, but there was still some distance between them. Logen laughed. Perhaps he'd make it after all. He waved his sword at Blacktoe as the road entered a wood in the valley's bottom.

'I'm still alive!' he screamed at the top of his voice, and then his horse pulled up so suddenly that Logen was almost flung over its head. It was only by throwing one arm round its neck that he kept his seat at all. As soon as he fell back into the saddle he saw the problem, and it was a bad one.

Several tree trunks had been hauled across the road, their branches chopped off and the stumps filed down to vicious points, sticking out in all directions. Two more mailed Carls stood in front, spears at the ready. Even the best of horsemen couldn't have jumped that barrier, and Logen wasn't the best of horsemen. Bayaz and his apprentice had reached the same decision. Both sat still on their horses before the barricade, the old man looking puzzled, the young one simply scared.

Logen fingered the grip of his sword and cast desperately around, peering into the trees for some way out. He saw more men now. Archers. One, then two, then three of them, creeping slowly forward on both sides of the road, arrows nocked and strings drawn back.

Logen turned round in the saddle, but Blacktoe and his two companions were trotting up, there was no escape that way. They reined in a few strides away, well out of reach of Logen's sword. His shoulders slumped. The chase was done. Blacktoe leaned over and spat some blood onto the ground. 'Alright, Bloody-Nine, that's as far as you go.'

'Funny thing,' muttered Logen, looking down at the long grey blade of the sword, dashed and spattered with red. 'All that time I fought for Bethod against you, and now you fight for him against me. Seems we're never on the same side, and he's the only winner. Funny thing.'

'Aye,' mumbled Blacktoe through his bloody lips, 'funny.' But no one was laughing. Blacktoe and his Carls had faces hard as death, Quai looked on the verge of tears. Only Bayaz, for reasons beyond understanding, still had his customary good humour. 'Alright, Ninefingers, get off the horse. Bethod wants you alive, but he'll take you dead, if he has to. Down! Now!'

Logen's thoughts began to turn to how they might escape, once he'd given up. Blacktoe wasn't like to make a mistake once he had them. Logen would likely be kicked half to death for the fight he'd given them already, if they didn't take his kneecaps off. They'd be trussed up tight like chickens for the slaughter. He pictured himself flung down on the stones with half a mile of chain around him, Bethod smiling down from his throne, Calder and Scale laughing, probably poking at him with something sharp.

Logen looked around. He looked at the cold arrowheads and the cold spear-points, and the cold eyes of the men pointing them. There was no way out of this little spot.

'Alright, you win.' Logen threw his sword down, point first. He had it in mind that it would bite into the soil and stand there, swaying back and forth, but it toppled over and clattered against the dirt. It was that sort of day. He slowly swung one leg over the saddle and slid down into the road.

'That's better. Now the rest of you.' Quai instantly slithered off his horse and stood there, glancing nervously up at Bayaz, but the Magus made no move. Blacktoe frowned and hefted his axe. 'You too, old man.'

'I prefer to ride.' Logen winced. That was not the right answer. Any moment now Blacktoe would give the order. The bowstrings would sing and the First of the Magi would drop into the road, stuck full of arrows, probably still with that infuriating smile on his dead face.

But the order never came. There was no word of command, no strange incantation, no arcane gestures. The air around Bayaz' shoulders seemed to shimmer, like the air above the land on a hot day, and Logen felt a strange tugging at his guts.

Then the trees exploded in a wall of searing, blinding, white hot flame. Trunks burst and branches snapped with deafening cracks, venting plumes of brilliant fire and scalding steam. One burning arrow shot high up into the air over Logen's head, and then the archers were gone, boiled away into the furnace.

Logen choked and gasped, reeled back in shock and terror, arm up to ward his face from the blistering heat. The barricade was sending up great gouts of fire and blinding sparks, the two men who had been standing near were rolling and thrashing, wreathed in hungry flames, their screams lost in the deafening roar.

The horses plunged and reeled, snorting with mad fear. Blacktoe was flung to the ground for the second time, his flaming axe flying from his hands, and his horse stumbled and fell, crashing down on top of him. One of his companions was even less lucky thrown straight into the sheets of fire by the road, his despairing cry quickly cut off. Only one stayed upright, and he was lucky enough to be wearing gloves. By some miracle he kept hold of the burning shaft of his spear.

How he had the presence of mind to charge with the world on fire around him, Logen would never know. Strange things can happen in a fight. He chose Quai as his target, bearing down on him with a snarl, the flaming spear aimed at his chest. The witless apprentice stood there helpless, rooted to the spot. Logen barrelled into him, snatching up his sword, sending Quai rolling across the road with his hands over his head, then he chopped mindlessly at the horse's legs as it flashed past him.

The blade was torn from his fingers and went skittering away, then a hoof slammed into Logen's injured shoulder and clubbed him into the dirt. The breath was knocked from him and the burning world span crazily around. His blow had its effect though. A few strides further down the road the horse's hacked front legs gave way and it stumbled, carried helplessly forward, tumbled and pitched into the flames, horse and rider vanishing together.

Logen cast about on the ground for the sword. Sizzling leaves whipped across the road, stinging his face and his hands. The heat was a great weight pressing down on him, pulling the sweat out of his skin. He found the bloody grip of the sword, seized hold of it with his torn fingers. He lurched up, staggered round, shouting meaningless sounds of fury, but there was no one left to fight. The flames were gone, as suddenly as they'd arrived, leaving Logen coughing and blinking in the curling smoke.

The silence seemed complete after the roaring noise, the gentle breeze felt icy cold. A wide circle of the trees around them had been reduced to charred and shattered stumps, as though they had burned for hours. The barricade was a sagging heap of grey ash and black splinters. Two corpses lay sprawled nearby, barely recognisable as men, burned down to the bones. The blackened blades of their spears lay in the road, the shafts vanished. Of the archers there was no sign at all. They were soot blown away on the wind. Quai lay motionless on his face with his hands over his head, and beyond him Blacktoe's horse lay sprawled out on its side, one leg silently twitching, the others still.

'Well,' said Bayaz, the muffled noise making Logen jump. He'd somehow expected there would never be another sound again. 'That's that.' The First of the Magi swung a leg over his saddle and slid down into the road. His horse stood there, calm and obedient. It hadn't moved the whole time. 'There now, Master Quai, do you see what can be achieved with a proper understanding of plants?'

Bayaz sounded calm, but his hands were trembling. Trembling badly. He looked haggard, ill, old, like a man who'd dragged a cart ten miles. Logen stared at him, swaying silently back and forth, the sword dangling from his hand.

'So that's Art, is it?' His voice sounded very small and far away.

Bayaz wiped the sweat from his face. 'Of a sort. Hardly very subtle. Still,' and he poked at one of the charred bodies with his boot, 'subtlety is wasted on the Northmen.' He grimaced, rubbed at his sunken eyes and peered up the road. 'Where the hell did those horses get to?'

Logen heard a ragged groan from the direction of Blacktoe's fallen mount. He stumbled towards it, tripped and fell to his knees, stumbled towards it again. His shoulder was a ball of pain, his left arm numb, his fingers ripped and bleeding, but Blacktoe was in worse shape. Much worse. He was propped up on his elbows, legs crushed under his horse right to the hips, hands burned to swollen tatters. He had a look of profound puzzlement on his bloody face as he tried, unsuccessfully, to drag himself from under the horse.

'You've fucking killed me,' he whispered, staring open-mouthed at the wreckage of his hands. 'I'm all done. I'll never make it back, and even if I could, what for?' He gave a despairing laugh. 'Bethod ain't half so merciful as he used to be. Better you kill me now, before it starts to hurt. Better all round.' And he slumped back and lay in the road.

Logen looked up at Bayaz, but there was no help there. 'I'm not much at healing,' snapped the wizard, glancing round at the circle of blasted stumps. 'I told you we tend to specialise.' He closed his eyes and bent over, hands resting on his knees, breathing hard.

Logen thought of the floor in Bethod's hall, and the two princes, laughing and poking. 'Alright,' he muttered, standing up and hefting the sword. 'Alright.'

Blacktoe smiled. 'You were right, Ninefingers. I never should have knelt to Bethod. Never. Shit on him and his Feared. It would have been better to die up in the mountains, fighting him to the last. There might have been something fine in that. I just had enough. You can see that, can't you?'

'I can see that,' muttered Logen. 'I've had enough myself.'

'Something fine,' said Blacktoe, staring far up into the grey skies, 'I just had enough. So I reckon I earned this. Fair is fair.' He lifted his chin. 'Well then. Get it done, lad.'

Logen raised the sword.

'I'm glad it's you, Ninefingers,' hissed Blacktoe through gritted teeth, 'for what it's worth.'

'I'm not.' Logen swung the blade down.

The scorched stumps were still smouldering, smoke curling up into the air, but all was cold now. Logen's mouth tasted salty, like blood. Perhaps he bit his tongue somewhere. Perhaps it was someone else's. He threw the sword down and it bounced and clattered, shedding red specks across the dirt. Quai gaped around for a moment, then he folded up and coughed puke into the road. Logen stared down at Blacktoe's headless corpse. 'That was a good man. Better than me.'

'History is littered with dead good men.' Bayaz knelt stiffly and picked up the sword, wiped the blade on Blacktoe's coat, then he squinted up the road, peering through the haze of smoke. 'We should be moving. Others might be on their way.'

Logen looked at his bloody hands, slowly turning them over and over. They were his hands, no doubt. There was the missing finger. 'Nothing's changed,' he mumbled to himself.

Bayaz straightened up, brushing the dirt from his knees. 'When has it ever?' He held out the sword out to Logen, hilt first. 'I think you'll still be needing this.'

Logen stared at the blade for a moment. It was clean, dull grey, just as it had always been. Unlike him, it showed not so much as a scratch from the hard use it had seen that day. He didn't want it back. Not ever.

But he took it anyway.

PART II.

'Life the way it really is is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse'

Joseph Brodsky.

What Freedom Looks Like.

The point of the shovel bit into the ground with the sharp scrape of metal on earth. An all too familiar sound. It didn't bite in far, for all the effort put behind it, as the soil was rocky hard and baked by the sun.

But she wasn't to be deterred by a little hard soil.

She had dug too many holes, and in ground worse for digging than this.

When the fighting is over, you dig, if you're still alive. You dig graves for your dead comrades. A last mark of respect, however little you might have had for them. You dig as deep as you can be bothered, you dump them in, you cover them up, they rot away and are forgotten. That's the way it's always been.

She flicked her shoulder and a sent a shovelful of sandy soil flying. Her eyes followed the grains of dirt and little stones as they broke apart in the air, then fell across the face of one of the soldiers. One eye stared at her reproachfully. The other had one of her arrows snapped off in it. A couple of flies were buzzing lazily around his face. There would be no burial for him, the graves were for her people. He and his bastard friends could lie out in the merciless sun.

After all, the vultures have to eat.

The blade of the shovel swished through the air and bit again into the soil. Another clump of dirt tumbled away. She straightened up and wiped the sweat from her face. She squinted up at the sky. The sun was blazing, straight above, sucking whatever moisture remained out of the dusty landscape, drying the blood on the rocks. She looked at the two graves beside her. One more to go. She would finish this one, throw the earth on top of those three fools, rest for a moment, then away.

Others would be coming for her soon enough.

She stuck the shovel into the earth, took hold of the water skin and pulled the stopper out. She took a few lukewarm swallows, even allowed herself the luxury of pouring a trickle out into her grimy hand and splashing it on her face. The early deaths of her comrades had at least put a stop to the endless squabbling over water.

There would be plenty to go round now.

'Water . . .' gasped the soldier by the rocks. It was surprising, but he was still alive. Her arrow had missed his heart but it had killed him still just a little less quickly than she had intended. He had managed to drag himself as far as the rocks, but his crawling days were over. The stones around him were coated in dark blood. The heat and that arrow would do for him soon, however tough he was.

She wasn't thirsty, but there was water to spare and she wouldn't be able to carry it all. She took a few more swallows, letting it slosh out of her mouth and down her neck. A rare treat out here in the Badlands, to let water fall. Shining drops spattered onto the dry earth, turning it dark. She splashed some more on her face, licked her lips, and looked over at the soldier.

'Mercy . . .' he croaked, one hand clasped to his chest where the arrow was sticking out of it, the other stretched weakly towards her.