“No fire then,” said Donnan.
Kaetha found it hard to get to sleep. Her legs ached, the scrap of bread and cheese she’d eaten had done little to satisfy her appetite and her mind was full of troubling thoughts. The other two were breathing heavily but she simply stared absently at the cloud covered peaks of the mountains, beyond the forest to the south, until darkness hid all from her view. She didn’t know if it was the dusky light that woke her, her shivering or the itching of the cut on her face. She traced her fingertips over it and felt the hard bumps of a scab. Getting up, she rubbed some warmth into her arms and stretched her legs, walking away from her companions. Turning, she saw a stag facing her, regal and still, its dark shape standing out against the dim light. It approached her, thinly veiled in half darkness, and Kaetha watched, her jaw dropping when, smoothly as the fading of night into day, its form shifted, settling into the figure of a man. She froze, wondering if she ought to feel afraid.
It was only when he drew close enough so that she could have reached out and touched him, that she could see his tousled hair and brown eyes. Those unmistakeable scars.
“Tam Wildshore,” she said. “I saw you in the woods, didn’t I? It wasn’t a dream.” She stole further from Mairi and Donnan. “You’ve been following us. Why?”
“You saved me. Perhaps I’m meant to help you in return. I know what running from something looks like.”
“Not from exactly. To. I mean, aye, people may be after me. But Murdo Macomrag has arrested my father for treason and is taking him to King Svelrik. I have to do something.”
“Preferably without getting caught.”
“Preferably.”
“King Svelrik, you say?” said Tam.
“Aye.”
He paused. “You don’t think it unwise to cross a king?”
“Wise or not, I have to try.”
“Then, if I can help you, I will.” He sighed. “If.” He sat cross legged on a rock. “You should know that I am not like other Baukans. Not anymore. I once had power to shape materials of the earth, to control and protect creatures of the land, to bring life and growth to the forests, like the rest of my kind. But no longer. Even my ability to recognise the movements upon the earth around me and the inherent properties of things, those skills have almost faded to nothing.”
“Why?”
He shook his head. “My power was taken from me.”
“Taken?”
“And I cannot ask help of other Fiadhain. Whilst you freed me from the curse of imprisonment, much of my curse remains.” He sat so still on the rock that, for a moment, she was afraid that his coarse, flint coloured garments were, in fact, part of the rock and that he was slowly turning to stone again before her eyes. She noticed that his feet were bare and he wore no cloak, yet he didn’t appear to feel the cold. “Fiadhain cannot see me, hear me nor sense my presence. I’m cut off from my own kind. But at least I can still change form. She needed me to retain that power in order to trap me in rock. That skill might be useful to you. I could run ahead and scout, watch out for danger. As wolf or bear, I could scare away those who wish to harm you.”
“When you’re not far away scouting, that is,” said Kaetha. A mere ghost of a smile passed across Tam’s face but his eyes remained solemn, like deep pools in a cave. “Who did this to you?” she asked.
He lowered his voice to a whisper. “The Calliack.” He glared fiercely at her when he said the name and she had to remind herself that he was angry with the Calliack, not her. “She who rules over all Fiadhain.”
“Did she . . . give you those scars?”
A flash of repulsion contorted his features. “Never ask me about them.”
She was shocked into stillness. “I’m sorry.” She coughed nervously. “I’ve heard a little of her. Of the Calliack,” she said, hoping to ease back into the flow of conversation. “It’s said she hates humans and doesn’t want Fiadhain to have anything to do with us.”
“That is so.”
“Then why did she curse you so you would be cut off from your own kind but not from us?”
“I can only think that she couldn’t imagine a human would be able to harness the power that you did. She underestimates your kind. That day when I sensed your approach and felt the power in you, I thought I was dreaming. I felt hope - something I’d thought to be long dead in me but there it was. I thought, if anyone can help me, it’s you – someone chosen by Fire.”
“Some seem to think that to be chosen by Fire,” she wrapped her blanket more tightly around herself and glanced in the direction of her sleeping companions, “to have magic at all, that it’s something to fear.”
“You shouldn’t be afraid of yourself, Kaetha. There are too many other things in this world to fear.”
“Why did she do it? The Calliack.”
“She doesn’t like her authority to be challenged. But that’s a tale for another day. So, you will let me help you, insofar as I am able?”
She nodded. “We’ll be heading into Gledrae Forest. If you could look ahead and warn me of any dangers you find, that would—”
“Kaetha?” It was Mairi’s voice.
Kaetha spun around. Mairi hadn’t seen her yet. “You have to hide,” she whispered.
“What?”
“She fears magic and doesn’t know I have it. Please. Hide.”
“What are you doing over there?” said Mairi.
Seeing Mairi’s puzzled look, her heart rose to her throat. However, when she turned, expecting
