Armoured as if for battle-chain hauberks, the blackened rings glistening, visors drawn down on their helms. The lead rider held a long-handled single-bladed axe in his right hand; those behind him wielded lances, the heads wide and barbed as if the troop had been hunting boar.
Yan Tovis nudged her horse round and guided it a few steps closer. ‘1 am Atri-Preda Yan Tovis,’ she said.
A tilt of the helmed head from the lead man. ‘Yedan Derryg,’ he said in a low voice, ‘Master at Arms, Boaral Keep.’
She hesitated, then said, ‘The Watch.’
‘Twilight,’ he replied. ‘Even in this gloom, I can see it is you.’
‘I find that difficult to believe-you fled-’
‘Fled, my Queen?’
‘The House of our mother, yes.’
‘Your father and I did not get along, Twilight. You were but a toddler when last 1 saw you. But that does not matter. I see now in your face what I saw then. No mistaking it.’
Sighing, she dismounted.
After a moment, the others did the same. Yedan gestured with a tilt of his head and he and Yan Tovis walked off a short distance. Stood beneath the tallest tree this close to the ridge-a dead pine-as a light rain began to fall.
‘I have just come from the Keep,’ she said. ‘Your Dresh attempted to escape arrest and is dead. Or will be soon. I
have had a word with the witches. There will be Tiste Edur, from Rennis, but by the time they arrive the investigation will be over and I will have to apologize for wasting their time.’
Yedan said nothing. The grilled visor thoroughly hid his features, although the black snarl of his beard was visible-it seemed he was slowly chewing something.
‘Watch,’ she resumed, ‘you called me “Queen” in front of your soldiers.’
‘They are Shake.’
‘I see. Then, you are here… at the shore-’
‘Because I am the Watch, yes.’
‘That title is without meaning,’ she said, rather more harshly than she had intended. ‘It’s an honorific, some old remnant-’
‘I believed the same,’ he cut in-like an older brother, damn him-‘until three nights ago.’
‘Why are you here, then? Who are you looking for?’
‘I wish I could answer you better than I can. I am not sure why I am here, only that I am summoned.’
‘By whom?’