"Didn't your father bring you here?" Lily asked Anest.
"He did," he replied. "My father lost two sons and a brother patrolling the northern reaches of Brand. He was sick at heart, and tired of fighting. He brought me here because he was so afraid of losing all that he had left. My mother died, too, when I was very young, and he changed after that. After my brothers died we grew apart, and he left."
"Is he still alive?" she asked.
Anest was silently thoughtful a long moment. "My heart tells me that he is alive someplace. Where, I do not know. But alive or dead, he is far from here."
She turned to look at his face. Gone was the laughing young man with tousled hair. In his place sat a tall warrior, as grim and hardened as the others in the company. But he smiled, and tightened his arms around her reassuringly.
To her surprise, it was Belloc, and not Brogan who led them, as they rode at the head three abreast, with the company falling in behind in double-file. Belloc moved well out in front as his fields came to an end. Before them lay an arm of the dark, misty, evergreen forest, and the ground rose steeply.