'Those armoured lizards were hiding in the long grass, which also cut us to ribbons,' Kheda pointed out. 'The birds are easier to kill.'

'Did you see any sign of a wizard with these cave dwellers?' Naldeth asked.

'No.' Kheda looked at Velindre. 'But you had better be ready to use your magic to get us out of any danger I can't kill with a sword.'

'I've no plans to die here,' she assured him.

'I'm glad to hear it.' Kheda moved slowly through the trees, pushing aside stray branches where he could, only cutting where he had to, careful to avoid any strike echoing through the trees.

Have these forests ever felt the bite of metal? Who are these people, who arm themselves with sticks and stones and go in fear of birds and lizards? I would have thought there was nothing they could not do with the magic they draw from these dragons.

The ground between the trees was pale as sand. Leathery spiky plants claimed any open spaces, thrusting knife-like leaves upwards. Old growth had fallen back to surround each dull green and purple crown with desiccated brown

leaves and Kheda froze as he saw movement in one clump. A small lizard patterned with yellow and red pounced on a crawling beetle. The lizard turned back to its sanctuary, beetle legs fringing its mouth. A mulberry snake with a pale head struck from its lair beneath another crown of spikes. The lizard thrashed wildly in its mouth then went limp, bright eyes dulling. The snake dragged it into the shade and set about the leisurely business of swallowing.

Kheda glanced over his shoulder. 'Watch where you're putting your feet.'

He kept to open ground as best he could. Looking back as they drew closer to the taller, darker trees, he noticed that the others were following his trail so closely that their footprints overlaid his own. He retraced his steps, angry with himself. 'Risala, cut a branch and sweep away our tracks.'

'You think we're being followed?' Naldeth looked around apprehensively.

'We will be if any hunter worth the name comes across a trail like that.' Kheda sliced a leafy frond from a tree, careful of the vicious spines lurking amid the greenery, and swept away the pattern of nails that Velindre's soles had printed clearly in the dust.

Risala shared his chagrin. 'We've never seen any of those savages wearing sandals.'

The magewoman watched Kheda obliterate her tracks. 'I told you we needed your particular skills.'

Kheda looked up to see Naldeth drinking from his water flask again. 'You don't know when you'll get a chance to refill that,' he warned. 'And Velindre won't be summoning up water with her magic unless we're all dizzy with thirst.'

The young mage looked surprised. 'Velindre?'

She looked at him, impassive. 'We're following Kheda's lead.'

Kheda began moving again. Risala dropped back to continue brushing away their trail. Kheda slowed as they reached the thicker band of taller trees that were sheltered from the sea's storms by the slope they had just descended. The trees' trunks were black and brown and deeply buttressed, spreading canopies of broader leaves high above their heads. Vines strung fibrous loops between the lofty branches while saplings and opportune bushes clustered where the shade was less dense. The rest of the ground was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves. The top layer was dry and crackled as they passed over it, though every step stirred up a scent of rot in the humid stillness.

We won't leave tracks here but it'll be tricky to move quietly through this.

'Watch out for snakes.' Kheda moved cautiously onwards, stabbing at the leaf litter with his hacking blade.

'What was that?' Naldeth halted, mouth open, as he stared at one of the tall trees.

'It looked like a matia,' Velindre mused. 'It was brown and furry with a long nose and a twitching tail,' she amplified for Risala's benefit.

'Whatever it was, it was running away.' Risala dismissed the unseen creature. 'That's all we need to know.'

Kheda turned to silence them all with a sweep of his hand. 'Voices carry further than we can see. Only speak if you must.'

To his relief, the forest grew no thicker. He skirted the patches of denser growth, at the same time using them as cover until he was certain the trees ahead sheltered no unwelcome surprises. Risala followed close behind, constantly scanning the underbrush, with Velindre coming after her, equally vigilant. Naldeth lagged behind, stumbling whenever his lifeless metal foot sank into unexpected softness in the dark leaf mould.

Kheda saw brightness ahead where the tall trees stopped. He pushed carefully through the thorny tangle of scrub on the shady margin of the woodland, grateful for his long sleeves and trousers. The slope they had been carefully descending fell abruptly away and the dry expanse of a desiccated stream bed opened out before them, the crumbling edge treacherous.

He took a moment to orient himself. This watercourse ran away to the south, to join the flow of the wide river they had sailed up earlier and swell it with whatever rain fell on the higher land to the north. It was plainly a seasonal tributary; at present it was a barren stretch of pale sand dotted with tufts of the razor-bladed grass and uneven slews of tumbled rocks and dead and broken tree limbs. On the far side, the next low hill rose up to be claimed by the forest once again.

And those caves and the wild men who fought those vile birds are somewhere beyond that.

'Someone's been digging.' Risala sank down behind the concealing leaves of a sapling and pointed to a dark hole excavated in the pale sandy stream bed. 'Or something. I suppose it could have been some animal.'

'Someone, I'd say.' Velindre narrowed her eyes as she looked at the diggings. 'For water.'

'Using pointed sticks and pieces of gourd.' Naldeth pointed to the detritus scattered around the hole.

'Which they dropped as they ran.' Kheda looked at the darker earth cast aside around the hole. 'And they're not long gone, or that would have dried out.'

Risala looked at him. 'Could they have heard us coming?'

'I think we would have seen or heard them running, don't you?' Kheda looked up and down the dried-up stream. There was no sign of any living creature in the silent and empty valley.

'So what do we do now?' Naldeth asked expectantly.

Kheda stared across the dry valley. There was no obvious trail cutting through the trees on the far side of the stream bed. 'We have to get across this open ground as quickly as we can.'

'Do you want me to wrap a little concealment around us?' Velindre offered.

Kheda hesitated. 'Can you be certain no wild mage will sense it?'

'Not unless he's actively looking for us and scrying this valley in particular,' she assured him.

'Very well, then.' Kheda nodded reluctantly, taking one last look to be certain there was no one in sight.

The air shivered with the disquieting shimmer of magic as he strode into the open. Apprehension prickled down his spine along with a trickle of sweat, though at least there was a breath of cool breeze once they emerged from beneath the trees.

As they reached the patch of dug-up ground, Kheda scanned the soft stream bed for any sign to show which way the unknown savages had fled. All he could see were animal tracks: splayed footprints with the telltale depressions made by taloned toes and the dragging line left by a tail cutting between them.

Is that what they were running from? What was it? A lizard? Where did the lizard go?

'Do we see if we can find whoever was digging or carry on to those caves you were talking about?' Naldeth was struggling to get a purchase on the loose sandy earth with his false foot.

Risala walked a few paces away in the direction of the unseen grasslands, scanning the ground. 'They didn't go this way.'