The Elani prisoners had spent most of the day in cramped Lamya cells, deep underground beneath the fields and pastures that surrounded the towns to the west of the Kingdom. They had now been brought up to the surface and stood in the field where they would work, blinking hard against the sudden sunlight.

Noan looked at the long line of captives stretched across the land as he addressed one of his subordinates. "We'll have to split them into groups. That way they'll be easier to control. Let's see now..."

He paced up and down the line assessing the Elani as he went. They mostly kept their heads down, though he noticed a couple stare at him defiantly - beaten momentarily, but perhaps there would be trouble to come. He could handle it.

"Yes, groups of twenty should do it. Then we'll have a group to a field." He turned to his subordinate. "Ask them if there's a farmer among them." He felt it beneath him to talk to an Elani.

The subordinate, a small bland-looking man named Sundi, cleared his throat and bellowed out the question in a voice that belied his size. "Who here is a farmer? Speak up!"

The Elani stayed silent, most of them too scared to speak.

Sundi raised a cane in the air and pulled one of the younger Elani forwards, rattling the chains. "Speak up or this one will suffer for it!" He watched, eyes narrowed.

There was silence. Sundi drew the cane back to strike.

"I am!" cried out one of the men. "I am the best farmer here, leave the boy be!"

Noan waved for Sundi to release the boy as he approached the speaker. It was the man with the white braids.

"I have been a farmer all my life," said the Elani, watching as a slaver pushed the young boy back into line unharmed. "I've kept pigs, worked the land. What is it you wish from me and my people?"

Noan laughed. Then he narrowed his eyes. He stood back as several of the Lamya came forwards and unchained the Elani from the slave line. The farmer looked bewildered for a moment and then stood stock still as Noan held his sword beneath the man's chin.

"What is your name, farmer?" Noan asked.

The man swallowed before he answered, his Adam's apple moving against the sword. "My name is White Cloud of the Vale, son of Cirrus and Rose."

The man had given a typical Elani response. Noan sniffed. "You are no longer of the Vale. You are a slave to Corrinus. You and your people will grow our crops, keep our cattle, and work our land." He stared into White Cloud's eyes. "And if they fail or refuse, you will be the first to die."

He sheathed his sword and turned away, leaving the rest of the slavers to group the Elani and set them to work.

#

It had not taken Zev long to find the tracks of two Elani in the wood and he had soon set his horse off at a gallop across the Vale. As he neared the wooded hill, he had slowed and approached with more caution. Oh yes, he enjoyed hunting all right. He enjoyed it so much that he would even give the two Elani a head start to make it last longer. Zev dismounted his horse and tied it loosely to a tree. It would be easier for him to track on foot.

#

In their panic, Sorrel and Cloud had turned and run uphill, pulling themselves onwards with the aid of branches or saplings or anything that would help them gain purchase on the slippery leaf litter. Sorrel realised their mistake as she slid again and reached out to an exposed tree root to steady herself.

Cloud stopped and looked down at her. She knew he was silently urging her on as he caught his breath. He turned his attention up the hill – there the trees were denser and they were more likely to find a hiding place. He dashed to her side and pulled her upwards.

She struggled for breath. "Are you sure there's someone after us?" she gasped.

Cloud looked through the trees back the way they had come. "I'm positive," he muttered, though the wood seemed quiet to her. "Come on, Sorrel!"

After a while, she could take no more uphill running. She stopped and leaned back against a tree, chest heaving, the bark rough against her back. Little Cloud joined her and they both took a moment to catch their breath.

Cloud tensed.

"What is it?" she whispered. But he didn't answer.

Little Cloud put a finger to his lips and held his breath. His heart hammered in his chest as all around him the wood darkened – the trees closing in. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the strange feeling he had inside, like something trying to reach him. He could hear noises, but distant, as if they weren't really happening, a jackdaw's harsh caw, a twig being broken underfoot and even the sound of a mouse scurrying through the undergrowth.

Sorrel jumped as Cloud took a sharp intake of breath and opened his eyes. He looked at her. "He's here," he whispered. "Behind the tree."

She wondered how he knew but she didn't doubt him. She leaned forwards and took hold of a broken tree branch, her hand trembling. Steadying her nerves, she took a deep breath and crept around the tree.

With a yell, she raised the branch above her head and jumped out to... nothing. She stopped, the branch still held high. She frowned in puzzlement.

Then she heard Little Cloud scream.