They left with the two horses on a cool misty morning. Sarah could already sit on Tecana, but had never travelled any distance. "This hair bristles like mad," she explained to her mother-in-law, "good job the baby isn't heavy yet." To make it easier she dismounted and took her leather coat to place between her and the horse’s back before sitting back on. They said goodbye at the farm, to give Luke's mother a chance to be present at the formal parting, and Marcos and their father walked up with them as far as the single house standing beside the path at The Fork. Their neighbours were absent and the place had only the noise and smell of livestock and dogs. The left fork branched to drop down towards the upper fringe of The Forest. Tecana stood on the right hand path, looking down to the far tributary that gave her her name, and from Lianna Luke surveyed the open countryside they would have to cross to reach the top of the valley and the range of hills that divided the western and eastern halves of the island. No one had much to say to each other.

"We'd better start moving soon," Sarah reminded him. "We need to be at Stonebridge by afternoon." Luke shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, I guess we should get on. So long, bro. I'll send you a message when we get there. They looked at each other, each standing by his horse, unsure what to say. Luke moved around and saluted.

"It's going to be pretty strange without you. I hope you'll be okay."

"You mean you hope you'll be okay," said Marcos, betraying his feelings at not being the one to set off on the adventure. He stood stiffly and Luke looked away. Walking Lianna over he checked Sarah was sitting well on her horse's back. He checked the large pack. Turning his horse he faced his brother for the last time.

"Well, goodbye then." Having nothing left to say he simply waved. It seemed no time for the grand statements he had imagined for such an occasion, so he rode the horse away. Marcos just said something to his father.

Reaching the hills early in the afternoon, they followed the trail for an hour until they reached the confluence where the smaller branch of the river turned off towards Gat and then up to the hills of Trantrith. Luke recognised the hills beyond from his previous journey, a year and a half earlier. The deep valleys carved out below them to the right before rising in cliffs to the high ground and ahead the main river steepened towards their destination. They turned off left of the river, up the hillside and over a narrow pass. A mile or two further along they saw Stonebridge, and the Lodge's pennant waving from the gabled roof of the main house.

Stonebridge was officially the last settlement of Athelea being slightly east of the uppermost reach of the Tecana and just below the watershed. That did not stop Elenea from constantly laying claim so the residents of the farm determinedly demonstrated their allegiance in dress, style and language. As the pair approached the house Rob saw them and he and his wife Melanie came out to greet.

"Luke? Not the beardless young man from a couple of years ago. And Sarah, I presume. How did you manage to get these two beasts to carry you? I wouldn't dare."

"They are pretty safe at slow speed," said Luke. But they don't tire easily so you can cover a fair distance. So a change of plans, we're only passing through on our way over the border. According to the Lodge our travel is already in order so we'll get there as fast as possible."

They stayed a little longer than expected and Rob offered them a place for the night but as they were expected at Halfway House they moved on as the afternoon sun started to descend.

"It's only just over the other side of the ridge," said Luke to Sarah as they rode off, but as the way became rougher he remembered his journey of three years earlier.

"There's a difficult patch just at the top. It's been left narrow to prevent bandits or soldiers crossing too easily in either direction. You have to climb a bit and go through in single file. So we'll go up round to the south and skirt the back of the hill along the streambed, otherwise we won't get the horses through."

As they disappeared from final view of the settlement Luke thought he heard something but ignored it as the evening breeze was starting up. Rounding the hill they dropped down to the stream bed. He was horrified to see a fresh footprint in the shallow mud.

"Get ready to run," he urged.

"I can't" said Sarah. "I'll fall off."

It was too late anyway. He could see behind a rock a man crouching looking at him. The figure rose, dressed in bandit clothing. Though he was not brandishing a weapon it took no skill on Luke's part to know that there were others more dangerous at a distance behind the horses.

He started to wheel Lianna but as he did so an arrow lifted a stone from in front of his feet.

"What ... " He spun round to see an archer reloading and pointing straight at him. From another direction came two men waving spears, cutting off the path ahead, and the man they had already seen stood on the gravel of the stream about twenty yards behind them. Luke slid off smoothly and faced the two men. In his right hand he brought out his grandfather's dagger.

"Rob me and you die," he shouted angrily. "I am under the protection of the Lodge of Athelea." He thought he saw indecision enter their eyes.

"Is no protect now," came back a voice from the trees, and a fifth man emerged, tall with cut hair and a bushy black beard. "You die and no Lodge come for you."

Luke faced him with dagger drawn. "I will protect myself. You at least will come with me in this fight. He rushed for the man, who side-stepped deftly at the last minute, a manoeuvre quite unexpected from someone so big. Luke tripped and felt a foot pinning the back of his chest, holding him face down to the muddy grass. They were all around him now, laughing at him, and starting to look at his wife. The man with the arrows drew his bow.

"No kill! Morgan no kill." The voice of their leader came harshly from a distance, as with some effort he caught up the hunt. "Release him, he is good friend to me."

The foot lessened its pressure and disdainfully withdrew. Luke moved his arms and legs, testing whether this was a true release or merely some game. Lifting himself to a crawling position he sat on the ground. The leader of the bandits came within speaking distance.

"Luke. I am Hartor. You know me. You come to my house in mountains when you boy. You good friend."

Luke suddenly remembered the mountain dwellers who had taken him, half captive half guest, when he was barely ten years old and Marcos was a little boy. The man Hartor had been the leader and for some reason he had taken to Luke, even to the extent of delivering him back to his family under the protection of a group of six. Luke wondered what turn of events had brought them together again.

"Hartor, you attack me like this? How did you know it was me?"

"Ha, we follow you from high hillside. We know you come. We want to trade of course."

"Trade, trade what? You've come to rob me."

"No, we no rob. We no rob Luke. We trade for course."

"What do you mean? For course?"

"Yes, yes. We want course. He walked over and patted Tecana on the flank. This is what you call it, no?"

"Horse. Horse. Your mountain accent is no better than your mountain manners. You want my horses and you've followed me all day. But what can you do with a horse? You don't know anything about them?"

"You come with us and teach us about course. No, chhorse," he spluttered as he made the effort. We need him now. We need him for fight wolf."

"You need a horse to fight wolves?" asked Luke incredulously. "They're only forest dogs."

"No, fight Wolf. Wolf dangerous, he live in mountains. Now he have horse. We need horse to fight him. Else we nothing."

"My horses! Wolf? Never heard of him. But I still need horses. How can I start a farm without any horses? And I can't farm in the mountains. This Wolf, he has my horses?"

"Wolf have horse, he fight us and kill and rob. He come from Kinderith and back in same day. You horse big and strong, you come with us, we fight Wolf. Or you stay, we give you present. We pay. We no rob. You and I, we friends. We stay friends. We pay you and help you again. You wife, she with hild." He grinned at the accuracy of his pronunciation, Luke was surprised how many teeth he had left. "She need good home, plenty food, no good in mountains. Come, we take you to you home, be safe with us."

Luke went over to Sarah, sitting bleakly by a tree some distance from the road. "I don't know whether to call it lucky or not, but we'll have to give them up. They need them too much to let us keep them. We may get a little in return, perhaps something we can trade later. Maybe we can get some more horses, I don't know. Or we could do something else. Give up horses completely, start an ordinary little farm of our own. Put all this behind us. When the journey's over we'll decide." He put his arm around her and she started to cry.

"I've given it all up for this. We can never go back now. We've failed, I'm freezing cold and so sore I can hardly walk. Not much joy for my baby to look forward to. I should never have come, we could have waited a couple of years and brought others with us. Now we're finished. Aah, I think I've got a pain in my tummy."

"Oh no, don't think like that, you'll make yourself sick. Here, Hartor, look what you've done to her now. You've spared my life just to make her die of worry."

The ageing warrior was all concern as he bent over the forlorn heap on the ground. Come, now, we no so bad. We bring food to make you well. Morgan, you bring strong drink, make hot water, bring berries for sick woman. Bring my medicine, see what we have. Here, take water while we get ready. The fierce smell of his body battered her senses like a drug, and she roused herself to action. Taking a drink she turned to her husband.

"Right, don't worry about me. They've taken our horses, now we'll just have to continue on our own. Let's go. We'll take our packs, everything that's ours, we'll make the border in half an hour." She started removing the baggage, taking care to conceal the straps and harnesses.

"Here, is not polite to make you carry. You two men, take these. Be good care. These people very important. We take care of them and give good present."

Bound to Hartor's unwanted hospitality, Luke and Sarah had no choice but to take dinner with them in the growing darkness and put up with his conversation.

"Luke, you very strong man. You very important. I know you grandfather, he very strong too. You one day ruler. You no kill me when you rule. I help you kill Wolf, you do well with me. We look after each other. And your wife, she good too. Make sure you keep her well. I have great present for you, help you grow strong, help your baby grow strong. Great present indeed."

Hartor sat on the ground with them, telling them stories in his broken Athelean, apologising for the situation he had put them in. He even managed to persuade Luke to show him how to mount Lianna. His men leapt out of the way as he came charging down the track, yelling in triumph. He rode proudly at the head of the procession for two miles. Morgan took charge of Tecana. At the edge of an isolated grove they stopped.

"We no go farther. See house there, here is border. We no be seen."

Luke took the packs from Hartor's men, examining the state of the contents. He rearranged them so that all the harnesses and equipment were in one bag. He gave Sarah the food bag to carry and took the rest himself.

"Wait," said Hartor. "We must go away, you take this." He turned to the archer and took one of his arrows. The head glinted in the last rays of sunlight.

"That?" said Luke. "A arrow tipped with walo? These are nor even used by children."

"Is no walo," said Hartor. "Is ret. Look."

Luke looked at the gleaming blade, seeing a reddish reflection of part of his finger. He touched it. "You can't see through it." Picking his bow he flexed the arrow into position and shot it against a tree an arm's length from where he was sitting.

"Go pick it out," instructed Hartor. "You see."

Fetching the arrow Luke was amazed to see that the tip had penetrated the bark and come out easily and unbroken. "It's like stone. What is it?"

"Is not stone. This is power. With this you rule. With this you kill Wolf, you kill all you enemy. You take this, you find out. Take this, and these, six together. And now my present."

Hartor took from his finger something Luke was surprised not to have noticed, as he had never seen anyone wearing stones on their hands before. He handed it to Luke. "Put it on your finger."

Luke slipped the ring over his middle finger, where it hung loosely. He took it off. "It doesn't fit. It's too loose."

"You no wear it, you keep it and hide from everyone. When you need help you use it. See the sign." Hartor pointed to the inscription of a triangle on a plate in the centre. It was then Luke realised the ring was made of the same substance as the arrowheads.

"When you come back to mountains, you look for me. Only then you show ring. We be strong together." He slapped Luke around the shoulders then took his men back down the path, riding high on Lianna’s back.

Halfway House sat on a promontory, high above the valley that cut its way down to join the Elen on its journey to the eastern shore of Kipro. The flag of Elenea flew from its roof, bold red and yellow proclaiming the country's possession of dyes that its more backward neighbour could not obtain even in trade.

"Where are your animals?" asked the innkeeper.

He was incredulous as Luke told the story. "Out here? A mighty risk. They must be desperate."

"Tracked us all day," said Luke. "They were specifically after those animals.

"Sarah. This is Tom, as if you hadn't already guessed. I doubt if he's strangled a wild boar with his bare hands tonight, but we might have a couple of roasted wrens if we're lucky."

"With my bare hands is it now." The innkeeper rocked back with an exaggerated snort. "And the man who chased a cat away with is stick is probably the saviour of ten villages in your songs. Everyone from your way seems to have excellent stories about me, I only wish they were true. And you'll be having fish for supper. Luke will go and catch them from the stream." He slapped Luke on the back, to reassure them both that he was joking. "Come upstairs, we have a room prepared for you."

The room was basic, but as much as Luke and Sarah were used to. In place of a pallet it had a large bed with legs, designed to stop insects from disturbing the occupants during the night. Sarah thought it might be liable to collapse, but Luke reassured her.

"I stayed in a bed like this last time, though it was only half the size. But in the South everyone sleeps like this. It is considered uncivilised to sleep too close to the floor. You'll find the houses far better furnished than this at the farm. There'll be at least two of those single chairs in each room, as well as long chairs for many people, which can also be used for sleeping on. You'll probably find a mirror of polished stone here somewhere too, they insist on having one in every house. And their window shutters are much quieter in the breeze. Can't do much about the water though, it still has to come from the stream. But some of them they have people to do it for you - the boy will fetch it for us in the morning here. If we call him now he should be able to bring some from the barrel downstairs, so we can have a wash. Then you'd better lie down. The baby's probably exhausted by now."

"She's not the only one. I knew I shouldn't have ridden for so long," said Sarah, wincing each time she nursed the tender patches on her legs."

Luke reached over to have a look but she pressed her finger firmly to his face.

"Oh, Sarah," said Luke, putting on his most seductive smile.

"If you think that stupid leer's going to make any impression you can forget it," she said. "Get that water and I'll get myself clean. And you can wait downstairs until I'm ready."

Luke discovered how bad Sarah's sores were early the next morning, when she cried out as he touched her legs. It was only just sunrise, but Luke had woken early in the strange environment, a little disoriented by the absence of the sounds of villagers attending to their animals.

"Let's have a look. We'll have to do something to treat you if they're that bad."

Sarah covered the bump in her tummy with the rug and pulled it up just enough to reveal the insides of her legs. They were red and starting to blister. She flinched as Luke touched her gently.

"Lucky if you ask me, I don't get to ride today," she said determinedly. "This'll take weeks to heal. They may have some herbs here to treat it but it has to grow again, it's like a burn. I'm going to sleep a bit more, that may help. It's probably an hour or more till the rest of the house rise."

Luke went outside where the boy was attending one of the two cows, making remarkable efforts to obtain milk from it. He had seen goats being milked and of course had done it plenty of times himself, but a cow was quite a different proposition.

"You can do the other one if you like," said the boy casually. Not wanting to appear uneducated he took the empty wooden pail and placed it under the udders, waiting for the inevitable kick.

"Don't worry, they're not harmful. They're tame cows from the south. We call them moons, because of their curved horns."

"I've seen the southern cows. The ones we had were real bad kickers. The farmer wouldn't let me near them because of their rule that they have to look after anyone who's injured while working for them." Luke moved carefully to the side of the cow and took one of the teats between his fingers. The cow moved obediently towards him.

"Just pull like this. She should be able to provide just under a pail full."

Half an hour later Luke was covered in milk and the bucket was three quarters full. He stood up and lifted it using both hands. It seemed uncommonly heavy.

"I'll take that in a minute," said the boy. "Just leave it by the wall so she doesn't kick it over." He threw Luke a small cup, gesturing to him to take a drink.

The back door opened and Tom came prowling around, checking that everything was okay.

"Morning, Luke. Not surprised to see you up already. I see he's taken the opportunity to get you working for him, crafty little devil. That's not bad, mind, most people only manage half a pail. I suggest you go and bathe in the stream as well as you can, there’s still a trickle of water. Otherwise your wife will be keeping a safe distance from you by midday. That stuff stinks when it gets dry. How is she, by the way?"

"Oh, she slept well, but she's very sore from riding. I just hope she'll be good for walking. What do you reckon the weather will be like?"

"There'll be rain in the mountains, but it probably won't be low enough to affect you. Warm and very muggy, doesn't seem to be any noticeable wind. But it's changeable round here. You can get sudden lightning or hailstorms, they only last a few minutes then it's sunny again. I'm sure you'll be okay. How far do you have to go?"

"Two days. It's called Briary Farm."

"Shall I get my wife to have a look at Sarah?"

"She'd appreciate that. I don't know much about medicine, but it looks a bit like a burn, and she may need some herbs to put on it to stop it going bad."

"Right. Well I'll go and see what I can do and I'll get breakfast ready. You go wash in the stream, I'll see you in a few minutes."

Luke sat in the shelter of a cluster of trees to dry out trying not to shiver, the rising sun by now showing just above the hills, and below to the north he could see clearly down the hillis to the massive aop in the centre of the island that prevented free movement between the two countries. Lines of darkness showed up the unwalkable pathways of the Old Ones. When he walked back to the house about half an hour later Sarah was already at the table, tunnelling her way through a mountain of meat, eggs and olives. A pot of the local coffee stood near the fire. Luke made a beeline for it."

"You don't have that in your village, I presume," asked Tom.

"No, for some reason we have never been able to trade it. Either the traders don't like to give away their best possessions or it is taken by bandits every time anyone tries to carry it across the border."

"Undoubtedly both," said Tom with a laugh. For sure everyone takes some of our ranggia whenever they cross the hills in case they need a payoff for the mountain tribes. Unfortunately it's far too precious to give a pack to guests. You can help yourself to as much as you like to drink now, of course. But Sarah, you've never seen it before. Sorry, my manners." He brought her a cup of the steaming brew.

"The worst kept secret of Elenea," said Luke. "Ranggia, a drink made by boiling the ground up dried beans of a fruit they grow on their farms. You'll get to know it soon enough. But it probably smells a bit strong, let's mix it with some warm milk. You'll find it relaxing."

Sarah drank the concoction apprehensively, but it was too dilute to be offensive, and she felt better after she had finished. She remarked on the bandages tied round her legs.

"Another southern speciality," said Tom. Linen. It's rare in our villages, just used for special occasions and in times on need. Luke you probably saw it when you were here before. It's a kind of flower. Closer to Rakir they grow it on the farms and the women in the city make it into cloth. Are you more comfortable now?"

"I can walk all right. It'll do me good to be on my feet today. Lucky I won't be riding again."

"We've got plenty of time anyway. We're not expected till day after tomorrow. May as well enjoy the scenery."

They left an hour after breakfast, having helped to clean the plates and do a few jobs around the house. Luke led the way along the well worn trail leading back into the hills, and they started climbing the shallow passes that led to the long descent on the other side.

An hour later they had mounted the final ridge and looked down into the valley that would eventually lead to their destination in the less populated south of the country. Already they could see the sea hazily beyond the tops of the lower hills. They made good progress that day, and spent the night in a wood nestled between three rounded hills. Three streams descended from the gaps, and met at a point just below the corner of the wood. On the far side of the water the soil was too poor to support trees, and the banks were overgrown with ferns and weeds. Luke and Sarah shared the small hunting tent, designed for one person but big enough for two in times of need. They rose with the sun and Sarah prepared a small breakfast.

"I wonder if that was a hare? Let's go and look. We could use these different arrows maybe."

Stalking to the edge of the trees he saw nothing. Looking down at the ground he saw a track in the dry earth. It was unmistakably human, but the withered crushed leaves on either side indicated it was probably around three days old. Luke went back to Sarah.

"Couldn't see anything. Someone has been here before us, though. Probably a couple of days ago, so I don't suppose it's that surprising. I certainly didn't see anyone. We didn't see anyone all yesterday, after leaving Halfway House, except the messengers running on the High Trail. If we make tracks we most of the way down today, then we won't be so conspicuous. We'll start by going through the wood as far as we can."

"Not more bandits, please. I'm so sore and tired. I just want to get there."

"There won't be bandits. We're in safe country here." Which meant, if there were people around they had to be Rah's soldiers. Hard to be sure if that was a good or bad thing.

Striking camp they angled up to the top of the wood, Luke straining to see signs of human life, but there was no evidence of anyone else. Probably someone travelling the same route a couple of days ago, he thought as he pushed his worries away. On reaching the end of the wood he groaned to see black clouds piling up on the horizon and kept his eyes open for cliffs that might provide a small cave.