Chapter Six
I’m weak and confused as I stumble outside at the sound of Runa’s alarm call. I see him at the same time as I trip and almost fall over some big lump splayed upon the icy ground. He is nonchalantly bare-chested, sat cross-legged before a healthy fire over which roasts a hare. I can’t believe his brazenness. In my bleary state I yet again find myself unarmed and thus unable to run straight over and cut him to pieces: this one-eyed man who has sworn to kill me.
I am about to see if Runa is carrying a dagger I can snatch when I remember the lump on the floor that almost sent me flying. It is a body; a dead one if the head sat separate from it is anything to go by. The lifeless face stares up at me, mouth open, eyes wide and ghastly. The skin is sallow for one killed only recentl
