Tolveg said nothing for the rest of the day, something for which Shamil should have been grateful. Instead, the warrior’s silence soon began to stir an oppressive concern. He plodded at the rear of their party, his face set in a rigid mask, red-rimmed eyes distant, and offering only grunts to Shamil’s forced attempts at conversation. He took comfort from the fact that they had surely scaled two thirds of the mountain’s height by now and the Eyrie’s summit lay only one more day’s climb away. He knew enough not to expect complete safety upon reaching the Sentinels’ holdfast, but the challenges that awaited them there at least offered the prospect of restitution, something they had all travelled a great distance to claim. When they saw the fire wing, however, any hope Shamil harboured that th
