24: Little Dog
A
day
had passed since the hot dancing in the compound. Garroch and the men of Craig Dun crouched among the gorse at the edge of the wood, looking down the slope. Asa Wolf lay at Garroch’s side, testing the edge of his flint axe proudly with his thumb, then kissing the keen blade again and again, along its length. Garroch saw him and smiled. He was glad to have Asa Wolf with him now in his weakness; glad that they were blood-brothers, though of different folk. Asa Wolf was more to be trusted than any five men of Craig Dun, the small dark ones, even the Proud Walkers, who so often craved to get back to their fields and their sheep when the arrows began to fall and the men to scream.
Suddenly Asa sniffed the air and held up his hand. He was like a dog on the scent.
‘They
