At last I fell silent. The swallows were darting back and forth in the evening sky, black silhouettes against the lavender. Arawn’s group of farmers had moved on. I could see them in the next field lighting a fire and erecting a small spit.
“Could we do that?” I said, breaking the quiet.
“Light a fire?” asked Belis, shifting her arm out from where I had leaned my head against it.
“If you like. It’s not very cold here, though.”
“No, I mean, could we live here like that? Work during the day and then sit by the fire all night. They look happy enough.” I peered towards the distant blur of the flames.
“We could,” said Belis, moving her arm back, “but they won’t be happy for long. Arawn said the darkness would break free soon enough, spreading across this whole land.”
“Then I suppose we’d better stop it.” I sat up, twisting around to look Belis in the face. “If I’m going to be human, I’d like to enjoy it properly. Find a patch of land to farm, maybe up in the north, where the Romans haven’t reached yet. You could come and stay if you wanted, teach me some of the landcraft.”
She blinked at me and I felt a little of the closeness we had built in the last few hours shake. This friendship was a fragile thing.
“Or not,” I said, hurriedly. “You and Cati could travel further, up into the Pictlands and the islands.”
“That wasn’t my problem, Mallt,” Belis said to me, her mouth quirking up at the corner. “Have you forgotten what Arawn said? There is nothing to be done.”
“I don’t accept that. There must be something we can do. Maybe we can find Arawn’s seneschal or cure this sickness. We’ve still got a few weeks before your sister will be beyond help, and who knows how long before theseshadowbittenoverrun us. I’m not prepared to give up just yet.”
I scrambled up and held out a hand to Belis. She frowned for a moment then took my hand and I pulled her up.
“Where should we start?” she asked, then continued withoutwaiting for an answer. “We should consider our strengths, that’s what Mother would say. Other than the druid’s spell, I only know a few cantrips, but I’m still a trained warrior, I have my spear and my sword…”
She glanced at me and I patted the sword’s hilt where it was strapped to my belt. “Well, you have. What are your strengths, Mallt?”
I considered. I seemed to have left most of them back in my old life: speed, strength, power over souls. I had been wrong about pretty much everything since meeting Belis, from trying to eat poisonous mushrooms to forgetting humans couldn’t run on water.
“Not much,” I said. “Perhaps we should focus on your skills for now.”
Belis frowned. “I see we’ve moved on from towering self-importance to self-pity. You have lots of strengths, Mallt. You’re stubborn as a donkey, you’re smart as a crow, you’re tough as—”
“An old boot?” I suggested. “Or did you have another unflattering comparison in mind?”
Belis grinned at me. “There you go, you’re as old as the hills themselves but your mind hasn’t gone yet. You might not be a goddess any more but you’re still formidable. And I haven’t mentioned the one thing that separates us from every other creature in this land, even theshadowbittenthemselves.”
“What’s that?” I asked. Belis shrugged.
“We’re alive. Maybe that’s the missing piece. Arawn can’t fight his own people, nor can the uncorrupted dead. But we’re neither, we’re alive, the first living mortals ever to set foot in this world. We don’t belong here yet so we can’t be corrupted so easily.”
She clapped me on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go and find Arawn and tell him we want to fight.”
Arawn leaned back over the map he had drawn in the ashes next to the fire, conjuring the dirt into hills and valleys with a wave of his hand, water trickling out to form rivers and streams.It was near dawn; we had spent most of the night talking with him. The Lord of the Dead did not seem entirely convinced but we had persuaded him to let us try.
“The most trouble we’ve had is along the canyon, the current border with the shadow,” he said, pointing to the deepest slash in the map. “I have sentries stationed along there to watch the line, but I cannot guarantee your safety there. You think that living mortals can fight the shadow. That’s a possibility I want to explore but let’s start somewhere more controlled. Then we can consider a bolder move.”
Belis looked at the map with a warrior’s eye.
“I think we should strike hard and fast, before theshadowbittenknow we’re here. Use surprise to push into their land and—”
“And do what?” Arawn cut in. “You are only two women and only one is in the least bit trained in combat. Mallt has spent her existence trailing battlefields like a crow, always late to the feast. This is my land, child. We will do things my way.”
Belis looked as though she wanted to respond but bit her tongue. Arawn stabbed his finger into the map.
“Here: this is where we shall start you off. It is a few hundred miles north of where we are now, a good fifty from the current border. There is a corruption there that I have been unable to root out. Come.”
Arawn strode from the field. Belis and I hurried after him.
