From my open portal I saw no indications of the battle whatsoever. The carriage and horses were gone and the road was deserted, at least as far as I could tell in the darkness of the night. I frowned, but further scanning revealed the light of a small fire on the left side of the road. Whether it belonged to Timoth or the highwaymen, I had no way of telling. In either case, they would likely be keeping an eye on the road for my emergence, so I had to make my decision.

Surely highwaymen would not light a campfire so close to the road? And I doubted that they would bother to shift the body of the fallen carriage horse.

Therefore I took a deep breath and stepped fully through the portal, letting it close behind me. I walked slowly and silently towards the campfire, but as I had suspected there was someone keeping watch.

'Who goes there?' the challenge was issued. I said nothing, but I soon saw the man. It was too dark to tell the quality or colour of his clothing, but he bore a shield. As far as I could remember, none of the bandits had carried shields, so that marked the sentry as one of Father's men.

'Countess Saemara Tfaeller,' I said.

'Oh, Countess,' the soldier replied.

I wanted to ask him what had happened, but I pushed on through to the campfire. My heart was in my chest as I stepped through the underbrush and reached the fire. To my relief, Timoth sat upon a large stone beside it. He smiled when he saw me, but it was a sad smile, for the wounded man lay on the ground between us. The cut to his leg had been bandaged, but he was pale. I wondered if he had lost too much blood before my brother had got to him.

'What happened?' I asked Timoth, taking a seat in the dirt. Now was no time to order a soldier to bring me a proper sitting log, especially as the only healthy soldier in sight was the sentry.

'You tell me,' Timoth retorted, and I considered the question fair. I told him that I had heard a man approach me so I had been forced to retreat into my portal. Timoth nodded, having assumed as much after failing to find any tracks leading away from the carriage. 'I thought you might never emerge,' he confided, and I punched him gently on the shoulder.

'As if you could manage without me!' I teased him and he smiled. A small, yet genuine thing. 'How did you defeat the highwaymen?'

'They may have been skilled archers, but once the distance was closed they were poor swordsmen - four of us killed twelve or thirteen of them. Two of my men were killed before the fighting had even begun. The ambushers were quick, damned quick,' Timoth explained. He stamped his foot in anger. There was a pause and he shifted slightly. 'We should reach Helmfirth the day after tomorrow. We will have to bind one of the other horses to the carriage as the carriage horse was killed in the fighting. Another horse was slain also. Our party numbers only four now, with two extra horses to lead.'

'What about our wounded soldier?' I asked. I had never learnt his name, and he was asleep or unconscious so I could not ask.

'He lost a lot of blood, but unless his wound becomes infected he will heal,' Timoth said. 'He will have to ride for we have no means of carrying him, and I would not have us remain here for fear of further banditry. His wound should not prevent him from doing so, if he can stay conscious atop the saddle.'

I nodded. It was scary having such a small party to travel this dangerous road, but Timoth had protected me thus far and I trusted him to do so into the future. He asked me if I could stand watch for a few hours that night as otherwise only he and the current sentry could, and I reluctantly agreed.

We set out at dawn the next morning bereft of proper rest and in low spirit. My eyes kept scanning the trees even as they dissipated once we were through the woods, and I was scarcely able to believe that the bandits who had fled would not return. At one point when we were riding, Timoth rode close to me and spoke in a low voice.

'I checked the bodies of the highwaymen,' Timoth murmured, and I had to lean in to hear his next words. 'They carried no insignia of any kind.'

'Is that not what you would expect of rogue bandits?' I asked him.

'It is,' he replied. 'Yet one of them bore a tattoo resembling the emblem of Vizonia.'

'Vizonia?' I asked in disbelief. Timoth himself didn't sound confident, but there were beginning to be too many coincidences. First the man on the beach, and now the highwayman. My thoughts drifted to Highfather Ioran and his unwelcome interference in my romantic life. Were these events linked in some way?

'Remember we don't know anything for certain,' Timoth advised me. 'Just be wary.'

‘I will.’

That evening I kept watch again, and I was glad that it was the last night that we’d be spending in the wild. I now looked forward to the boat ride that I had once viewed with trepidation. No highwaymen, no nymphs, no danger awaited us in the Haelling. The only possible danger was the incursion of raiders from the Western Island or the Frostlands, but the number of raids in recent months had been much smaller. It was highly doubtful that we would encounter anyone hostile between Helmfirth and Haelling Cove.

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In the morning we set out once more. The wounded soldier was looking less pale and could steer his horse properly. It was not long before we sighted the outer suburbs of Helmfirth.

The city was different to how I remembered it. The people, in particular, seemed cowed by our passage through their streets. They whispered as we passed, averting our gaze and shaking their heads. Some of them stared at us as if in sympathy, and I guessed that they suspected that our party had been larger when we had set out from Hollowhold, perhaps because of the riderless horse that we led by the bridle. I saw some men who looked to be from the Reach in the city, and though there were only a handful it struck me as odd. Why would men of the Reach travel to Helmfirth in the winter with nothing to sell?

Outside the keep, a servant informed us that Duke Wiseria was not in the castle at that moment, but that he would send a boy to inform the Duke of our arrival. We dismounted and waited in the bailey. The servant called healer to look at the soldier's wound. Almost an hour passed before Wiseria appeared on the road from the city, trailed by a handful of housecarls and servants. Wiseria dismounted as he spoke to us.

'Count, Countess, my friends!' he said. 'You have my greatest sympathies.'

Timoth stepped forward, shooting a glance at the man who was having herbs applied to his wound. 'At least we were able to chase the highwaymen away.'

'Highwaymen?' Wiseria asked. He looked startled, as if Timoth's response had thrown him off guard. 'You do know, don't you?' He asked, turning his gaze to me, and then back to Timoth, and then back to me. I shook my head. 'About Haelling Cove?' he asked, as if adding words would suddenly teach me whatever piece of knowledge I was missing. I could only shake my head more vigorously. The Duke walked to the servant who had originally greeted us and demanded of him, 'you did tell them didn't you?'

'It was not my place, my lord. I assumed they already knew. I thought you'd want to tell them,' the servant said, bowing his head as he spouted as many excuses as he could think of. Wiseria waved his hand, willing the man to silence, before turning back to us.

'I think it best you come inside,' he suggested.

I wanted to ask him what he spoke of, but years of training in etiquette told me to be patient. Wiseria thought it would be better to talk in private and I had to trust him. He led us through the keep and into the dining room. Timoth sat beside me but Wiseria dallied in the doorway, organising a meal. I looked familiarly upon the room's doorways and hanging chandeliers while I waited. When finally he took his place across the table from us, he did not speak and I had to prompt him.

'Excuse my impatience, Duke, but you have concerned me with your earlier words. Has something happened in Haelling Cove?' I asked him.

I realised that I was leaning forward and furrowing my brow, and consciously I tried to relax my face and sit up straight. This was not made easier when Duke Wiseria's face became grave and he took a preparatory breath of air deep into his lungs.

'I am afraid that, tonight, I must be the bearer of dark news. Most dark indeed. I warn you to brace yourselves,' he said. I wished he'd just get to the point, but said nothing. He continued. 'Word reached us only hours ago of a Western Islander raid against Haelling Cove. It is said that the raid was substantial.'

'How substantial?' Timoth asked. Perhaps he was thinking as I was: that Haelling Cove was a fortress, and no longboat crew could storm its walls.

'The messengers we have received claimed that there were twenty vessels beached at the mouth of the Haelling,' Wiseria explained, his tone that of an extended apology.

I felt my world falling away. I knew not how to react to this. I had been so focused on my own plight for the past few days that I could scarcely right my perspective to include the collapse of the rest of the world. Could something serious really have happened to my family home while I was enduring the fear of ambush and the pain of the saddle?

'The crews laid siege to the castle while their horsemen descended upon the onager and the town below,’ Wiseria continued. ‘It is said that many townsfolk were cut down as they fled, with the soldiers in the castle powerless to break the siege to defend them.'

'That is not possible,' I said, in a tone more matter of fact than I felt. I faced my brother. His face was pale. 'Timoth, you told me that the Western Islanders were divided into petty kingdoms and could not organise themselves to mount a proper assault. You told me that they had stopped their attacks. You told me–'

'Whatever the Count told you, my lady, it has happened,' Duke Wiseria interrupted.

I realised that tears were falling down my cheeks.

'What of our parents? What of Countess Kaeya?' Timoth asked. I admired his grace under pressure, and immediately my eyes widened as I waited for Wiseria's response.

'We have received no word of your family. As I said, news of the attack is still fresh. It is likely that the extent of the raid has been exaggerated,' Duke Wiseria said. He was trying to spare our feelings, to give us hope, for which I was grateful, but Timoth would have none of it.

'Are there none in Helmfirth who have spouses in Haelling Cove? Cannot their portals be used to pass word more quickly?' he demanded.

Wiseria did not take kindly to Timoth's unexpected assertiveness. His sympathetic smile became more obviously forced as he responded, 'you have hit upon the very reason I was in the city when you arrived, Count: I sought such men and women. Sadly, their spouses had fled upon the attack, and I could find none who shared a portal with those inside the castle. What news they gave was superfluous, other than that the raid had come to an end.'

'To an end?' I asked, suddenly hopeful. The Western Islanders had not claimed the city, then.

'Yes, Countess. After plundering the city and destroying the defensive onager, the raiders returned to their vessels and travelled up the Haelling unmolested,' Wiseria said.

His tone was suddenly pained, and I realised that he was thinking of his own territory. Trent was only a short distance down the Haelling from the Reach and its people would be at serious risk of having their lands attacked. It was unlikely that the raiders would travel far enough up the Haelling to threaten the Mountain Duchy or the tributary that would take them to Mattrath in the south. It was Wiseria's citizens who were most at risk. Of course those who called Ebonreach home would be in even greater danger, but the lack of major urban settlements outside of Haelling Cove and Trackford made it a less appealing target.