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‘Do you want me to hunt?’ she asked. ‘You look like you could use a hearty meal.’

‘Nothing around here to hunt,’ he replied.

‘Then what are we going to do?’

He raised a brow. ‘Suppose we could talk, Apprentice.’

‘Talk?’

‘You’re unfamiliar with the concept? It’s when two people exchange words…’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Very funny. Forgive my shock – you’re just not overly known for your scintillating conversation.’

‘You wound me.’ He started back towards the ruins of the castle, Thea in tow.

They tended to the horses, unsaddling them and ensuring they had a patch to graze on. Hauling their packs and tack with them back to the ruins as the sun lowered on the horizon, they set up a basic camp, with a wall behind them and a small fire crackling amid the rubble.

With the remaining light, Wilder opted to get out his sewing kit. Biscuit’s saddle blanket needed patching, as did his spare set of pants. He felt Thea watching him curiously as he threaded the needle and started on the blanket.

‘Who taught you?’ she asked.

He didn’t look up from his work. ‘My mother. She always said it’d be a good skill to have. Told me and Mal that if we ever found women willing to put up with us, they weren’t there to darn our socks.’

Thea made an appreciative noise. ‘I like her already.’

‘She was a special woman,’ Wilder told her. ‘She died a long time ago.’

‘I’m sorry.’

Wilder gave a nod of thanks and kept threading the needle through the blanket. A long time ago or not, he thought of his mother whenever he got out his needle and thread. It had been her kit in another lifetime.

‘Did she teach Malik how to braid leather?’ Thea asked.

‘That was my father, actually. He was a tanner when we were younger.’

‘What sort of things did he make?’

‘Everything, I suppose. He was the only leatherworker for miles. People would bring him animal skins from all over. But he loved making belts with the leftover materials. That’s where Malik gets his braiding habit from. Before he was injured, he used to engrave all the Warsword belts.’

He leant back to show her the intricate design his brother had carved into the leather of his own belt.

‘He can’t do that now?’ Thea asked as she admired it.

Wilder shook his head. ‘Not with the tremors in his hands. He mainly braids now.’ He tied off the knot in his thread and set the blanket aside, peering at Thea over the fire. ‘Anything else you need to know?’

Pink stained the tops of her cheeks. ‘I want to know everything.’

Wilder found himself smiling as he reached for their supplies. He handed her the canteen of water. ‘Drink this.’

‘I’ve already had —’

‘It wasn’t a request. You don’t drink enough water.’

Thea clicked her tongue in frustration, but did as he instructed, and when he handed her a bowl heaped with food, she accepted it without argument.

‘There are things I’d like to know, too,’ he told her. ‘So why don’t we play for answers?’

‘Play what?’ she asked around a mouthful of bread.