Chapter 68

We set off up the river. Shortly afterwards: Làidir said, "I hear a sharp ringing."

Morgana, Iris and I stared at her with curiosity.

"What is it?" Samiya asked with the persistent curiosity of a child. Her fear was forgotten in her desperation to learn.

Làidir concentrated for a moment and then replied, "I've heard it before."

"It's a funeral bell." Umbra answered. "Someone's died."

Moments later, we came across a woman, she wore rags and was thinner than a rake to the point where I could see the clear outlines of her ribs and spine. There was muscle there soon to be sapped by the ravages of starvation.

In her hand she carried a rotting human head. It did not look fresh and seemed more like one of the undead than from a living human. She was walking towards the village we could now see in the distance.

We stopped and she looked up with disinterested eyes. Her pupils widened with shock, but there was no other sign that she cared.