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Acton can lay this army of ghosts to rest.”
    The Prowman went very still.
    “Acton,” he said. “She did not tell me that. I wonder why.” He sat for a long moment and then stood up, as supple as a young
     boy. “If you go to raise Acton’s ghost, lad, I think you will need me with you.”
    Relief washed over Ash. “You’ll come with us?”
    “I will take you the River’s way.”

LEOF
    A T NOON the enchanter had sent the wind wraiths away and the ghosts moved off to the south, and Leof, Alston, Hodge and Horst followed
     them on Thegan’s orders. The other troops had returned with Thegan to Sendat after the ghosts had routed them at Bonhill,
     but there was just a chance that a small group of horsemen could pick off the enchanter from a distance.
    “Take any chance you have,” Thegan had said. “At any cost.”
    Leof nodded. “The other reports say that the ghosts faded at sunset or sunrise,” he reminded Thegan. “We might get our chance
     then.”
    Thegan clapped him on the shoulder in a parody of his usual comradeship. It was a show for the men watching, and Leof was
     glad that Thegan could still make a show. He had never seen his lord angry like this, not even when Bramble had defied him
     and escaped.
    Now the four warlord’s men followed as the ghost army, frustrated by the solid doors and shuttered windows of Bonhill, headed
     out into the countryside, looking for easier prey. Horst strung his bow, the short bow he kept for using on horseback.
    “My lord,” he said to Leof, indicating the enchanter and the bow.
    During the battle, the wind wraiths had plucked their arrows out of the air and they had lost their best chance to take the
     enchanter. If the wraiths stayed away now, Leof knew they might have a chance. “Yes,” he replied. “Anytime you get a clear
     shot, take him.”
    But as they rode, slowly, always at a distance, they could see that the wraiths were hovering far overhead. The enchanter
     probably couldn’t see them, but they were ready to protect him.
    Leof turned to Alston. “If we can charge them suddenly, Horst might get a shot away. He only needs one.”
    He expected Horst to preen at the praise, but the man just nodded. Something was worrying Horst, more than the ghosts. He
     had arrived back from the Last Domain only just in time to come south with Thegan, but without Sully, who had been killed
     in an ambush in the Golden Valley. Another problem for Thegan to deal with, but not one Leof could think about now.
    Perhaps Horst was missing his friend. He kept glancing at the sky and wiping his hands on his breeches. Well, wind wraiths
     were enough to make anyone nervous. Gods knew they made Leof jittery enough.
    “Do you know this country, Alston?” Leof asked. He knew it well himself, from riding chases all over it.
    Alston nodded. “Aye, my lord, a little.”
    “The road goes between a small hill and a stream, up ahead, about a mile away. Once they pass the hill, we can come after
     them fast and catch them up on the other side. If we come in fast enough, the wind wraiths may be taken by surprise. It might
     give us a chance.”
    Nodding, Alston considered it.
    “We should close up the gap, maybe,” he ventured, and Leof agreed.
    “But slowly, and gently. Don’t alarm the wraiths.”
    Hodge and Horst both shivered at the thought, then exchanged embarrassed glances. Horst set his face in a scowl, as though
     preparing himself for the worst.
    They urged the horses to a faster walk and gradually, as the ghosts and the enchanter strode on, unheeding, they closed the
     gap little by little. The wraiths seemed unaware of them, but Leof didn’t hold out much hope. As soon as they moved in, the
     wraiths would swoop to protect the enchanter. He wondered if he should give Horst his own horse Arrow to ride — she was by
     far the fastest, and would get him closest to the ghosts. But she wasn’t used to her rider shooting as he rode, and Horst’s
     bay was. He would