He seemed ready to faint.

Gotrek pointed to the door. "Get out," he roared. "I'll not soil my blade on cowards like you."

The trappers scurried for the door, Lars limping badly. Felix saw the girl step aside to let them by. She closed the door behind them.

Gotrek glared at Felix. "Can't I even stop to answer a call of nature without you getting yourself into trouble?"

"Perhaps I should escort you back," said Felix, inspecting the girl closely. She was small and thin; her face would have been plain except for the large dark eyes. She tugged her cloak of coarse Sudenland wool about her and hugged the package she had purchased in the trading post to her chest. She smiled shyly up at him. The smile transformed that pale hungry face, Felix thought, gave it beauty.

"Perhaps you could, if it's not too much trouble."

"No trouble whatsoever," he said. "Maybe those ruffians are still lurking about out there."

"I doubt that. They seemed too afraid of your friend."

"Let me help you with those herbs, then."

"The mistress told me to get them specifically. They are for the relief of the frostbitten. I would feel better if I carried them."

Felix shrugged. They stepped out into the chill air, breath coming out in clouds. In the night sky the Grey Mountains loomed like giants. The light of both moons caught on their snow-capped peaks so that they looked like islands in the sky, floating above a sea of shadow.

They walked through the squalid shanty-town which surrounded the trading post. In the distance Felix saw lights, heard the lowing of cattle and the muffled hoofbeats of horses. They were heading towards a campsite where more people were arriving.

Gaunt hollow-cheeked soldiers, clad in tattered tunics on which could be seen the sign of a grinning wolf escorted carts drawn by thin oxen. Tired looking drivers in the garb of peasants gazed at him. Women sat beside the drivers with shawls drawn tight, headscarves all but obscuring their features. Sometimes children peeked out over the back of the carts to stare at them.

"What's going on?" asked Felix. "It looks like a whole village on the move." The girl looked at the carts and then back at him.

"We are the people of Gottfried von Diehl. We follow him into exile, to the land of the Border Princes."

Felix paused to look north up the trail. More carts were coming down, and behind them were stragglers, limping on foot, clutching at thin sacks as if they contained all the gold of Araby. Felix shook his head, puzzled.

"You must have come through Blackfire Pass," he said. He and Gotrek had come by the old dwarf routes under the mountain. "And it's late in the season for that. The first blizzards must already be coming in up there. The pass is only open in the summer."

"Our liege was given till year's end to leave the Empire." She turned and began walking into the ring of wagons that had been set up to give some protection from the wind.