[Envinyatar]

"Ah, riddles my friend. Who is more free - a rich man's pet bird in a cage or the servant who must carry it?"

Who is this trickster? thought Aldwulf, eyeing the man who stood so at ease in their little camp. Heldór had come forward at his brother’s urging, and Aldwulf took his place at his side. Should the man come after his friend, he would have to deal first with him.

Before the man could speak, Aldwulf broke in. ‘Awyrgan, you say. I have not heard that name before.’ He paused, looking closely at the dark haired man in his dark, weathered clothes. For all his fair words, he seemed shadowed somehow. And Aldwulf could not tell the source of it. He wondered for a moment if this were some tracker hired by the Forgoils to find them and trick them somehow into coming back with him, or at least getting near enough to some place where they might be captured by a larger group. ‘And probably killed’ he muttered to himself. He cleared his mind of his jumbled thoughts and went on.

‘Tell me, if you will, are you one of those Rangers we hear of and never see. What business brings you to this section of forest? As Brytta said, we are lost. But you, it appears are not. Are you here by chance, and will you aid us. Or do you seek to hinder us?’

The man shifted his stance and looked at Aldwulf and at Heldór who stood to his right, just slightly behind him . . .

Neither is free in a sense thought Aldwulf, his thoughts going back to the man’s riddle. He kept his wary gaze on Awyrgan. Yet each in his own way is king of his little realm . . .