[Envinyatar]

Mori let fly the owl as soon as they passed out into the back courtyard. ‘Gather your troops, Master Snowy-wing; sort them out to your liking and set them their tasks. I think those who are making plans within will be glad of any information with which to pin down this creature in some way.’

He let his gaze rest for a moment on the old apple tree whose branches leaned over the courtyard fence, and in a most attentive way it seemed. ‘I wonder . . .’ he said softly to himself. There was something that Goody had said as they’d stoked the fire in the hearth and talked of the Green Man of the Woods. ‘He be a secret, a mystery ‘mongst the trees,’ she had said. ‘He serves for good, I think,’ she went on. ‘But might not be your notion of such. Sees to his creatures, he does.’ He remembered that she had poked the fire with a charred piece of rowan and the sparks flew upward, bright and thick. ‘But ‘tis said that when the shadow stretches long and brings a killing cold to root and stem and those as goes about the forest on four legs or more, or belly, or by wing, then he rouses up in anger and in strength.’ She nodded at her memories, speaking an old saying. ‘He gathers all unto himself and his strength is assured.’

Mori was thinking on this when his eye caught the figure of the white cat, hunched down on the stone wall to his left. Tevildo’s eyes were bright in the pale winter light. And behind them seemed a banked anger. Taking a chance that such anger was not directed at him, the man drew near and spoke softly to the feline.

‘Tevildo,’ he began, leaning on his staff, his eyes gazing in the same direction as the cat’s. ‘There is need of your knowledge and your skills. Will you lend your aid, Master Hunter?’