Phaeca nodded in reluctant understanding, her gaze fixed on the middle distance.
‘If this is only the beginning,’ she said, ‘I fear what is to come.’
‘As well you should, Sister,’ Cailin told her. ‘As well you should.’
They said no more, but neither did they leave. The Sisters stood together for a long while in the fading light of the dusk, watching the rising smoke from the valley as the colours bled from the sky and darkness covered the land.