"Perhaps an hour," Tihana says. "Perhaps two. It's difficult to judge the time in such a gloomy place. They brought you in from that direction." She points across the camp and into the woods on the far side. "Two of them carrying you, and the big man in front—Dugu, they call him. I don't think I've seen a meaner-looking man in all my time riding the plains.
"Anyway, they cast you in here, and that's all there was to it. I didn't know if you were alive or dead until just now, but you're from the Great Steppe like me, so you're as tough as a wild dog, like as not. In any case, I'm glad you're awake—it does me no good to consider my fate alone."