He scratched his greying beard and sat beside Korrin.

The newcomer was a smallish man, elderly, with a neat greying beard and unruly brows over myopic brown eyes.

The leader, he with the greying beard and the black horse, walked the beast forward a pace, so that the water swirled past its fetlocks.

"That was well spoken," said a voice and the Parson turned to see a tall man with silver-streaked shoulder-length hair and a greying beard.

He wore otterskins that were greasy with fish oil and his greying beard was flecked by fish scales.

He saw a tall skinny fortysomething galoot with glasses, a greying beard and a ponytail, wearing an apron.

There was a clear thread of the blue fluttering in the greying beard.

Arik Ironlatch gave a bleak smile, and rubbed at his greying beard.

His weakening chin was sketched over by a clipped greying beard.

'The army is camped a mile from the city,' said the other man, a stocky figure with a greying beard.