I couldn’t help but want to rub his nose in his ignorance. “Since you seem to think we do not know what we are about, I should like to inform you of what you do not know. Now and again young women are born who walk the dreams of dragons in their sleep.”

“I know that!” he protested. After a hesitation, he said, “Go on.”

“All you powerful men want Bee to make use of her dreams to fulfill your own ambitions.”

“We merely wish to keep her out of the hands of the Iberian Monster so he cannot use her dreams to conquer Europa.”

I snorted.

“If that was your only purpose, Legate,” said Bee in a low voice, “then I am surprised at the insulting offer you made me.”

“Bright Venus, but you Phoenicians are too proud!”

I cut in before they could tumble into what would seem too much like a lovers’ quarrel. “The tides of those dreams wash the spirit world like great waves of smoke. Where the smoke washes, the land is wiped clean. Every thing and every creature that is touched by the smoke is changed. Except for warded ground, which is what we’re looking for now. The creatures who live in the spirit world hate dragon dreamers and want to kill Bee.”

“This is the most outrageous tale I have ever heard,” he said, but the tremor in his voice made me realize he was actually listening.

“Perhaps my vision deceives me,” said the cacica, “but it seems we are not going anywhere.”

“These walls are certainly of greater circumference than the walls of Rome,” said Amadou, as if relieved to have the conversation change to a subject on which he might account himself an expert.

“Who is this young man?” asked the cacica. “He has not asked to be brought to my notice. Yet he speaks as if I had requested his opinion.”

“I do not need anyone’s permission to speak!” said Amadou.

I squelched an urge to punch him.

“Your pardon, Your Highness,” said Bee. “It was rude of me to forget my manners.”

I wasn’t sure I liked Bee’s simpering expression as she introduced Amadou Barry to the cacica as a young man of high rank like to that of the nobles of the Taino kingdom. The cacica was not impressed by his grudging courtesy. I wasn’t either. But I had more urgent concerns. Ahead lay a sprinkle of drying ichor and a mat of white feathers whose pattern I recognized.

“Blessed Tanit! We’ve come back to where we started. It’s not that we’re not going anywhere. We’re going in a circle around a wall with no entry. The chain that binds me to Andevai can pierce the wall but we can’t.” I poked at the wall with the tip of my sword. Its substance remained stubbornly hard. “He’s inside, but we have no gate.”