‘The matter is extremely confidential.’ Ségán waved his hand across the closely written leaves of my document. ‘I’m certain Prince Oran would not want even his trusted steward or his reliable guards to become aware of it before he is ready to tell them. Such knowledge could endanger them. I give you my word that I mean you no harm. I will not ask you to leave the safety of this household. What I will ask, indeed insist upon, is that any time you choose to do so, you take one of us with you.’

I could have protested that the calls on a healer’s time and expertise did not fit a neat pattern; that women in childbirth or folk with grave illnesses did not want armed men on their doorsteps. I could have raised a dozen other objections. But right now that did not seem of pressing importance. ‘I’m not answering any questions until you tell me, at the very least, what you and your men are doing here. I know the official story, that you’re augmenting the household guard because so many of the men-at-arms went to court with the prince. But household guards don’t haul the local wise woman in for questioning. They don’t stop her on her travels and drag her back home like some miscreant.’

‘As I understand it,’ Ségán said, ‘you were the one who drew a knife and threatened to chop off Caolchú’s fingers. And weren’t you heading back here anyway?’

Caolchú must have delivered that information in the time it had taken me to get off the mare, shivering and cramped, and follow Art to the library. ‘I believed I was under attack,’ I said. ‘What was I supposed to do, collapse in a trembling heap?’

Briefly, Ségán smiled. ‘If this document is a true account, Mistress Blackthorn, then that is the last thing I would expect of you. My men were anticipating that you would recognise them. Your response was . . . surprising.’

‘If you’ve read those pages, it shouldn’t surprise you in the least,’ I snapped. ‘Besides, it was raining hard. I could barely see a thing. Now tell me what’s going on.’

‘We are indeed here to augment the household guard.’

‘And?’