‘Far safer if you and your document travel separately,’ Ségán said, turning me cold again. ‘I will arrange for it to be safely transported where it needs to go. You might give me the key now.’

Slipping the cord over my head, passing the key to him felt like something from a bad dream. I understood why this was necessary. But the thought of what might go wrong made me feel sick.

‘Thank you, Mistress Blackthorn,’ Ségán said gravely. ‘I understand why it might be hard for you to trust. But you can trust us.’

As I walked back across the garden to the quarters I was sharing with Cara, I tried to compose myself. I tried to arrange my face in a peaceful expression. I made myself breathe in a slow pattern. But my heart was still racing, my palms were clammy, and my thoughts were whirling. What if I had to leave tomorrow, as soon as I’d fetched what I needed from the cottage? What if they insisted on going before Grim got back? What if I still couldn’t summon Conmael, and we were travelling over the border, and I was breaking my promise twice over? And how could I even try to summon him if I couldn’t go to Dreamer’s Wood without one of the Island men dogging my steps?

I was sure Cara would read the truth all over me the moment I stepped in the door. But she wasn’t there. For a moment I stood frozen, thinking she might have broken her own promise and rushed off to Wolf Glen, evading guards and servants. She hadn’t spoken of Bardán or the past since I’d talked to her yesterday. I’d been away most of today, visiting my regular folk, old people with wheezy chests or aching joints, young women expecting babies, a man with a broken leg that was still mending. I’d ridden over to the neighbouring settlement of Silverlake to pull a rotting tooth from a man’s mouth, a job for which I could have done with Grim’s assistance, though Cúan, who’d been my escort for the day, proved an able helper. I’d come home to find that Prince Oran was back, and had asked to see him urgently. I hadn’t seen Cara since breakfast time.

If she’d decided to bolt, she might have been gone all day. Could she possibly have left on her own and unseen, again? Under the very eyes of Ségán’s men? Gods, why hadn’t I thought to check on her at some point during the day? I should at the very least have asked Mhairi or Fíona where she was. I should have thought of it as soon as I came home. Oran’s return had put that right out of my selfish head.