A pox on it! Just when I was starting to feel a very slight tingle of the uncanny, as if finally Conmael might be thinking of putting in an appearance, Cionnaola had to break into my half-trance and banish in an instant any chance of bringing my fey mentor here. It had been hard enough to get the Island man’s permission to be out of his sight for more than a few moments. Even as I’d settled cross-legged by the pool and begun the sequence of slow breathing that was required, I’d been aware of him just up the rise, standing behind some oaks. Keeping watch. Guarding me against possible abduction, even here, a stone’s throw from the prince’s house. My protectors were taking no chances.

I should have been glad. Glad that they were giving my testimony such weight. Glad that they were taking it, and me, seriously. And I was glad. Get this over and I would be free of the most monstrous burden I had ever borne. Get it done and I would know that in a world where so many people were cruel and selfish and downright evil, justice was still possible. Only . . . I did not want to go without Conmael’s blessing. Odd, that. I had so much resented his taking control of my life, making rules for my behaviour, thinking he knew what was best for me. I’d only agreed to that because I’d had no choice. It had been say yes or die. Time after time since then, I’d come within a hair’s-breadth of breaking those rules. I had broken them over and over in thought, if not in deed. So why did this matter so much? It wasn’t even the threat he’d made, the penalty he’d said he would impose if I did break my promise. What he’d said he would do was impossible, unless he had the power to make time go backwards. Besides, deep down, Conmael was on my side. He might well agree that I should go. It was that, more than anything, that made me want to see him first. Which didn’t make much sense. But there it was. Whatever I might think of his interference, Conmael had saved my life. I owed him honesty.

‘Mistress Blackthorn, we must leave soon.’

No chance of bringing Conmael here now. I couldn’t feel the least spark of the uncanny. Not even here, on the shore of the most eldritch body of water I knew. Had something happened to him? Was some reversal preventing him from coming back? Grim had joked about me going to the Otherworld to find Conmael. I almost wished I could.

I rose to my feet and made my way around Dreamer’s Pool to the higher ground where Cionnaola was waiting. ‘What about Grim?’ I asked.