Pretty ride. Woods are all shadows and light. Birds everywhere, all kinds, little peeping things and big ones with slow-beating wings. Creatures scampering around in the trees and in the grass. Place is full of life. Sort of spot where you’d find those wee folk, like the ones we met in Bann. Or even Conmael’s kind, the fey folk of the old tales. So much forest here, and it’s so tricky, they’d have no trouble hiding if they wanted. I look around for them as I go, but no sign. Not that Conmael gives you a warning before he pops up out of nowhere. Likes seeing folk jump, that’s my guess. Wonder if she’s right and he really has gone off somewhere. Wonder how it works, that world and our world. How do they fit together? Could be a man walks into a cave and finds himself somewhere he didn’t expect. Or takes a swim, dives under the water, comes up and everything’s changed. Heard a tale once, fellow walked into a mushroom circle and got taken off into a fey place, didn’t get home for a hundred years. Wife, children, grandchildren all dead and buried. Doesn’t bear thinking about.

Ride takes about an hour. I come over a rise and there’s Wolf Glen, big stone house, double row of beeches, all grand enough for a prince. Which is funny when you think of it. Prince Oran’s house at Winterfalls is more ordinary than this one, and he’ll be king someday. Makes me wonder why this fellow would be wanting to build another house. Got a perfectly good one from what I can see.

Someone’s been watching out for me, seems like. By the time I get to the courtyard there’s a groom waiting to take Sturdy off to the stables and another man telling me to wait. Seems the master of the house is going to show me the job himself. Ripple has a wander around and I wait and wait some more.

Then here’s the fellow I spoke to in Winterfalls, Gormán’s his name, looking pleased to see me, and another man who I guess from his fine clothes is the master of the house. No smile from him. He looks like a man with a burden.

‘Grim,’ says Gormán. ‘You’re timely. This is Master Tóla. If you’ll walk with us, he will explain the job to you.’

We walk, and the master of Wolf Glen asks me all sorts of questions, ones I’ve already answered for Gormán, but never mind. Can I work with stone? Can I work with wood? What building have I done before? Am I skilled at thatching? Can I work every day until the job’s finished even if it runs through till autumn?