Nobody spoke. Even the crow, perched now on the roof of the barn and picking insects from the thatch, held back harsh comment.

‘Tóla suggested a way he could keep his builder and secure the baby for Suanach. It involved . . .’ He looked at Mistress Blackthorn.

‘Screamers,’ Blackthorn said. ‘Not in sufficient dose to kill the man, since he was needed for the building. But enough to muddle his memory. Enough to confuse him. Am I right?’

‘Sweet Jesus!’ exclaimed Grim. ‘That night when he ran away into the forest – you’re saying –’

‘Monsters.’ Bardán himself spoke. ‘Chasing me, sharp claws, spiky tails, running, running in the dark. All around me. Running, running. Falling. Down, down . . .’

‘It’s all right, brother,’ Grim said, moving to lay a hand on Bardán’s shoulder. ‘You’re safe now. You’re back. And she’s alive. What they said – you didn’t do it. You never hurt your baby.’

Gormán grimaced. ‘Screamers, yes. Mistress Blackthorn is a herbalist, and understands these things. But I got it wrong. We had intended to give him only sufficient of the toadstools to induce a waking nightmare. We would have locked him in somewhere safe until a reasonable time had passed. When he was recovered, we would have broken the terrible news that while in the grip of some ailment of the mind he had snatched his daughter and run off into the woods with her. That we had found him lying unconscious, and that much later we had discovered the baby dead. That because of injuries inflicted by wild creatures, we had buried her where she lay.’

‘But you gave him too much,’ Blackthorn said.

‘We gave him too much, and he did run off into the woods. We tried to find him. Without him, the heartwood house could not be finished. But search as we might, we never did track him down.’

‘Falling,’ muttered Bardán. ‘Down, down . . .’

Cara felt sick. ‘He fell down that hole. Into that place. The same place I would have been in if I had . . .’ She made herself meet Gormán’s eye. Gormán whom she had loved since she was one year old. Whom this crushing pain in her heart told her she still loved. ‘Tell me you didn’t know where he was,’ she said. ‘Or you.’ She looked at Tóla. ‘Tell me you didn’t just leave him there and walk away.’

‘I didn’t know,’ Gormán said. ‘I swear it, Cara. But . . .’

Cara waited.