‘Ah,’ says Master Tóla, meaning, I can guess, This is the bit we decided not to tell you before, in case you said no. ‘We have a man here by the name of Bardán. Odd sort of fellow. He’s been living wild; forgotten the ways of ordinary folk. But we need his help. Very few men know how to build a heartwood house. Bardán is one of them.’

‘Mm-hm,’ I say, waiting for more. Thinking, can’t be any odder than the things that have happened to Blackthorn and me since we came north together. Strange stuff follows us wherever we go.

‘Before I call him,’ the master says, ‘I need to make it clear that your work here will be not only assisting Bardán with the building work, but also keeping him under control.’ He looks me up and down, while I’m thinking I don’t like the sound of that at all.

‘I’m no guard,’ I say, though that’s not quite true. I’ve done guard duty for Prince Oran before. But that’s not the same as being someone’s minder. I’m thinking of Slammer and Tiny, Mathuin’s thugs from the lockup. Thinking I’m never ever going to let myself be like them. ‘That’s not the job I came here for.’

‘You’re a big strong man,’ says the master. ‘You’ll earn your pay by doing what Bardán tells you to do on the heartwood house. He’ll earn his keep at Wolf Glen by showing you how to do it. There’ll be a tidy extra sum for you if you make sure Bardán sticks to the rules we’ve given him. If you can’t agree to that, there is no job.’

‘Mm-hm,’ I say again. ‘And what rules are those?’

They run through them: Bardán is not allowed to talk to anyone but me and the foresters, he’s not allowed anywhere near the main house, he has to sleep in a little hut out in the woods, he’s not allowed to leave Wolf Glen before the heartwood house is finished. I’m thinking, I hope you’re paying him well, but I don’t say it.

‘And you don’t talk to him about anything except the building,’ says Master Tóla. ‘Understood?’

‘Mm-hm. Who was building this before?’ They must’ve had someone who knew all these special rules about a heartwood house, back then. Not sure how long ago; a while, from the looks of things.

‘He was. Bardán. But he left with the job unfinished.’ It’s Gormán who tells me this; Master Tóla’s staring off into nowhere as if he’s forgotten me for the moment. ‘We have most of the wood saved from last time, in the barn.’

‘Something from every kind of tree.’