I get to my feet. Try to look as if there’s nothing wrong with me. But Cionnaola’s an Island man. Doesn’t miss much. ‘Grim’s not fit to fight off a stray terrier right now,’ he says. ‘If you’re going out of sight of the cottage, you take one of us.’

Blackthorn swears under her breath. Know how she feels. What if she tries this and it works, and Conmael suddenly appears, and this fellow sticks a knife into him, thinking he’s an enemy?

‘Cionnaola,’ she says, keeping her voice calm, ‘you know I’m a wise woman. Sometimes we have to do things that are . . . a little unusual. If you insist on coming with us, you must respect a couple of rules. Don’t approach without my say-so, whatever happens. And don’t bring iron weaponry.’

Feel a bit sorry for the man. She’s made the two of them wait nearly a whole day, so they couldn’t carry out their mission, which was getting her to this council at the right time to say her bit. She’s got them heating bath water and cooking a meal. And now she’s saying they can’t protect her the way they’re supposed to do. ‘Should be all right,’ I say to Cionnaola. ‘Knows what she’s doing.’

We go into the wood. Right down to the spot where the bank of Dreamer’s Pool dips and flattens out. Weather’s cleared up. Sunlight creeping through the trees. Dragonflies busy over the water. Frogs having a talk. Blackthorn wanders around a bit, picking up stones and a few sticks. Then sits down cross-legged on the shore. Asks me to wait a short way off, in plain sight. Cionnaola’s on the high part of the bank, across the pool. He can see us, but folk passing by wouldn’t easily see him. Human folk, that is.

‘Right,’ says Blackthorn. ‘We used to play a game called Hop-the-Frog. I’ll try that. Cionnaola’s going to think I’ve gone mad. And if this works, he’s going to get the surprise of his life.’ She brushes her hand over the ground in front of her so there’s a patch of flat bare earth. Puts her stones in two piles, one in front of her, one where another player might sit, opposite. Sets two short sticks next to each pile. Then shuts her eyes and does nothing at all. That’s what it looks like, anyway. I wait. Maybe she’s calling him without speaking out loud. Maybe she’s just getting in the right mood.