‘She’ll be staying here,’ Blackthorn says, off-hand. ‘Lady Flidais may be a soft-hearted girl, but it’s too much to expect her to hold on to the creature. And Oran wouldn’t want it, I’m quite sure of that.’

‘Just put her out the door and forget about her.’ Told a lot of lies, Ciar did. Made a lot of folk unhappy. ‘Can’t understand why you’d want to keep her.’

‘I have to.’ Blackthorn lies down on her bed, shuts her eyes, pulls her blanket over her. ‘Hear that whining? If that isn’t a cry for help, I don’t know what it is.’

Morrigan’s britches! Blackthorn’s going soft about a vicious, noisy little monster like that? And here I was, thinking how peaceful it’s going to be here, all neat and tidy, everything where it should be, and me and her settling in as if it’s a real home. I was feeling good. Almost happy. ‘You have to? Why?’

‘You know,’ Blackthorn says, sounding half-asleep. Been a long day. A big, big day. ‘Conmael. My promise.’

‘Didn’t think that fellow made you promise to give a home to stray dogs, even ones that used to be human.’ Use her gifts only for good and stay away from Mathuin for seven years, those were the two parts of it. Nothing about dogs.

‘Not dogs in particular. Cries for help. Remember, I have to say yes to folk who ask me to help them. Even if they don’t say it in so many words. Even if they’re folk like Ciar. It gets complicated sometimes. Difficult. But I’ve kept to it. And I’ll keep to it even now Ciar’s a dog. I can train her not to bite you.’