Folk said there were fey beings living in Dreamer’s Wood, though nobody had ever seen one. They said it was a place where remnants of an ancient past still lingered. It was no wonder people skirted the wood, entering only if they had to. The village folk feared what they did not understand. They feared magic, and the fey were known to be full of magic.

As a child, I had wanted to believe every word of this. It had never occurred to me to fear Dreamer’s Wood. The place had drawn me, and when we had stayed at Winterfalls I had spent long mornings sitting in the mysterious shade, dreaming of old tales and hoping a fey being would appear and perhaps engage me in conversation. Later, when my father had appointed Donagan as my companion, I’d ceased those solitary vigils. Donagan had been tolerant for a boy of that age. But I had known he thought my fancies childish. Besides, I had never once seen more than hedgehogs and rabbits in the wood.

The horses sensed something, no doubt of it. I felt the tension in Snow’s shoulders as she went forward, though she was obedient to my directions, as ever. Donagan’s Star twitched her tail and turned her head one way, then the other.

‘Can’t say it would be my first choice of a spot to sit down and enjoy a bite to eat,’ my companion said.

‘It’s quiet,’ I said. ‘And we might run into the elusive Blackthorn. Didn’t our friend Grim say she was gathering herbs?’

‘If she’s anything like her minder, she won’t take kindly to being run into. You should have corrected that fellow’s manners, at the very least. If you let folk speak to you like that, you’re in danger of losing their respect.’

I glanced across at him. ‘With Grim, there was no respect to lose. If I learned anything about the man, apart from the obvious fact that he’s strong and able, it was that he doesn’t like being answerable to anyone. Did you see the way he was moving about on that roof? It made me wonder what he was before.’

‘Before what?’

‘Before he was this Blackthorn’s minder, or companion, or assistant.’

‘He’s surely hiding some kind of secret or he’d have been readier with his answers. His manner almost suggested he wanted you to turn the two of them out.’

We reached the pool and dismounted, looping our reins over a branch. The horses did not drop their heads to drink or to crop at the long grass. The two of them stood still and silent, side by side.