Byron slowed down until we were neck and neck and looked at me critically. ‘You need to relax,’ he instructed. ‘Sit back in the saddle. You’re not a jockey and this isn’t the Grand National. You’ve been hanging around with your old mentor for too long.’

‘You mean instead of spending more time with stand-up guys, like the Darroch women who can’t even pretend to care about the lives of the Clan-less?’ Byron opened his mouth to answer but I didn’t give him a chance. ‘Or with the Kincaids who think it’s okay to sneer openly at another Clan? You lot spend all this time telling the world that you’re better than everyone else when you all hate each other, snipe at each other and apparently go around trying to kill each other.’

His jaw tightened. ‘I’ll admit,’ he said stiffly, ‘that there are some Sidhe who need to learn both manners and humility. And Sidhe politics can be … bloody. But we are not bad people, Integrity.’

‘Neither are the Clan-less.’

‘Point taken.’

I sniffed. Well, good. Rather than continue spelling out the flaws of the Sidhe, I focused on something less controversial. ‘The Foinse?’ I said, a question in my tone.

‘What about it?’

‘How do you know it’s failing? The magic is still working, right? I’ve almost died twice as proof of that.’

Byron considered my question. ‘You’d know if you spent more time on Clan lands,’ he said. ‘The magic is easier to sense here so it’s easier to notice changes. You’re aware of the change in atmosphere before a storm?’

I nodded. ‘Sure.’

‘Well, it’s a similar kind of thing with the magic. We can feel a difference. Few people have been affected so far but it’s definitely there.’ His face took on a tight, brooding expression. ‘There are always lulls with the Foinse, moments when it’s harder to get a handle on our Gifts, or when things don’t work as they should.’

I absorbed this. ‘And when we reach it and open it, then what?’

‘The representatives here aren’t just along because of their Clan blood.’ Byron nodded towards Aifric. ‘My father is better at telekinesis than I am. He will able to fine tune anything that isn’t working. The Darroch woman – not Mali the Chieftain but the younger one – she’s an expert in dowsing. If there’s a blockage somewhere, she’ll be able to locate it.’

‘Ah,’ I said knowledgeably, ‘so it’s like plumbing then.’

Byron looked amused. ‘Sort of.’

‘And the Kincaids?’

‘Both of them are Gifted in precognition.’

I started. ‘Telling the future?’

‘Not quite as obviously as that. They get glimpses of a future that might be. Which is another one of the reasons that we knew the Foinse was failing.’

‘So if we can fix it, they’ll get glimpses that tell them everything will be okay?’