“But you were trying to find this doorway on your own, Clodagh. You can’t be telling me that you possess such abilities.” His gaze reflected me back to myself, a young woman whose best talent lay in running a perfect household.

“You know I don’t, Cathal. But I think I’m meant to try. I think it’s a task that’s been laid on me.”

He regarded me quizzically, dark eyes intense in a face whose pallor was warmed by the firelight. He was sitting on a fallen branch with his long legs stretched out toward the flames. His hands were restless, the fingers twining together. “You don’t have a lot of time,” he said quietly. “I can find it for you. It’s up to you to let me do it or not. If you prefer, I’ll go off at first light and leave you to your own devices. My prediction is that your father will track you down before midday. If you’re serious about this quest of yours, you’ll trust me, at least until I’ve found what you seek: a way in.”

I slept rolled in Cathal’s cloak with Becan tucked up next to me. Whether Cathal slept or not, I did not know. My last waking glimpse was of him sitting on the far side of the fire, staring into the flames, his arms around his knees, his blanket thrown over his shoulders. He looked deeply unsettled. I suspected his impulse to help me, perhaps in an attempt to compensate for the wrongs he had done, was warring with the entirely sensible desire to put as many miles between himself and Sevenwaters as he could. In the morning, I thought, I should tell him to go. Then I slept.

Before dawn he woke me with another brew, this time wild onions in hot water, and while I ate, then fed the baby, he covered the remnants of the fire with earth and packed up our things with a warrior’s efficiency. I went briefly into the woods to relieve myself. When I returned he was squatting down beside the changeling, examining him closely without touching.

“Becan, did you say?”

“It’s as good a name as any. It didn’t seem right not to give him one. It was bad enough that everyone dismissed him as just a . . . thing.” I was surprised that he had remembered the name; I must have mentioned it once or twice at most.

Cathal gave me his quizzical look. “You don’t think this is taking family loyalty to too much of an extreme?” he asked.