“You’re awake,” Cathal said. “Good. My efforts to feed our friend here haven’t gone well, and he’s loud. I’m concerned his cries will bring company we don’t want. Judging by the reception we received on the way across, I’d say we can’t expect an easy trip. Can you take him?”

He was sitting cross-legged not far away with Becan in his arms. The infant’s arms and legs had come free of his shawls. His cries held a tone of outrage.

“Pass him over here.” I held out my arms and realized belatedly that underneath the cloak I wasn’t wearing much at all. “Where are my clothes?”

“Drying out,” Cathal said. “See, over there.” My gown, cloak, shift and stockings were hanging over a makeshift frame of branches and bracken on the far side of the fire, steaming gently in company with various garments of Cathal’s. “No need to blush,” he added. “You’re still covered, just. It’s cold here. The things you were wearing were sodden, and the spares in your bag weren’t much better. I didn’t really have a choice.”

I couldn’t think of a thing to say, so I gathered the cloak around me as best I could and took the infant on my lap to feed him. A little later, with Becan relaxed and sucking steadily, Cathal and I regarded each other in the firelight, and if his gaze was wary, I imagine mine was more so. We were in the forest, that strange forest we had glimpsed across the river. The trees were big enough to dwarf the most massive oak at Sevenwaters, and the spaces under them were full of an intense and disturbing darkness like that of a vast subterranean chamber. There was an eerie stillness about the place, a sense of anticipation that was not allayed by the little crackle of our fire. From the area of level ground where we were camped the terrain fell in a gentle slope to the east. I thought I could hear the murmuring voice of the river some distance away.

“How did you get me up here?” I asked, and even though there was nobody to be seen but the three of us I kept my voice down.

“You were easy enough to carry,” Cathal said. “The difficult part was leaving you and the child here while I went back for the bags. I half expected that some mysterious entity would snatch you away the instant my back was turned, just to remind me that this place is . . . different.”