“The two of you are close, aren’t you?” Knut said, and he made a crude gesture with his hands. “That’s what they’re all saying. Girl can’t stay away from you, druid as she claims to be. Did you know she likes wandering along those cliff paths all by herself? Slight little thing—a puff of wind could blow her away.”

“How dare you!” I struggled to rise. He put his big hand on my shoulder and pushed me back down. “How dare you threaten her?”

“Ah. I see that I’ve touched a raw spot. Seems I was right, you do set a higher value on her life than on your own. I could kill you now, of course—you’re as weak as a newborn babe. But that would attract too much attention.”

“If you lay a finger on her, I’ll—”

“You’ll what? Stamp your foot? Cry? Spare me. It’s within your power to protect the girl. Just keep your wretched mouth shut.”

I wanted to put my hands around his neck and squeeze the life out of him. But my only strength was in my words, and my words made him laugh.

“Gull, I must leave this place,” I say now. “I bring danger. I bring ill luck.”

He busies himself collecting towel and cloth and bucket, hanging a garment from a peg, throwing another in a corner, finding me a clean shirt. “I’ve always been of the belief that a person’s luck comes of itself,” he says after a while. “You can’t bring ill luck unless you have ill intent. But I’m not an expert on such matters. You should ask Sibeal; she’s the druid.”

“Where is she, Gull?” All day she has been gone. All day, my fear for her has grown, a cold heaviness in my gut.

“She went straight to her little chamber to rest. Difficult day for her.”

Alarm darts through my veins. “Difficult, what do you mean?”

“She found that man’s body,” Gull says. “It upset her.”

I am silent. This part of the story, I did not hear.

“I expect she’ll tell you about it herself when she’s ready. Or maybe not; she’s had to give her account of it several times over, so Johnny can be quite sure what happened.”

“There is some doubt?”

Gull is suddenly busy again, folding something; he’s said too much already, perhaps.

“Gull?”

“Mm?”

“If Sibeal wakes, if she comes to sit by the fire tonight, I wish to speak to her alone.”