“You know I am a seer.” I spoke mainly for Knut’s benefit—the last thing I wanted was to be accused of making things up because of some kind of personal feelings toward Felix. “I have visions, flashes of Sight. If other people experience a powerful welling of emotion, be it sorrow or anger or frustration, sometimes that spills over and I share it. That is a phenomenon over which I have no control. It happened tonight, when I came upon Knut attacking Felix. And it has happened with Svala, more than once. I’ve known since the first day she came here how unhappy she was. Several times she’s tried to show me what happened to her. Clodagh saw it once, too. And—”

Johnny stopped me with a gesture, waiting for the translation to catch up. As Kalev was still speaking, Knut leapt to his feet, eyes fixed on me in undisguised hostility. Every man in the chamber was suddenly on edge; I felt it.

“You cannot take her account for truth!” the Norseman shouted. “Visions, feelings—this cannot be trusted! She could be saying anything, anything at all! She and this man, they are close, too close—no doubt they have concocted this whole story together. The girl will say anything if she thinks it will make you believe him!” Perhaps seeing the look on Johnny’s face, he moderated both tone and expression. “I am sorry; I should not have spoken thus. The girl has good intentions, no doubt. Perhaps she believes her own story, whatever it is. But Svala cannot tell her tale. Not only is she unable to speak, but she is . . . ” He repeated the gesture I had seen once before, tapping his temple with a finger. “Whatever she has conveyed to your girl is unreliable.” Kalev scrambled to keep up with the flow of words.

“Sit down,” Johnny said in the tone men never failed to obey. “Sibeal, in the interests of fairness, I must ask you to respond to the accusation that you may be less than impartial where Felix’s welfare is concerned. I regret the need to do so.”

I felt my face flush red. As I drew breath, unsure how I might best answer, my sister’s voice came, cool and precise.

“Since Knut believes Sibeal cannot give you an unbiased account,” Muirrin said, “I’ll do it for her. At around midday today, Sibeal came back from the seer’s cave, where she had encountered Svala. She came straight from there to the dining hall, and then she joined me and Clodagh and Brenna for the afternoon. Sibeal did not return to the infirmary in between, and so she had no opportunity to speak to Felix, or indeed to Gull or Evan or Johnny. She told us about a vision she had shared with Svala in the cave, a vision she believed was a reflection of what Svala wanted to tell her.”