‘My family has agreed that we must put Bhelliom beyond the reach of men or Gods. No one must ever be able to find it or use it again. The others have given me one hour – and all of their power – to accomplish this. You may see some things that are impossible – you may even have noticed them already. Don’t concern yourselves about them, and don’t pester me with questions. We don’t have that much time. We were ten when we set out, and we’re the same ten now. It has to be that way.’

‘We’re going to throw it into the sea then?’ Kalten asked her.

She nodded.

‘Hasn’t that been tried before?’ Ulath asked her. ‘The Earl of Heid threw King Sarak’s crown into Lake Venne, as I recall, and Bhelliom still re-emerged.’

‘The sea is much deeper than Lake Venne,’ she told him, ‘and the water out there is much deeper than it is anywhere else in the world, and no one knows where this particular shoreline is.’

‘We do,’ Ulath disagreed.

‘Oh? Where is it? On which particular coast of which particular continent?’ She pointed upward at the dense cloud racing overhead. ‘And where’s the sun? Which way is east and which is west? All you can really say for sure is that you’re on a seacoast somewhere. You can tell anyone you like, and then every man who will ever live can start wading in the sea tomorrow, and they’ll never find Bhelliom, because they’ll never know exactly where to look.’

‘Then you want me to throw it into the sea?’ Sparhawk asked her as he dismounted.

‘Not quite yet, Sparhawk,’ she replied. ‘There’s something we have to do first. Would you get that sack I asked you to keep for me, Kurik?’

Kurik nodded, went back to his gelding and opened one of his saddlebags. Once again Sparhawk had that strong sense that something was wrong.

Kurik came back carrying a small canvas sack. He opened it and took out a small steel box with a hinged lid and a stout hasp. He held it out to the little girl. She shook her head and held her hands behind her. ‘I don’t want to touch it,’ she said. ‘I just want to look at it to make sure it’s right.’ She bent forward and examined the box closely. When Kurik opened the lid, Sparhawk saw that the interior of the box was lined with gold. ‘My brothers did well,’ she approved. ‘It’s perfect.’

‘Steel will rust in time, you know,’ Tynian told her.

‘No, dear one,’ Sephrenia told him. ‘That particular box will never rust.’