Sparhawk was really not accustomed to bathing in the presence of young ladies, but Ehlana seemed unwilling to let him out of her sight. Thus he began the story even as he bathed and continued it while they ate. There were things which Ehlana did not grasp and others she misunderstood, but she was able to accept most of what had taken place. She cried when he told her that Kurik had died, and her expression grew fierce when he described the fates of Annias and her aunt and cousin. There were a number of things he glossed over and others he did not mention at all. He found the evasive remark, ‘You almost had to have been there’ very useful a number of times. He made a rather special point of avoiding any mention of the nearly universal depression which seemed to have fallen over the world since the destruction of Azash. It did not seem to be a proper subject to be mentioned to a young woman in the initial months of her first pregnancy.

And then as they lay together in the close and friendly darkness, Ehlana told him of the events which had taken place here in the west during his absence.

Perhaps it was because they were in bed where such things normally happen, but for some reason the subject of dreams came up. ‘It was so very strange, Sparhawk,’ Ehlana said as she nestled down in the bed beside him. ‘The entire sky was covered with a rainbow, and we were on an island, the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. There were trees – very old – and a kind of marble temple with graceful white columns, and I was waiting there for you and our friends. And then you came, each of you led by a beautiful white animal. Sephrenia was waiting with me, and she looked very young, hardly more than a girl, and there was a child who played some shepherd’s pipes and danced. She was almost like a little empress, and everybody obeyed her orders.’ She giggled. ‘She even called you a grouchy old bear. Then she started to talk about Bhelliom. It was all very deep, and I only could understand a little of it.’

None of them had grasped it all, Sparhawk remembered, and the dream had been more widespread than he had imagined. But why had Aphrael included Ehlana?

‘That was sort of the end of that dream,’ she continued, ‘and you know all about the next one.’

‘Oh?’

‘You just described it to me,’ she told him, ‘right down to the last detail. For some reason, I dreamed every single thing that happened in the Temple of Azash in Zemoch. My blood kept running cold while you were telling me about it.’