I wept a few foolish tears for I knew not what, before bestirring myself to bathe and dress for what remained of the day, for I was too wide awake now to stay in bed. I felt sluggish from the broken night’s sleep and the extremes of emotion I had experienced since Ceirwan had awakened me, but as I combed and braided my hair, I could only marvel at the knowledge that I had spoken the truth when I told Rushton I no longer feared merging minds with him. Of course he had taken my words to mean that, having seen his mind on Norseland, I had found the courage to allow him to see all that lay in mine. In truth I had meant that my recollections of what had happened on Norseland had shown me a way to keep my secrets even as I shared them with him.

Since Atthis had forbidden me to speak of my quest as the Seeker, I had always believed that a merging of minds with Rushton would be impossible. Indeed, if I had merged body and mind with him, as I had sometimes been tempted to do in recent years, Ariel would have gained access to all the things I had learned from Cassandra when he plundered Rushton’s mind on Norseland. But as we had been speaking it had suddenly come to me that, having entered Rushton’s deepest mind and dispatched Ariel there, I could fortify the strange, vast space inside him that was his Talent so that it could never again be invaded by the defective Misfit, even if he had another Domick to use as a battering ram. Then if I did merge minds with Rushton, I could simply use my coercive Talent afterwards to shift all that must remain hidden to that secret place inside him. I could even ensure that, after enough time had passed for it not to matter what he knew, he would remember everything. It would mean that no one could enter Rushton’s mind cavern until then but also that a day would come when he would understand exactly why I had to leave the Land and him.

I went to the window. It was late morning and the sun was still glistening on the sodden foliage in the garden below. I leaned out to relish the feel of it on my face and sent a probe to Ceirwan. I found the farseeker on his way to the kitchens to meet Elkar and Cinda to take them to visit the farms.

‘Introduce them to Katlyn and Grufyyd,’ I suggested. ‘They might even remain and take midmeal with them. I daresay Brydda will do the same and they can come back to the house with him afterwards. Nightmeal is likely to be somewhat later than usual for us, given that we are to have a guildmerge at dusk.’