Outside it was very still and cold. Veils of mist hung in the frigid air, and in the east, the indigo shadows of treetops loomed against a paling sky. In the greater dark cast by the buildings behind me, a circle of buttery gold light fell around the lamppost that stood a little distance from the steps. Just beyond it was the shining blue-black form of Gahltha.

‘Greetings Elspethlnnle,’ he sent coolly.

I sighed, realising he was offended. I went down the steps and through the lamplight to him and stroked his long, soft nose. ‘My dear friend, I asked for Zade only because I wanted you to have time with Avra and Theral,’ I beastspoke him.

‘We three rode/grazed together yesterday, stabled together last night,’ Gahltha sent, but his tone had thawed. ‘Now Theral is with the funaga LouisLarkin and with Linabeastspeaker so that they can teach him the signalspeech that will allow him to speak with funaga who cannot beastspeak. That is Avra’s purpose in bringing him here. Avra waits for you / us outside the gate to the barud. She will ride with us.’

I was startled at how much his speech had taken on the traditional rhythm and cadences of pure equine beastspeech after spending time with Avra. I was glad the mare would ride with us and wished I had thought to suggest it instead of offending Gahltha by asking for Zade.

‘It is long since we three have ridden together,’ I sent, as I mounted him.

It did not take us long to canter down the dark curving road and out through the main gate. I noticed that there was still a good bit of water lying about in great dark puddles. It would take a sevenday of sunshine before the sodden earth absorbed them and I wondered how the ground was about the tents that had been pitched for the moon fair.

Avra was grazing a little way along the road that ran back from the main gate to the farm gate, but she was immediately alert to our presence, lifting her head and giving a soft neigh of greeting before trotting up to us. I had barely beastspoken my own greetings when I realised there was a second horse waiting, a large dappled-grey mare I had never set eyes on before. Neither Avra nor Gahltha showed any surprise at seeing her and when she greeted me as ElspethInnle, giving her own name as Falada, I understood that she had been waiting for me, too. She was not an Obernewtyn horse, but neither did she look like one of the small sturdy mountain ponies that made up the majority of the wild herd. I was about to ask where she had come from when the Sadorian tribesman Ahmedri stepped out from the trees behind her.

As he bowed in Sadorian fashion, I noticed with surprise that he had a bulging saddlebag thrown over one shoulder.