I nodded, feeling bleak at the realisation that, yet again, things were about to change. I wished it did not feel like the end of something, rather than the beginning. Then I reminded myself that I had no right to reject the idea of change when I would soon enough have to leave it all behind me.

After Ceirwan had gone, I moved to the fire and held my hands out to its crackling warmth. It had not rained that afternoon, despite the lowering storm clouds, but a strong wind had begun to blow and the ride back down the valley had been a cold one. I felt a stab of sadness at the thought that this might be the last autumn I would see at Obernewtyn, and I ran my eyes around the turret room, wondering if I loved it as much as I did because it had once been Rushton’s, or because it was the first place I had been able to call my own since Jes and I had been dragged from our home to witness the burning of our parents. The first time I had seen the turret room had been the day I had tried to flee from Obernewtyn and the sinister Alexi, only to be caught by Rushton. Instead of turning me over to Alexi and Madam Vega, he had brought me here and offered to help me get away, revealing that he was more than a simple farm overseer. Of course I had not suspected that he was also the rightful heir to Obernewtyn.

The only thing the room lacked was Maruman. How empty it felt without the old cat lying on the sill or bed, and his occasional acerbic utterances.

‘Where are you, Marumanyelloweyes?’ I asked aloud.

Sighing, I began to unbraid my hair, crossing to the table by the bed where I kept my brush and comb. I noticed that a flat package had been left on the end of the table nearest the door. Setting aside the comb, I unwrapped it to find a slim Beforetime book with a note bearing the seal of the Teknoguildmaster Garth. I drew a breath of anticipation, knowing that this must be the journal that had been found in Jacob Obernewtyn’s grave. Maryon had commanded that the Beforetimer’s grave be opened, but instead of finding his desiccated bones inside, the Teknoguild diggers had found a journal and a plast suit. Those who had read the journal discovered that Jacob Obernewtyn had put it and the plast suit into the crypt before leaving Obernewtyn to travel across the high mountains into the deadly Blacklands beyond. The journal was his, scribed in the year leading up to his journey.