I agreed with alacrity, yet again regretting that there had been so little time for us, for Cinda was a person I might truly have regarded as a sister, if we had lived closer. For some reason I thought of Gilaine, who had also been mute, and whom I had also felt I could love as a sister. They were much alike and I wondered what it meant that I felt this way about two young women who were unable to speak aloud. Maybe it was merely that I had been forced to enter their minds in order to communicate with them, though I eschewed such intimacy as a rule.

Entering the mind of another person meant that it was difficult to lie or be removed or cool, but I had found both of them easy to trust because of their essential gentleness.

I am attracted to gentleness because I am not gentle, I thought.

‘Who is she?’ Cinda asked, having seen Gilaine’s image in my mind.

I told her the story of my meeting with Gilaine in Henry Druid’s camp in the White Valley and of the highlander Daffyd’s search for her.

‘Where is he now?’ she asked.

‘He knows that Gilaine is in the Red Land, and so I have no doubt that he will travel with the expedition, though I do not know if he is still in Sador, or has come to Sutrium.’

‘So they will finally be reunited,’ her image sighed, eyes shining.

‘What are you two talking about that is making Cinda so dewy eyed?’ Elkar enquired, coming to join us.

Cinda insisted on recounting the story in fingertalk as we made our way to the Healing Hall, and when she had got to the end, Elkar looked at me and said aloud, ‘I hope he finds her safe and that they are able to be together at last. Many sorrows and hardships are bearable if you can have your beloved at the last. The saddest thing would be to long for someone and strive for them, and yet never to be allowed to be with them.’