‘Blyss,’ I said. ‘They are bonded.’

‘I thought so, from their auras,’ Darius said. ‘Kella told me that Dameon had ridden off with Blyss on one of those greathorses that dwell in the west. Merret promised that she and Blyss would remain with the empath for as long as he was in the west, and bring him safe back to the ferry port when he was ready to return.’

‘They will take good care of him,’ I murmured, hoping they would decide to escort him all the way back to Obernewtyn. It would be good to see them one last time. I could even imagine them arriving, tiny elfin Blyss riding high on a greathorse and dark-eyed Merret riding beside her on a smaller horse, though perhaps it was not possible for the greathorses to be ferried across the river. Then it struck me that I had excluded Dragon from my mental picture.

Darius was describing alterations to the Healing Centre in Sutrium when Javo came puffing up to offer his own arm and a bite of early nightmeal as we approached the passage leading to the kitchens. Darius beamed at the other man and as they greeted one another warmly, I remembered that an unlikely and unexpected friendship had grown up between the irascible kitchen master and the gentle beasthealer when Darius had stayed with us before. Darius broke off to thank me courteously for bringing him so far, and as he transferred his hand to Javo’s, he said he was sure I had more important things to do than to escort him around.

I assured him that it had been my pleasure, and watched with some amusement as the two men, so physically disparate, went off chattering like long-lost brothers.

I might have gone with them, but in truth I had eaten such a hearty firstmeal in the watchhut that despite it now being late afternoon I had no appetite. I decided I would go back to the Farseekers hall and read through Sarn’s incomplete notes. I turned abruptly only to cannon into Rushton who was coming up swiftly behind me. Linnet and another coercer-knight were a little way behind him, talking with Gevan as they walked, and Rushton caught my arm and said in a low, urgent voice, ‘We are wanted on the farms on an urgent matter.’

Somewhat bemused, I stood silent as he conveyed this news to Linnet and the others when they caught up with us, managing to imply that I had proposed the errand to him. ‘I don’t know what time we will be back for we will stay down on the farms for nightmeal,’ he added lightly and then he bade them all a brisk farewell and set off back the way he had come, all but hauling me along with him.

When we had got around a corner, he slowed down and I said, amused, ‘Linnet does not like to let you out of her sight.’