‘It is part of you,’ said the bear in its rough voice. ‘To pretend it is not is as foolish as binding your eyes and pretending to be blind.’

‘An eye does not have the power to kill,’ I whispered.

‘It does, if the mind and will of its owner are to kill.’

‘The black power does not serve me. It would rule me,’ I said.

‘Your fear of it rules you. If you would master the black power, you must master your fear of it.’

‘I am afraid that I will cause some harm to you,’ I whispered at last, hating the fact that I had known at some level that the only way I could keep my secrets safe was to use that deadly and terrifying power, yet still I had allowed the merging.

The bear gave a soft rumble of laughter. ‘You know in your deepest self that you can master the black power that is in you, or you never would have risked doing anything that would endanger me.’

Was he right that I had known I could master that dreadful potency I had banished to the depths of my mind? I wanted to believe it, for the alternative was that I had risked him for an hour of pleasure.

‘Pleasure?’ the bear growled. ‘Do not give such a large and profound thing such a small name. Now do what you came to do.’

I bowed my head, accepting his rebuke and his command. I set the bowl on the ground and straightened to take one of the bear’s great talon-tipped paws in my two hands. I drew him back around the pool to the boulder where he had been sitting when I came to him, and he sat down on it once more. His head was still higher than mine. I looked up into his green eyes and suddenly thought of a gift I could give to him, but before I could speak, my thought allowed the golden link between us to become visible. The light shining from it eclipsed even the brightness of the pool.

‘What is it?’ asked the bear, gazing at it reverently. I guided his paw to the link. As his claws passed through it, he drew a long shuddering breath.

‘We wove this between us with our loving,’ I whispered. ‘I did not know it would happen but I believe it will endure even when we are far apart.’ I lifted my other hand and stroked the bear’s cheek. To my astonishment his fur flamed briefly blue where I touched it. I drew my hand back in amazement, fearing I had hurt him, but when he leaned forward to lick my hand in tender reassurance, a little mist of shimmering light rose formed and dissolved.

I laughed incredulously.

‘It must be the link,’ Rushton said, and there was wonder in his rough bear’s voice.