She nodded. ‘I feel awful about her disappearance, of course. No one raised any alarm or worried about her at first because it was thought that she was with me. Then I sent word to the Healing Centre to say I was well and would soon return and I asked about Dragon. That was when we realised no one had seen her since we had left together. Yet Swallow had promised to take her to the Healing Centre and he is not a man who would do other than he swore to do.’

‘You judge his character well,’ I murmured, and bade her go on with her story, knowing I would be able to question Swallow myself in a day or so.

Kella shrugged. ‘There is little enough left to tell beyond what I have told. I went up in the wagon with Maire to the camp, which was in the Brown Haw Rises, found Darius and told him that I loved him. He was no longer so ill, but he was terribly thin and pale. When he heard my words, he smiled and it was …’ She shook her head, unable to find words radiant enough for her joy. Then she sobered. ‘Later when I heard about Domick, it sickened me to realise that perhaps at the very moment I had been telling Darius I loved him, Domick had been dying. I did not cease to love Darius, of course, but it was hard to think of it, and later, well, I felt you must loathe me when you knew. Then there was Dragon’s disappearance. I ought to have made her come with me or at least made sure she was with someone who would watch over her.’

‘I don’t loathe you for falling in love with Darius nor would Domick,’ I said firmly. ‘He would be glad that you have found love again and so am I.’ I reached out and took her hands and though she looked startled, she did not pull away from me. ‘As for Dragon, you said yourself that you tried to take her with you and she refused to go. You were not to know she would take it into her head to run off, for I’m sure Swallow would have done what he said he would do, and taken her back to the Healing Centre. Which means she left after he had gone.’

The healer brushed away a scatter of tears with a trembling hand. ‘It is just such a relief to know that you don’t hate me, Elspeth. I thought coming up here that if I could help Miky and Angina you might forgive me, and then last night, no matter what we did, I could not help them.’