I took it up, weighing it in my hand. Jacob had scribed in its pages of the key sent to Hannah by Cassy, which I would need to complete my quest as the Seeker, but it was my hope that the Agyllians had the key and that Atthis would present it to me at the ken. Either that or it was somewhere in the valley, if Jacob had gone no further, and Atthis would tell me where so that I could get it before leaving for the Red Land.

Nevertheless I was reluctant to leave the book behind, especially since there was a portion of it yet to read. I hesitated a moment longer and then swaddled it in its waxen cloth and slipped it into the largest pocket of the pack with a mental apology to Garth.

‘You are too slow,’ Maruman snapped.

‘I must consider what to send down to await me in Sutrium,’ I said with dignity.

‘Anything you send there will wait for you forever,’ Maruman said coldly.

I stopped and turned to stare at him. Finally I went over to him. ‘Maruman, what do you mean? I cannot reach the ships that will travel to the Red Land without travelling to Sutrium, unless the Agyllian fliers will carry me directly to the deck of one of them!’

‘Marumanyelloweyes said nothing of flying to ships,’ Maruman said. ‘Elspethlnnle must travel to the high mountains. You will not/never come back to thisland or this barud.’

I opened my mouth but he turned away to gaze out the window again, emanating impatience and irritation. Knowing there was no use in begging him to tell me more, I tried to take in what his words meant. I was to leave Obernewtyn this night, and I would not return to it or to the Land once I had gone up into the high mountains. And without being flown, there was no way for me to join the Red Land expedition.

Was it possible that I had been mistaken in reading into Cassy’s clues that she had left something for me in the Red Land? And what of Dragon? Had I also been mistaken in believing the same clue referred to her suppressed memories? Or was it that the clue had referred to something that had subsequently changed? After all, Hannah had dreamed that Cassandra’s key would lie with her body and Jacob’s, and that had been wrong.

Other questions rose and clamoured.

What of Swallow who was now camped in the White Valley enduring whatever rituals his people had devised for the seeking of a dream vision? The gypsy had said so often and with such certainty that he was to go with me on my final quest, that he had convinced me. Yet how could he go with me if I was leaving now, and if he had no knowledge of where I was going?