I had always reckoned that I would survive exposure to such terrain, and perhaps Maruman and Darga would, too, if the Agyllians had given their bodies the same healing ability as they had given mine, but Gahltha would certainly die if we moved for long over such terrain, and the rest of us could not go on healing indefinitely without burning up all of our resources. We would survive only if, after crossing tainted ground, we could get clear of it.

Our best protection would be to stay away from tainted ground altogether and Darga’s senses would ensure that we avoided it unless there was no other choice.

I wondered again why Atthis had not simply sent fliers to fetch me. The obvious answer was that she wanted the beasts to accompany me, but perhaps it was not the only reason she wanted me to complete the journey on foot.

The trail we had been following began to skirt one of the long mountain meadows that marked the upper portion of the valley, and without warning, Gahltha turned onto it and broke into a canter. I was worried about the stone sword, but it was well wrapped and tied so I simply gave myself to the pleasure of the ride, knowing that there would be little chance of moving at anything but a snail’s pace once we got up into the mountains. The meadow narrowed and widened into another long meadow, this one sloping slightly upward. From memory, these were the first of a series of meadows girded by fir trees that ran in a chain tending slightly north-east. Going this way, especially at a gallop, would bring us far more directly to the foot of the high mountains than the trail we had been following. But we would end up a good way east of the springs, and further still from the trail that Gahltha and I had used to descend from the high mountains.

I suppressed the urge to ask the animals why we had come this way. I told myself sternly that I had given up my life and my right to choose what I would do the moment I set eyes on Darga. I was in the hands of the Agyllians now and it would be better to give up the habit of speculating about possible courses of action and their likely outcomes since I had no power to decide these things. Logic and common sense were not to rule me, if they ever truly had. I was no longer the mistress of Obernewtyn or guildmistress of the Farseekers, I was a tool in the hands of the Agyllians, to be used as they saw fit, to prevent the coming of a second holocaust.