It was fear that had enabled it, and I realised that it had been fear that had made me use my Talent in the first place. I had been very small, perhaps five, playing a thrilling game of hunt with my brother. I had crept into my mother’s cupboard, which had a lock, pretending to be a fox. I had always pretended to be a beast when I played this game, though I had not then known I could communicate with them. I had been unable to lock the door from the inside, of course, but when I heard stealthy movements in the room outside approaching my hiding place, a hot surge of terror filled me and instinctively I pushed it into the wish that the door would be locked. Then I had heard the soft turning of the mechanism inside the simple lock.

Jes had been beaten, I remembered, when my furious mother had found me an hour later locked in the cupboard and weeping hysterically, for she thought he had shut me in as a nasty jape. I had been too distraught by then to defend him, even if I had known what words to use. I had not clearly understood that I had locked myself in until much later.

Poor Jes, I thought, with the same soft echo of sadness that always smote me whenever I thought of my brother. He had loathed and feared my Talents, and he had been instrumental in the events that had led to my being charged Misfit and sent to Obernewtyn. Yet we had parted with love. It had been a terrible irony to learn that, after my departure, Jes had discovered that he too possessed Misfit Talents. It was those Talents and his discovery of them that had brought him to his untimely end.

My thoughts drifted back to the spirit-force. It would be interesting to experiment and see if it could be used to enhance or strengthen my other Talents. But I had to remember that using the spirit-force would deplete me. If I had needed my Talents that day, I would have been hard-pressed to muster them. Even the attempt to farseek Gahltha had made my head ache. At least I must not do anything to weaken myself before Rheagor came.

There was no question in my mind that the pack leader would come to the valley of the Skylake, and Maruman seemed convinced that the wolf would accede to my request, though I did not know why I needed wolves on my quest. I had to assume it had something to do with finding Cassandra’s key, since Atthis had told Maruman I would learn what I needed when the wolves came to the valley of the Skylake to meet me. Maybe Rheagor would see the way to the key when he was seliga. But there must be more to it than simply learning the whereabouts of Cassandra’s key, else the wolf could simply tell me where it was, and Atthis had told Maruman the wolves had to go with me, lest my quest fail.