‘That’s why you stopped the soldierguard from whipping me!’ I said.

She nodded. ‘The man who would have whipped you had been foisted on us by my father and he was a sadistic brute. I made my brother stop him hurting you though I had not acted to prevent a wrong in many years. That defiance salved a sickness that I had not even known was growing in me, and from that day, I began to hone my small healing skills, and to right such wrongs as I could.’ Her eyes met mine. ‘Can you imagine how it felt to see the dream that had changed my life again and this time to know that the face of the woman who had been hidden was the face of the very first person I rescued after dreaming it, never knowing they were one and the same? And then to discover that you were the person who could prevent the destruction I had dreamed of …’ She shook her head. ‘It was like one of those moon fair knots you used to get in Sutrium when I was a girl, where you can never find the beginning.’ She stood up restlessly and tossed her fair head. ‘All my life, before the dream of the woman riding in the mist, I had done what I had been required to do; out of fear of my father to begin with, and then out of wariness and hatred of them, or out of love and worry for Bergold. The dream gave me the courage to act and so I did. Then the Council and the Herders fell and all that needed winning seemed won, yet something in me said there was some greater thing that life required of me, if I could but discover it. Then I saw your face in my dream outside Sawlney and the voice said that you were the only one who could stop my nightmare from coming true, but that you needed my help. I understood that all of the battles I had fought were preparation for some greater battle.’

‘Did the voice tell you then to come here?’ I asked.

‘It bade me go into the high mountains beyond Obernewtyn at darkmoon, for there I would find someone who would also be seeking you, and who would lead me to you. So I came back and told my brother that we were going to Obernewtyn for the moon fair. I knew I could not leave him without protection where our father could find him so I convinced him to go ahead with servants, the makings of a stall and produce from the orchards to sell and a missive for Garth. In it, I asked that he be housed at Obernewtyn until I returned. I sent all of our coin in a sealed pot, saying to my brother that it was a gift to Garth. The missive asked Garth to use it to set my brother up in some small business in the new shire and to watch over him. In payment for his trouble I offered a scroll I had found which he had desired since I first showed it to him.’