‘It was true enough for I did return to Obernewtyn before coming here, and Rushton did meet me inside the front entrance.’ He frowned. ‘It is funny that you should have true-dreamed of it, because for one moment I thought I felt your presence, but no doubt it was only that Rushton’s thoughts were full of his concern about your disappearance.’

The thought of Rushton worrying about me gave me pain and I asked if there was water. The little fuss of activity to produce a mug of water gave me time to collect myself. It was Analivia who brought it to me, and I drank deeply, then asked if it had come from the Skylake. She shook her head, saying they had deemed it safer to drink from a stream flowing into the southern end of the lake, since there were tiny water plants growing in it. Even as she was answering, Darga beastspoke me to say that the water was not tainted, but I was glad I was not drinking from it, knowing what lay hidden in its depths.

Swallow rose to suggest we eat before the stew he had cooked burned, and in a short time I was devouring a bowl of rich mushroom and herb stew, thick with potatoes and carrots that must have been carried into the mountains. Dameon went on with his tale.

‘Rushton at first assumed that you had ridden down to the White Valley to see Swallow, but by the time I arrived, he had learned otherwise. I knew that you had gone up into the mountains, for when I was on the west coast, the voice that bade me learn to ride spoke again, and told me you would soon leave Obernewtyn to undertake a perilous quest beyond the Land and the high mountains, and that I was to go after you. I wanted to tell Rushton what I knew, for as well as being my friend he is the master of Obernewtyn, nay chieftain of Obernewtyn Shire now, for that matter was settled ere I arrived. But the voice in the dream warned me never to speak of your quest or the part I would play in it to anyone who was not also to accompany you. It was hard to keep silent when he was so anxious for you, but I told myself that if you had the courage to leave without a word to those who love you, then so must I.’

‘Did the voice tell you to go back to Obernewtyn?’ I asked.

‘It did not. I went there because I had to find out if it was real. I knew it when Rushton told me you had vanished.’