Swallow interrupted to explain. ‘Rushton knew you had not come to me because I had been up to Obernewtyn before Dameon arrived, at my sister’s urging. She insisted that you wanted to speak to me urgently, and I thought perhaps you had decided to ask me to go with you, though the dream voice had told me that I was to go after you. But of course, when I arrived, you had gone.’ He paused, as if organising his thoughts. ‘I had long been forbidden to speak of you and your quest by the voice in my dreams and by the tenets of the ancient promises, so when Rushton asked if you had been to see me, I said no and only no, though like Dameon, I found it hard to keep silent when Rushton was so worried. Before I left, Rushton had made up his mind that you might have gone looking for Dragon, or Ana.’

I looked at the lowland woman. ‘I was worried about you,’ I told her. ‘You see, Garth told me that you had spoken of wanting to deal with Radost and Moss before they could come up to revenge themselves on you and Bergold. We thought you might have taken it into your head to go down to Sawlney and try to flush them out. I had Brydda send word to Dardelan to have his spy there keep a watch for you.’ I turned back to Dameon as another thought occurred to me. ‘Rushton wanted you to be chieftain in his stead while he goes to the Red Land.’

‘I know it, but have no fear. He has appointed Gevan to serve as chieftain in his absence. Ceirwan will replace you as guildmaster of the Farseekers, of course, and Miky will eventually take her place as guildmistress of my guild. Until she is well enough, I chose several empaths to work as a team running it. They are young and it will take time for them to feel comfortable playing their new parts, especially given the added complication of Obernewtyn being transformed into a settlement, but they will grow to fill their roles.’ He smiled. ‘Remember how young you were when Rushton took control of Obernewtyn and you became guildmistress of the Farseekers? You were the youngest of all the guild-leaders, but never did it seem to any of us that you were too young. Only too solemn, maybe.’ His smile faded. ‘Though perhaps that solemnity did not arise from your role as guildmistress, but from the knowledge of this quest, for it seems to me you must long have known it.’

I nodded, but I was not yet able to speak easily of my quest. Instead, I said slowly, ‘You told me just now you were forbidden to speak of my quest, so how did you explain appointing Miky to replace you and others to rule your guild until she is recovered?’