I nodded and hoped Jakoby would come to the moon fair. She had promised to try, but from what Bruna said, she might be too busy with preparations for the expedition. I might have to wait until the journey to the Red Land was under way to find out what she had learned, if anything.

I had found the brooch and the book in a woman’s lavish bedchamber in Ariel’s residence on Norseland, and it was likely the woman to whom they belonged had been Salamander’s lover. Certainly I could not imagine Ariel loving anyone. Being reminded that no Sadorian could read gadi made me feel more certain than ever that the woman had been Gadfian rather than Sadorian, else she would have been unable to read it. If I were right, it added weight to my theory that Salamander was Gadfian, for would he not choose a woman of his own race? Who Salamander and the woman were mattered to me because they were connected to Ariel, and the more I knew about him, the better prepared I would be to face him. I knew that I must face Ariel again, for I was certain that he was the Destroyer, whose coming I had been warned of by the Agyllians because he had the potential to find Sentinel and use it. He had fled to the Red Land on Salamander’s Black Ship after the Norselanders threw off the yoke of the Herder Faction. I had no doubt that I would find him waiting there for the Seeker.

I had not yet talked to Rushton about going with the expedition myself, and I was glumly aware that he might oppose my going, especially if he decided to take Dameon with him. He would want me at Obernewtyn in his stead and safely out of danger. But when I told him about Dragon he would surely agree that I should not leave her to face her past alone. I also hoped he would take personal pleasure in knowing that we would make the long journey together.

Bruna rose and stretched as lithely and unselfconsciously as a cat, then she strode across the room to look out the window. I went to stand beside her and for a time we simply stood companionably, watching the grey rain slanting down onto a sodden stretch of lawn. Then Bruna said, ‘I have grown to love the Land, Elspeth, but when the rain falls it sometimes seems that it will never stop. I suppose Landfolk find the dryness of the desert no more appealing.’

‘Louis Larkin predicts that the Days of Rain will come early this year and if the last few days are a sign, he is right,’ I said. ‘But as to the desert lands being unappealing, to my eyes they will always be wondrous fair.’

Bruna gave me a quick, appreciative look. ‘Few Landfolk would call fair a land that is all but bereft of green and growing things.’