I went on combing, until, wincing at a knot, I laid down my comb to tease out the burr at its centre. I looked into the flames and thought about the city that the wolf had seen. If it was the same city Jacob had seen in his dreams, then he had reached his destination, for there could be no reason we were to go there save to get Cassandra’s key. I had never imagined that I might truly have to go to Jacob’s shining city, and I decided that when day came and we rested, I must read his journal more attentively, so that I could compare it with the things Rheagor had said.

Something else occurred to me. The wolf claimed that his ancestor had been taken captive, before escaping to cross the graag and found the Brildane. It must be the efari that guarded the city who had captured his ancestor, and perhaps they were the descendants of the Beforetimers whose memories and knowledge stretched back unbroken into that time.

I plaited my clean and combed hair, relishing its heavy silky feel and the delicious scent of lemonleaf, thinking that if a wolf and an old man had crossed over the glowing Blacklands to reach the Beforetime city without it killing them, it must be possible for us to do the same.

Certainly, I could cross some Blacklands and recover, but if I had to walk over vast tracts of tainted land, my body would go on healing me relentlessly, until all of my strength and energy and eventually my life were devoured by it. It would be the same for Maruman and Darga, if I was right about their bodies being able to heal as mine did. The three of us could reach Jacob’s city near to death, with all of our other companions lost to us, but what would be the use of that? I might even have strength enough to find Jacob’s body and acquire Cassandra’s key, but how was I then to reach Sentinel?

Unless Sentinel was not in or beyond the Red Land as I had always supposed, but in the city of Jacob’s dreams. What if, in seeking Cassandra’s key, I found Sentinel?

I shivered at a vision of myself arriving in that city, near devoured by taint and the healing powers of my body, having to locate Cassandra’s key and face Sentinel before I died. My heart grew cold as I realised that remaining alive and healthy was not the aim of my quest. Nor was it my quest to keep my companions safe. My task was simply to bring to an end the threat of the weaponmachines that had destroyed the Beforetime. What happened to me after that did not matter.

Was that the meaning of Rheagor’s vision?