When they had gone out, Ceirwan sat down beside me by the fire, mopped his face dry and then poured us mugs of the steaming spiced ferment he had brought with him. ‘Why did she really come?’ he asked when I took the mug he handed me.

‘The Temple overguardian sent her to tell us that Straaka’s bones have to be returned to Sador for burial.’

‘Ye told her we searched high an’ low fer Miryum an’ Straaka’s body after she disappeared?’ His dark blue eyes were puzzled for he knew we had sent several missives to this effect to Jakoby after Miryum had first vanished.

‘The overguardian says I am going to find Miryum and that she will lead us to Straaka’s bones,’ I said.

‘Find her where?’ the farseeker asked incredulously, and I caught his suppressed thought that the coercer was surely dead.

‘The overguardian didn’t say,’ I replied. ‘Bruna also said her mother will master the Umborine on the journey to the Red Land, and that Jakoby thinks Daffyd is right about Salamander being Sadorian.’

‘But you dinna believe it?’ Ceirwan said.

He knew me very well. ‘We will learn the truth of it in the Red Land.’

‘So ye do mean to go on th’ voyage?’ he murmured. ‘I kenned as much as soon as ye told me who Dragon is.’

‘Did you send word to Maryon that I was coming to see her today?’ I asked.

‘Before I could, Maryon sent word that she is expectin’ ye,’ Ceirwan responded with a twinkle of malice. Then he got to his feet. ‘As a matter of fact, ye’d best gan there now fer she said she’d see ye about midday.’

‘Wonderful,’ I sighed, dismissing a contrary impulse to put off going until the evening, just to thwart the futuretelling.

As we made our way back to the main part of the building, I shouted over the noise of the rain to ask the guilden to have Javo organise travel food for two riders, because Bruna wished to leave for the lowlands before dusk.

‘Two riders?’ Ceirwan echoed.

‘One of the Sadorians that rode in is the brother of Straaka. He is supposed to stay and wait until I find Miryum and she tells him where Straaka’s body is buried.’

I made a mental note to ask the tribesman not to speak of spirits walking in dreams. The last thing we needed was for inexperienced Talents to be blundering around trying to find the dreamtrails.

‘Maybe the overguardian merely meant ye are to true-dream of what happened to Miryum after she took Straaka’s body,’ he suggested, when we were out of the open corridor and could hear ourselves think.

I nodded, and told him what Bruna had said about freeing Miryum. Ceirwan scoffed at the idea of anyone holding the powerful coercer against her will.