The cave was perfect, once a fire had been lit so that we could see it. It was large enough for all of us, with a high roof and a dry sandy floor. There was even a tiny rivulet of cold water running down the stone, from which the beasts could drink, though it was not enough to fill our water bottles. Swallow began to prepare a meal and I collected all of the empty gourd bottles to fill them. When I asked Dameon for the bottle he kept at his belt, he gave it to me, saying he thought we should carry Dragon into the hot spring pools and immerse her.

‘Ana washed her yesterday and she is going to bathe her wounds as soon as I bring some water back,’ I said.

He shook his head. ‘Remember when the healers and empaths were trying to help those poor dogs that Ariel had tormented to near madness?’

I nodded, puzzled. ‘It did not heal them.’

‘No, but Roland used to say that it calmed and soothed them more than anything to be immersed in warm water. I was thinking that if Dragon is still in shock, as my empathy suggests, being immersed in warm water might help her.’

Analivia enthusiastically endorsed the suggestion, saying, ‘It is true that immersion in warm water can soothe a person in great distress. I have used it sometimes in midwifing, when a birthing is very long or difficult. And the water will completely cleanse her wounds, and ease some of her aches and bruises besides.’

‘But she once feared water,’ I said.

‘In which case immersing her may stimulate her memories enough to wake her!’ Swallow interjected.

‘The reason she feared water was because she either saw her mother drown or jumped from a ship after her mother had been killed before her eyes and almost drowned,’ I said sharply. ‘I do not think that we want to stimulate such memories.’

Analivia’s eyes widened, as did Dameon’s, but the empath said calmly, ‘I will not allow it to be frightening or alarming. I will get into the water and hold her so that I can better empathise calmness and serenity to her.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘I believe I could do with a bath anyway.’

I was genuinely startled by his words. I knew that empathy worked differently from other Talents, since the demon bands were no bar to it, but I had never heard it said that empaths could use their Talent in the water. In truth the only person I had ever known to be able to do so was Dragon’s mother, who had been able to communicate with sea creatures. But the others were already beginning to prepare to take Dragon back to the spring caves.