‘After the Great White, the bird escaped or was freed and joined wild flame birds. From these birds came the Agyllians who were bigger and grew bigger still, and some of them possessed the enhanced Talents of that first Agyllian. As an Elder, Atthis held in her mind all of the knowledge and wisdom of that first bird that beastspoke Cassandra, and of all the Elders since. She has been my guide since she saved my life, and before, though I did not know it.’

‘She saved your life?’ Dameon asked.

I told them of being near death after being caught in the firestorm that had razed the secret encampment of the renegade Herder, Henry Druid, and how the Agyllian fliers had come to carry me up to the ken, where they had healed me and told me what I was and what I was to do. ‘I understood from her that after I had all the things I needed for my quest that could be got in the Land, I should come to the mountains and she would summon help for me.’

‘Us,’ Analivia breathed. ‘That means she must have futuretold us going with you.’

I hesitated, thinking this was the moment to reveal that Atthis was dead, but Dameon asked, ‘Was it she who bade you keep your quest secret from us; from Rushton?’

I nodded.

‘But why? We might have helped you find the things Cassandra left.’

‘Atthis knew that there are humans who want power at any cost,’ I said slowly. ‘That is as true now as it was in the Beforetime, sadly. People seem unable to understand that you cannot keep power or peace with weapons or that any weapon they have might be turned on them, and if used, might destroy them, as well as their enemies. What is Sentinel, after all, but a weapon, no matter what it was created for?’

‘You mean she feared that someone else would learn of its existence and begin searching for it?’ Analivia asked.

‘Not just someone,’ said, ‘one specific person. Atthis had foreseen that there would be another born with the potential to wake Sentinel and this person could unleash its full and dreadful potential for destruction. That one, the Agyllians named Destroyer, even as they named me Seeker.’

I told them all I knew of the Destroyer.

‘Ariel,’ Dameon said bleakly.

‘It makes no sense,’ Swallow protested. ‘How could your failure be connected to Ariel’s success? Surely his goal should have been to find and take control of Sentinel before you.’

‘Or to find you and kill you so that you could not get in his way,’ Analivia said, and for a moment, disconcertingly, I saw a flash of her father’s ferocity.

‘Did he know about you?’ Ahmedri asked, surprising me, because he seldom spoke when we discussed my quest. But he had more than earned his place in our conversation.