‘He is dead so you never need fear him again,’ Analivia told her, slipping into the pool and pushing forward to take her from me. Though it had pained me to hold her slight weight, it was harder by far to let her go. But even as Ahmedri came into the water to help Analivia lift her out, Dragon’s lovely blue eyes sought me out, full of pleading.

‘I am coming, dear one,’ I said, tears of relief and joy spilling down my face as I waded to the edge and climbed out with Swallow’s help. I saw the brightness of blood on his teeth. ‘You are hurt.’

‘I merely bit my tongue,’ he told me drily. ‘I would curse my clumsiness except it seems to have been of some use.’

I went over to the bier where Dragon had been laid alongside the still-sleeping Maruman. Analivia was drying her tenderly, for despite waking, Dragon was weak from her mistreatment at Moss’s hands. But at least she was not as depleted as she would have been if Analivia and I had not been force-feeding her.

‘Your eyes are like his,’ Dragon said suddenly to Analivia, who had drawn the blanket over her. She began to shiver so violently that her teeth clattered together.

‘Shock,’ Analivia told me, saying she would get another blanket, but her own face was very pale.

I went to the side of the bier and knelt down, ignoring the renewed stabbing pain in my chest. ‘Dragon, I am so very glad to see you awake. So glad that you remember me.’

Dragon gave me a bewildered look. ‘It is as if I have been broken into pieces and all the bits are coming together, only I can’t understand them. Why am I so weak?’ She stopped abruptly, seeming to see Ahmedri for the first time.

I said, ‘This is Ahmedri. He is a tribesman from Sador. That was Analivia drying your hair and Swallow and Dameon you know.’

She did not seem to hear my last words. Her eyes were still fixed on Ahmedri. ‘I thought you were him, but you are not,’ she said. Then she winced and looked fearfully at Analivia who was tucking a second blanket around her.

‘I … I am sorry. There are many scratches and cuts on you.’ Analivia’s expression was shattered but she dressed Dragon efficiently and then propped her up in the bier, promising the girl that she would be able to walk and move normally before long.

Dragon turned her gaze to Swallow, who had come to rest a brown hand comfortingly on Analivia’s bare shoulder. ‘I lied to you,’ Dragon told Swallow, unexpectedly.

He blinked at her in surprise. ‘You have not lied to me.’

‘I told you I wanted to go into the Healing Centre alone. I didn’t want you to come with me because I meant to run away as soon as you left.’ She frowned and turned her blue gaze to me, wonderingly. ‘I feared you.’ She sounded puzzled and uneasy. ‘Why would I be afraid of you, Elspeth? You are my friend.’