Perhaps it was the remoteness of the futureteller’s regard that made the difference. Being privy to so much information made her far more perceptive than ordinary people, but in order to retain her selfhood within the welter of knowledge that daily assailed her, Maryon had to shield herself with detachment. The result was that I felt as if she saw into me and through me, saw all of my pretences and motivations and fears. Yet she was no more than a cool observer.

The futureteller made a graceful gesture that bade me sit and only then did I realise I had risen to my feet. We sat down together and she shook her head so that her long sleek hair spread like a shawl about the shoulders of the pale blue gown she wore. It struck me with a little start of surprise that she was beautiful. It was not the first, nor even the second thing one noticed about her. She spread a swatch of embroidered cloth efficiently over a small frame, unsnagged a needle from it and began sewing tiny stitches. No doubt it was a part of the tapestry her guild would present at the moon fair, and I wondered fleetingly what they had chosen to highlight of the year past.

‘Do ye wish to drink something?’ Maryon asked.

I had a churlish urge to remark that she must know the answer already, but I shook my head and said, ‘I have not thanked you for sending Rushton and the coercers to my aid in Saithwold last year.’

‘Ye blame me because I dinna send them sooner,’ Maryon said calmly. ‘But ye ken, too, that if I had done so, all that ye achieved following events there would nowt have come to pass. Those enslaved upon Herder Isle would be enslaved still and all on the west coast would have perished of plague.’

‘I meant it when I thanked you,’ I said tersely.

‘Ye mean your thanks, aye. But ye are also angry,’ Maryon said with a small bleak smile.

I swallowed a surge of irritation at being told what I felt, no matter that it was true, and said tightly, ‘There are some things I need to ask you. You have often told me that futuretellers do not see all that there is to be seen. How much of the future could be seen if the futureteller had a very great Talent?’ I was thinking of Ariel who possessed futuretelling Talent strong enough to let him see the four ships being prepared for the journey to the Red Land and maybe even to see Dragon and me aboard.