It was only after I had been helped down from Faraf that I saw that the whole of the lake lay in an enormous rounded slab of stone half buried in the ground and connected to the mound of rocks from which the spring flowed. Darga sniffed at the spring and pronounced it clean, but the lake tainted. However, Rheagor beastspoke me to say it was so slightly tainted as to be clean. As if to emphasise the point, he led the pack to the edge to drink.

I told the others what he had said as they unloaded the horses, and without hesitation, when the wolves moved away, they went to lave their filthy faces and arms, and drank their fill without restraint. I longed to do the same, but the pain in my chest forbade me doing anything more strenuous than sitting and waiting for a bowl of water to be brought to me. Of course I could not feel any pain, but I did not want any more to be stored in the coercive net than need be.

I was beginning to feel the heavy tiredness that meant my body was trying to heal my injuries and I was expending energy on the coercive net. I needed to unweave it as soon as possible, I knew, for stored pain distilled and continued to do so until released. If it became too potent or there was too much pain stored away, the forbidding might dissolve under the weight of it and flood me, unprepared, with intense pain.

Analivia brought me a mug of water and a bowl she had filled from the spring. After I had emptied the mug, she bathed my face and good arm in warm water and then fetched fresh water to bathe my broken arm in case there were any cuts that needed treating. She did not remove the splint but worked around it, saying it would not do to disturb the bone, which needed to knit together. I had never had a broken bone before and I wondered how long it would take to heal. Analivia found two cuts, one small and the other long but shallow, and applied some salve she had mixed up. She was so gentle and I was so tired that I began to nod off under her ministrations.

‘I do not like it that you are so sleepy,’ she said worriedly. ‘It is strange, too, that you do not seem to feel any pain.’

‘Do you feel pain when you breathe out?’ Ahmedri asked, also looking concerned.

I shook my head to clear it and said somewhat groggily, ‘Do not fear for me, my friends. I have been holding off the pain of the broken arm and rib using a coercive net, but it is tiring me. I need to release the pain and then sleep.’

‘Garth spoke of this ability,’ Analivia said, sounding fascinated.