The futureteller looked at me so searchingly that I wished I had held my tongue. She said, ‘Some lives are linked, fer good or ill, Elspeth. The bindin’ is easier to see in visions than in life. A futureteller might foresee an encounter between two people which repeated scrying reveals is likely to happen. But a futureteller might also discover a hundred possible futures in which the same meetin’ takes place. It might be in a different village, or on a different street, or it happens at night instead of in the daytime, or slightly different words will be spoken, or different people will be nearby. This suggests that there are threads binding th’ two that canna’ be seen in events alone nor even in actions, which will draw them irrevocably together. Such it is with you an’ Ariel.’

‘It sickens me to think of being linked with him,’ I said, and heard the loathing in my tone.

‘There are many kinds of links formed between people,’ Maryon said. ‘Strong emotion – fear or hate as well as love or loyalty – can forge a link between two people, or even a group of people, or a shared experience of a traumatic or transcendent event. Yer bound to Rushton by a link of great love, fer example. Ye’d have felt a backwards shadow of it th’ first time ye set eyes on one another, I’d guess. There are more rare an’ potent links even than love, though. Th’ one between you an’ Ariel is such a one, as is th’ link between him an’ Dragon.’

I gaped at her. ‘Dragon is linked to Ariel?’

Again the futureteller did not address my question directly. ‘There are people we call keystones – people who, for some reason or another, live lives that will affect the course of many.’

‘Dragon …’

‘Is a keystone. Her activities and choices affect the lives of many, as do Ariel’s. Such people are rare, an’ if born in th’ same time, th’ likelihood of their interactin’ is very high. They are like two weighty stones on a blanket. Their weight mun carry them towards one another, an’ it will draw all lesser stones on th’ blanket towards that meetin’ as well.’

‘Do you know who Dragon is?’ I asked.