‘She is th’ daughter of th’ queen of the Red Land, betrayed an’ murdered by her prime consul,’ Maryon answered. ‘I saw it when I focused on Dragon, after I foresaw her travelling with ye to Sutrium. There had been no mention of the bairn accompanyin’ ye an’ I wondered why I had dreamed it. At first, I dinna scry back into her past, but forward into a future where she dinna gan with ye. I came to a vision of th’ future darker than any I have ever seen, darker even than the desolation of the plague-racked west coast. I saw the world laid waste, all life upon it dead and gone. I saw a barren wind blowing over barren lands and dead waves breaking on dead shores. I scried again and again and though I could see no details at all of what would cause this future to come to pass, I saw that it would come if Dragon did not travel with you when you left to go to Sutrium.’

‘Did you see that this dark future would be averted if Dragon arrived in Sutrium?’ I asked.

‘I saw that it might come to pass even if she went to Sutrium, but every single future contained that dreadful vision if Dragon did not gan with ye from Obernewtyn,’ she answered. ‘It was the two of ye leavin’ Obernewtyn together that mattered. Thus I kenned that there was somethin’ she or you or both of you mun do or see or learn on the way there or maybe someone either of ye mun meet that would weigh against that dreadful black future. I judged it important enough to warrant speaking out to make sure she would travel with ye. It was only after ye had both gone that I scried again, focusing on Dragon, an’ this time going backwards in time. That was when I kenned the truth of her past.

‘It was when I was weary from tryin’ to see more of what brought her from the Red Land that I lost control of my probe and was thrown forward into the future vision where an armada of Gadfian slavers was coming from the Red Land to our waters. Hundreds of greatships swarming along the strait, full of fearsome warriors intent on enslaving us, even as they have done to the Redlanders. I delved until I found a vision where they dinna come, an’ traced that back to four ships leaving from the Land one morning ere the end of the Days of Rain …’

I licked my dry lips and forced myself to say, ‘So you saw the invasion only because you were looking into Dragon’s past?’

She nodded. ‘Chance can play as much a part in futuretellin’ as in life.’

I nodded and took a deep steadying breath. ‘Is Ariel in the Red Land now?’