‘She made me see the slavemasters coming in ships to the Red Land when I was just a little girl.’ Dragon hitched a breath and then she grew calm, though her face was full of sorrow. ‘She made me remember that I had seen my mother betrayed. We were taken from the Red Land over the sea to be sold in the land of the slavemasters, but my mother summoned a greatfish to destroy the ship and all who were aboard. She was going to jump overboard with me, but she was hurt. Her last deed was to ask the ship fish to bring me to land, then she bade me leave her.’ Tears were streaming down her cheeks and dripping from her chin.

‘Then you know what you are,’ I said, my heart hammering.

‘I am the daughter of the Red Queen,’ she whispered.

‘Do you remember how you came to Obernewtyn?’ I asked, sounding breathless to my own ears.

She nodded, her eyes meeting mine. Then her expression changed subtly as she said, ‘I remember Matthew.’ She was silent for a moment, and then she went on, ‘I remember trying to rescue two children in Sutrium. I recognised the soldierguard holding them. I saw him before, at the place the Gadfian ship stopped after the slavemasters took my mother and me from the Red Land. He offered … offered to buy me.’

I could not think of a single thing to say.

‘I did not remember who he was when I saw him hurting the children, but my head started hurting dreadfully when I saw his face. I threw a vision at him to stop him hurting them. I made it strong and terrible and big the way Matthew showed me how to do.’ She lifted the corners of her lips so fleetingly it was like the ghost of a smile. ‘When we were at Obernewtyn, Matthew showed me how to make my visions much stronger to frighten off the soldierguards. When they rode away he laughed and he kissed me on the mouth. He said I was … magnificent, but in Sutrium when I attacked the soldierguard, he was angry with me, and he was … cruel.’

Hearing her pain I swallowed hard and remembered Cinda chiding me for dismissing Dragon’s love for Matthew as a mere greenstick love. For her, I realised, it had always been more than that, but there was no gain in dwelling on it now.

‘Did Atthis also show you how I rendered you unconscious to get you away from the soldierguard and how you fell into a coma?’ I said. ‘Do you remember what happened as you slept?’