Bruna and the other tribesman rode off, and I lifted my hand in farewell before turning to Ahmedri. I had wanted to tell him about asking the Futuretell guildmistress to scry for Miryum but he had already turned on his heel and was striding along the path that would bring him through the sodden tents that had been set up. Ceirwan had told me half of them had collapsed in the night and it was unlikely any of them would have the chance to dry before the moon fair if the rain did not let up. There was already talk of using some of the barns to house visitors. In their easygoing way, the cows had offered to sleep out in the fields so that the funaga visitors could sleep dry, for it was not cold. Cows were essentially kindly creatures and I wondered how many of the unTalents that regretted no longer being able to pen and slaughter them for meat would be as disgruntled if they took the time to get to know some cows.

It had begun to rain again and it would not be long before yet another storm reached Obernewtyn. I sighed, glanced at the lowering sky and went back inside, turning my thoughts to the Futuretell dream-book that had arrived with Maryon’s missive that morning. Unfortunately, neither she nor anyone else in her guild had been able to come up with a futuretelling that revealed the whereabouts of Miryum, but she had scribed that they would continue their efforts. She had gone on to draw my attention to a marker she had put in one page of the dream-book, where I found a dream entry that described Miryum as lying pale and clean and utterly still on a white table, her arms alongside her body. The dreamer had scribed that she thought Miryum was laid out for burial, but I had been struck at once by the similarities with my own fragmentary dream of Cassy Duprey lying on her white bed. Of course it was only a coincidence since there could not possibly be any connection between two women who had lived at such different times.

In truth, the mystery of Miryum’s whereabouts held my mind less than maybe it ought to have done, because Maryon had concluded her missive by saying that she had not had any more success in scrying for Maruman than the two beastspeaking futuretellers she had assigned the task.