Several days passed after the departure of the Sadorians, in which rain fell without surcease, turning paths and lawns into a muddy brown bog and causing endless difficulties on the farms. Inside the house, the greater guildhalls and long corridors grew damp and chilly, and people hurried from one warmed chamber to another only when they had no choice, wrapped up in shawls and waxed cloaks. I spent most of my time in my chamber poring over the various dream-books, which Sarn sent up for me to look at when she and the others assigned to the task of combing through them had finished. I was not looking for information about the Red Land, but for entries that might refer obliquely to Miryum or even to Dragon or Maruman, inspired by the dream Maryon had marked for me in the Futuretell journal. But so far I had found nothing.

We held all meetings in the kitchens, partly for warmth and partly because most of them concerned arrangements for the looming moon fair or the gathering of provisions for the coming expedition to the Red Land, and so required the kitchen master’s presence. We needed to ensure there was enough food left to last those at Obernewtyn through the coming wintertime, after the supplies we had promised for the expedition had been sent to Sutrium to be stored in warehouses before the voyage. The meetings also concerned the preparation of clothes, medicines and weapons for those who would take part in the expedition, and there were the usual numerous domestic matters concerning the running of Obernewtyn and its farms which needed attention. The long meetings strained the patience of the temperamental kitchen master, and meals suffered as a consequence, save those cooked when Freya had been in to do some baking.

Nor was there much news to brighten our spirits. There were messages from the White Valley saying that the Suggredoon had burst its banks and that the waters were so high that it was impossible to get into Newrome. Hannay returned with a missive from Rushton informing me that Dameon had left for the west coast before my message reached him, which I gathered meant it had not been delivered. I asked Hannay why the empath would had gone to the west when he ought to have been getting ready to return to Obernewtyn for the moon fair, and was told he had been summoned by Dell to Oldhaven. Since Rushton had made no mention of the summons, I guessed Dell had not seen fit to tell Dameon why she wanted him.