‘Ye gods this rain!’ said Gevan, towelling his hair vigorously as he strode into the entrance hall and came to join us. ‘Do not look so worried, Guildmistress. I think we can route twenty or so brigands, even if Radost is leading them.’

‘Radost?’ I echoed, astonished. ‘How should he be leading them when he and his son were killed escaping from the Councilfarm?’

Linnet shot me a startled look. ‘Guildmistress, do you not know that the body thought to be Radost’s was later discovered to be that of another escapee? They could not find Moss’s body either. It is now thought that the escape was only a decoy which Radost set up to ensure the armsmen on duty had their hands full while he and Moss made their escape.’

‘I thought I had told ye that,’ Ceirwan murmured, frowning. ‘Though now that I think on it, the news came up after ye left for Sutrium wi’ Dragon an’ th’ others.’

I thought of Analivia, Radost’s yellow-haired daughter. I had spoken to her of the deaths of her brother and father the previous spring, and she had said enigmatically that hate did not die so easily. Had she guessed her brother and father had not been killed trying to escape their Councilfarm sentence? Or was it more than a guess? There were plenty with a touch of Talent who did not acknowledge it and Analivia possessed an uncanny ability to hide herself from Talent, which had always struck me as being suspiciously like another sort of Talent. Of course I had not mentioned it, for even in this time, one would not readily and openly suggest someone was a Misfit if they had not acknowledged it.

Analivia must know that her father and brother had not been killed trying to escape the Councilfarm and she could not help but know that Radost was a vengeful, violent man, and that her brother, Moss, was like him as two peas in a pod. She would surely anticipate their wanting to punish her and Bergold for accepting Dardelan as their overlord. Indeed, this might explain why she would have spoken of them coming to live at Obernewtyn. But what if the riders now approaching were led by her father and they had already stopped at Bergold’s farm? Suddenly I felt sick.

‘Elspeth?’ Ceirwan said, touching my arm. ‘Edric is tryin’ to reach ye.’