‘He might have gone up to see the futuretellers about the overguardian’s futuretellin’,’ Zarak said aloud, diffidently.

Ceirwan immediately looked less stricken and I felt a rush of relief myself, since if Rushton had come back in haste because of something futuretold by the Earthtemple overguardian, it was very likely that he would want to consult Maryon. Certainly some of the futuretellers would also have been awake if he had arrived in the middle of the night, since they were wont to sleep in short bouts throughout the day and night and no doubt they would have foreseen his coming.

Telling the others to go on with their meal, I promised to let them know the moment I heard anything. I had taken two steps from the table when the kitchen doors were flung wide and Rushton himself strode in, shrugging off a streaming oilcloak. Behind him came the sodden and enormous Teknoguildmaster Garth, which explained why the master of Obernewtyn had not arrived before Brydda and the others. He had stopped to fetch Garth from the White Valley on the way.

Seeing his handsome, weary face and dark green eyes beneath a swatch of soaked black hair, I felt a wave of giddy longing to go to him and hold him, but in moments he was hemmed on all sides by people wanting to greet him and talk to him. He turned from one to another, laughing a little as he tried to answer the dozen questions being put to him.

I found myself brazenly imagining the way his lips had felt when he had kissed me in the tent in Sador, and for the first time since we had parted, I allowed myself to feel the full ardent strength of my longing for him.

As if he felt the tug of my gaze, Rushton broke off what he had been saying and looked across the room at me. As our eyes met, I felt a thrill of delight, but Rushton did not even smile. My own smile faltered at the almost savage intensity of his expression, then Linnet and Gevan turned to see what had caught his attention and Rushton’s lashes lowered over his eyes like shutters as he bowed slightly and formally to me before attending to them once more.

I turned away blindly, and found myself facing Ceirwan, who had come up behind me. His dark blue eyes were compassionate but also puzzled, and I realised that to him it must appear as if Rushton’s manner was unchanged from when he had been at Obernewtyn before. No doubt the guilden wondered at my reaction.

‘I will come with you to the Farseekers hall and get on with letting the other guildmasters ken that he is back an’ that the expedition to the Red Land is to begin sooner than expected,’ he said.