‘Ha!’ Nesta is angry now, fearful, no doubt, of her mistress’s reaction. ‘That is all very well for you to say, sitting here in your lair, distant from the life of the crannog. You will not be the one looking into Princess Wenna’s eyes when she learns her future. You will not be the one to sit up nights with her as her heart breaks. You will not be the one to watch Prince Brynach turn from her.’ She pauses, narrowing her eyes and jutting her chin at me. ‘Or it might be that you will. For when he turns from her, we all know who it is he looks to in her stead!’

‘Have care how you speak to me.’

‘Oh? Would you have the truth buttered like parsnips for you now?’

‘I am my prince’s Seer, nothing more.’

‘Your prince!’ Nesta sneers. ‘That’s what you want, you cannot deny it. You would send me back to the princess to throttle the life from her dreams with your vision, when all you have seen is the future you desire, and my lady’s happiness is not a part of it.’

‘You damn me with every word that comes out of your mouth!’ I leap to my feet, causing dust to kick up into the fire, which spits and sparks. As do I. ‘You call me a cheat and a liar! You question my loyalty to Prince Brynach—and his wife—and more than this, you accuse me of falsifying a vision! You cannot believe I would do such a thing. That I would forsake the sacred trust given me!’

Nesta clambers to her feet. ‘People are wrong about you, after all is said and done. You are a woman like any other, and you will abuse your position to get what you want. To get who you want!’

‘Take yourself from my sight! Do not set one fat foot in my home again. I have told you what I saw, and all that is required of you is that you be messenger. Deliver the truth to Princess Wenna. She, at least, will know it when she hears it, even if you do not.’