'Well, Cas? You've been scrying them, haven't you?' Darni loomed over the table at him.

'Not as such, not since the last time you asked and they were still on that boat.' There was a defensive edge to Casuel's indignation.

'Do I have to tell you to do everything?' Darni threw up his hands in disgust.

'You've been telling me to bespeak Hadrumal at every new chime,' Casuel retorted with a flash of spirit. 'How do you expect me to have the energy for anything else?'

'Show some initiative, Saedrin curse you!' Darni's voice was beginning to rise.

Allin hurried to answer a knock on the door, revealing a startled maid.

'The Esquire asked for tisanes.' She bobbed a nervous curtsey.

'Thank you.' Camarl watched the girl place her tray on the table and scurry out.

'I don't think arguing with each other is going to prove very productive,' he observed as he reached for a tisane ball, spooning tiny amounts of dried herbs from the little china bowls on the tray. He snapped the hinged sphere shut with a decisive click. 'I will talk to my uncle and see if he can think of any other mariners we could approach.'

Camarl placed the pierced silver ball in a cup and added hot water from the jug.

'I really don't want to spread our business about any more than we've had to already.' Darni reached for a cup. 'We know these blondies have been in this part of the country. Who's to say they haven't still got spies here?'

'There aren't any yellow-haired people around at the moment.' Allin spoke up unexpectedly. She put her mending aside and began to make herself a tisane.

'How do you know that?' Darni looked at her, bemused.

'I've been talking to the maids.' Allin coloured and pushed her tisane ball around in her cup. 'I said my mother's looking to buy some fair hair for a wig and I asked them to let me know if they saw anyone with really pale hair. I said it didn't matter if it was a woman or a man, because I could always ask a man if he had a sister who might be willing to sell her hair, if she was getting married soon.'

She peeped up through her eyelashes to see the three men looking at her, their expressions ranging from Casuel's irritated disbelief to Darni's surprised approval.

'I just wanted to do something to help.' Allin hid her face in her cup as she sipped her fragrant drink.

'I've spoken to you before about gossiping with maidservants—' Casuel began heatedly.

'Oh shut up, Cas, and make yourself a tisane.' Darni shoved the tray towards him.

'What if she's put us all at risk of discovery?'

'You know, you—' Darni caught sight of Camarl's politely disdainful face and clearly changed his mind about what he was going to say. 'If you were any wetter, you'd have ducks landing on your head, Cas.'

Allin grinned and Camarl rubbed a hand over a sudden smile. Casuel busied himself making a drink, filled with sudden longing for his mother's elegant sitting-room and her tisane tray, complete with everything to the same design, new from the silversmith last Solstice. He was accustomed to better than this collection of mismatched antiques, he sulked.

Esquire Camarl coughed. 'If there's no word of our adversaries, that's one worry that we can leave simmering on the hearth. However, I do think it would be useful to find out what Ryshad and your friends are doing. Esquire Devoir, are you sufficiently rested to attempt a “scrying”, I think you called it?'

The urge to withhold his talents out of sheer spite warred with Casuel's desire to ingratiate himself with such a potentially influential gentleman.

'I can try, but I am very tired,' he said after a pause.

'Thank you.' Camarl made him a courteous bow.

Casuel rubbed his hands. 'I need a broad, flat bowl and cold water.'

Allin hurried off obediently to obtain them.

'Do you have anything that belonged to Shiv or that woman?' Casuel went on. 'I'll need something to focus on, working at this range.'

Darni rummaged in his pocket. 'Here.' He handed Casuel a rune-bone. 'I took this off Livak when some Dalasorian goatherders were getting a bit irritated with her.'

'What's he doing?' the Esquire whispered to Allin as they watched Casuel place the oddly heavy rune in the bowl and add water, leaning over and drawing a deep breath which he instantly regretted as pain lanced through his ribs.

'He's going to bring an image to the water, of the people you're looking for, a sort of reflection.' She watched closely.

'Can you do this?' Camarl was intrigued.

'Not yet. But I'll learn.' Allin's eyes were bright with determination.

'Can I have a little silence?' Casuel snapped.

Dull green light gradually gathered at the bottom of the bowl, growing brighter and clearer as it rose towards the surface of the water. It shone up into Casuel's drawn features and flickered, casting strange shadows against the bones of his face.

'That's got it!' Casuel set his jaw determinedly and hung on to the image grimly. 'They've landed, anyway.'

Darni, Allin and Camarl leaned forward eagerly to see a jumbled vista of grey rocks.

'There,' Darni said after a long moment. 'In that hollow.'

Camarl scanned the image. 'They're hiding, but I can't see from what.'

'Geris isn't with them.' Darni's voice was heavy with disappointment.

Allin drew her shawl around her shoulders unconsciously. 'It looks very gloomy and cold.'

Camarl nodded. 'The question is, are they much further north or simply a very great distance further east?'

'Show us some more, Cas,' Darni commanded.

'I'll try,' Casuel said through gritted teeth. The image moved slowly, harsh rocks, bleak screes, cowering houses defying the bitter weather, the scrying rising gradually to reveal more of the surrounding land.

'Do you suppose they're watching that?' Camarl reached to point at the house.

'Don't touch the water,' Casuel said with some effort and the Esquire pulled his hand back hurriedly.

Darni hissed through his teeth, thinking. 'I wonder if Geris is in there. If they get him out, they need a way off those rocks and soon. Saedrin, this is so frustrating!'

'Can't you bespeak them?' Allin asked hesitantly.

'Not with this spell, not at this distance,' Casuel said shortly; sweat was beginning to glisten on his forehead.

Darni muttered something under his breath but the others all caught the word 'useless'.

'Would you like to try doing this yourself?' Casuel snapped, the light of the spell flickering and dimming.

'It is certainly remarkable,' Esquire Camarl interjected smoothly. 'I've never had occasion to employ a wizard and I had no idea you could perform such wonders.'

Casuel lifted his chin and shot Darni a look of triumph mixed with contempt before bending his will to the enchantment again.

'Can you show us any more of these islands?' Camarl began to make notes on a scrap of parchment. 'For when we land.'

'We?' Darni looked enquiringly at the young nobleman, who grinned back.

'I feel I should represent D'Olbriot interests when you reach these islands. Messire will be expecting me to look for any opportunities that the family might exploit in this situation.'

'The idea is to rescue our friends, not to make your Prince even richer,' Darni scowled.

'The two aims are not incompatible,' Camarl replied firmly. 'The seas are obviously fertile, there might be other resources.'

'Is anybody watching this?' Casuel demanded crossly and everyone hastily returned their attention to the image in the water.

An ice-clad mountain fell away, its sides hidden in snow. Below that, long screes of broken rock stretched into bleak valleys with a threadbare covering of scrub and poor grassland. A scatter of lights was virtually all that distinguished a small settlement from the surrounding rocks in the deepening dusk. Any people and animals were out of sight and out of reach of the frost already glistening on the bare faces of the cliffs. Faint tracks were scratched around a patchwork of ragged fields spreading down towards the shoreline where the cold grey sea lapped on the shingle.