Standing at the tiller, Sinbad smiled when he saw Bryn approaching him.

'Smooth sailing,' he remarked. 'If this keeps up, we might even arrive at Agia ahead of schedule.'

'I hope so,' said Bryn. 'I came to ask you how long we'd be staying there.'

'I'd only planned to stay for a day or two,' said Sinbad. 'The people of that island have very little except for their gold. That makes them poor sellers but excellent buyers.'

'A day or two?' said Bryn. 'Could we make it two?'

Sinbad smiled, but his tone was ironic as he said, 'Well, certainly, if you have business there.'

'I think I do,' said Bryn. 'Firouz told me of a medicine woman you met there once.'

'Medicine woman?' Sinbad furrowed his brow in thought. 'Yes... I remember. She gave Doubar a foul-tasting potion for his indigestion,' he added with a laugh.

Bryn smiled wanly at this, then went on, 'She also told Firouz about some of her ideas. He said that she can help people reach far into their memories for what has been lost.'

'Ah, I see.' Sinbad's expression became serious. 'Then of course you must see her if you want to. I just hope you won't be disappointed.'

'I am afraid of being disappointed,' said Bryn, 'but I'm also afraid of success. I think that's why I never looked for anyone or anything like her before. In a way, I was content to belong with you and only wonder about my past. But we've been uncomfortable on board ship ever since we discovered that I'm known to your enemy. I need to find out who I am now, but... oh, Sinbad. I have the most terrible feeling that I won't like it.'

'Bryn.' Sinbad put his hand on her arm. 'My friend. Even if you find you don't like where you came from, you can always be proud of who you are.'

Rumina was watching them in her scrying bowl. She had evidently made a home of another cave somewhere overlooking a bright blue sky and a calm, sun-dappled sea, but she stayed in the darkest corner with her eyes narrowed on Bryn's anxious yet grateful expression as she looked into Sinbad's smiling face.

'What are you saying?' she asked the silent scrying bowl. 'Are you wondering how I know you? Do you really not remember?' Then, in a quieter and somewhat pained voice, 'How can you not remember?'

'Perhaps she isn't thinking of you at all,' a voice said, startling and angering Rumina, who whipped round to glare at the speaker.

It was Scratch, sitting cross-legged on a ledge of rock, just as she had seen him do once before.

'Perhaps,' he went on, 'she senses some poor, unfortunate souls who need freeing from some...' – he made a show of searching for the right word – 'tyranny or other. After all, there are plenty out there. Almost as many as I'd like.'

'You again!' hissed Rumina. 'Begone from here.'

Scratch grinned at her. 'Make me.'

Rumina looked at him for some moments, then raised her hand as if considering a magical attack. A moment later, she lowered her hand again and turned back to her scrying bowl.

'Wise choice,' said Scratch.

Rumina made no response.

Scratch went on, 'I've come to help you with this new and unwelcome... situation.'

'Ha!' said Rumina. 'You said you'd help me once before. And then you reneged on our bargain.'

Scratch cocked his head to one side. 'What makes you say that?'

'Don't be absurd,' said Rumina, turning to face him again. 'My father isn't here, is he?'

Scratch looked around the cave in a most aggravating manner. 'It would appear not. But then, I didn't get Sinbad's soul, did I?'

'I have more important things to occupy me than Sinbad now,' said Rumina, turning back to her scrying bowl.

'So I see,' said Scratch. 'I was wondering when you'd find out that she's alive.'

Rumina could not resist turning round again. 'Oh, and I suppose you know all about it.'

'I do indeed, and I have an interest in her just as great as yours, and just as great as my interest in Sinbad.'

'Then you had better leave them both to me. I have been away from the world for more than a year, and in that time you have achieved none of your goals, I see.'

'Ooh, that's unkind,' said Scratch, clearly relishing the insult. 'She's ba-ack!'

'I have no time for this,' said Rumina, turning away from him again.

'Oh, yes, you look very busy,' said Scratch. 'But are you sure you can really watch her to death? I shall be most interested to see that. After all, she's survived much worse.'

Rumina stayed silent and facing away from him.

'That little witch,' Scratch went on, 'represents a balance that I plan to tip in my favour. For that, I need her to remember you.'

'I'm not interested in what you need.'

'Perhaps you need her to as well. Killing her isn't your only option, Rumina. Remember the old woman in the mirror?'

Rumina whipped round with wide, frightened eyes. 'How do you know about that?'

Scratch smiled. 'When will my omniscience cease to surprise you?'

'If you think I'd consider letting her live,' said Rumina, suddenly quite composed again, 'then you don't know as much as you think.'

'Oh no, my dear,' said Scratch. 'I know why you want her dead. I know everything.'

'You are wrong,' said Rumina, 'but I'm not going to waste time arguing with you.' She turned back to her bowl, and her brow furrowed. 'Where's the bird?'

'Ah,' said Scratch, 'I know that as well. Would you like me to tell you?'

'Not particularly,' said Rumina. 'If it has abandoned Sinbad and his fools, then it is of no further interest to me.'

'He's with his mistress,' said Scratch. 'They have been making their way south-east across Christendom, back to their friends. She is determined to kill you, I believe.'

Rumina gave a dismissive laugh. 'She will never be powerful enough to kill me.'

'Perhaps.'

'You are a terribly annoying distraction. Like a fly buzzing round the place.'

'Mmm... well, I am the Lord of the Flies.'

'Why are you here?'

'I just wanted to make you aware that we have common goals, you and I,' said Scratch. 'You don't have to agree to help me, nor I you. We shall be helping each other, no matter what we do. But if you ever decide that you would like to collaborate, just call me. You remember my name, don't you?' He leaned forward then, fixing Rumina with wide and wild eyes, and said sharply, 'Scratch!'

'If I say I'll remember you,' said Rumina, 'will you leave?'

Scratch grinned at her. 'No need. I was going anyway. Interesting that you should mention the bird...'

With that, he disappeared in a roar of flame. Rumina stared for a moment at the place where he had been, empty now except for a coil of smoke. Then she turned back to her scrying bowl.

'Show me that infuriating peasant,' she said. 'The one with the delicious-looking pet bird.'

The bowl obeyed.

Maeve was in a tavern, carrying a tray of tankards over to a table crowded with piratical-looking men. They leered and whistled at her as she served them, and a couple of them raised their tankards, to which she smiled stiffly before turning away. She took her tray over to another table, with the same kind of party seated round it, and leaned across them to collect their empty tankards.

'Another round, gentlemen?' she asked.

'No fanks, love,' said a dirty-bearded pirate, grinning at her with only three teeth. 'I fink we'd better call it a night.'

'All right,' said Maeve. 'We'll settle your bill.'

The pirates all laughed at this, and Maeve raised an eyebrow. Her expression said that she had met their type before, and had long since wearied of it.

'You expect us to pay for watered-down slop like that?' said the pirates' spokesman.

'I expect nothing,' said Maeve. 'I know you're going to pay for your drinks before you leave.'

The pirates laughed again, mocking her confident tone and pretending to be cowed by it.

'Well,' said their leader, once the laughter had died down, 'we ain't paying for that ditch water, but I'll wager there's something you can do that's worth the gold in my purse,' and he slipped his arm around her waist.

Maeve smiled a disarming smile. 'You know what? I think there just might be.'

The pirates all grinned round at each other, making suggestive noises, while Maeve reached down to put her own hand over the one around her waist. The pirate leered up at her; she smiled serenely back down as flames began to crackle between her fingers. The pirate yelped, quickly withdrew his hand and jumped to his feet.

'She's a bloody witch!' he cried, as all his comrades jumped too at the sight of the fireball brewing in Maeve's hand. 'Let's get out of 'ere, quick!'

They began scrambling towards the door.

'Dermott!' Maeve called, and Dermott swooped down from a ceiling rafter and began noisily attacking the face of the most obnoxious pirate.

'Arrrr, me face!' he cried, flailing desperately with his arms.

'Oh, don't make such a fuss,' said Maeve, walking slowly towards them with the fireball still crackling on her palm. 'What more damage can he do? All right, Dermott,' and Dermott flew to the table beside her. 'Now, are you going to pay your bill, gentlemen, or must we waste some more time first?'

The pirates all began scrabbling for their purses and threw handfuls of coins at Maeve's feet.

'Keep the change, love,' muttered the once obnoxious one, before scrambling out of the door with the rest of the group.

Smiling triumphantly, Maeve stooped down to retrieve the coins. When she stood up again, the landlady of the tavern was there, smiling approvingly at her.

'Well done again, Maeve,' she said. 'My goodness, but I'll miss you when you're gone!'

Maeve gave her an apologetic smile as she picked up the tray of tankards. 'Then I'm sorry to tell you that will be tomorrow. I'll have enough then to buy my passage across the sea.'

'Oh?' said the landlady. 'Well then, perhaps I'll forget to pay you this evening,' but she was smiling in a way that clearly showed she wasn't serious.

'Now, Flavia,' said Maeve, as they walked back to the bar together, 'you can't be so attached to me after only a few days.'

'It's the way you deal with difficult customers I like,' said Flavia, positioning herself behind the bar. 'Well... it's good for business, anyway. But I like you too, my dear.'

'And I like you.' Maeve put the tray down on the bar, where Flavia proceeded to relieve it of its burden. 'You've been very good to me. After I meet up with my friends, I'll bring them to visit you some time.'

'No time to talk of that now,' said Flavia, and she thrust the tray across the bar, back towards Maeve. 'You still work here for the rest of the day, my girl!'

'Of course,' said Maeve, smiling in amusement as she carried off the tray.

From the ceiling rafters, in a darkened corner, a malevolent pair of glowing eyes watched her every move.

In another tavern, several hours later, Sinbad, Doubar, Firouz, Rongar and Bryn were sitting down to a meal. When a young waitress brought over a fresh tray of drinks, Doubar took his up straight away and said jovially, 'This is fine wine your father bought from us, my dear. But perhaps next time we'll keep a little back for ourselves, and drink it at the price we bought it for.'

The other men laughed, and Bryn smiled whilst picking at her food. The waitress laughed too as she collected their empty goblets, then said, 'Well, I can't promise anything but perhaps, for you, the price is negotiable,' and she winked at Sinbad before carrying off the tray.

Sinbad smiled as he watched her go, then turned back to his party and said, 'When we're finished eating, I'll ask her about accommodation. This seems like a comfortable, friendly place to spend a night or two.'

'It does, doesn't it?' Doubar said suggestively, and he exchanged a smile with Rongar.

Sinbad gave them a lightly admonishing look. Then he turned to Bryn, saying, 'It's getting late. You aren't going to run your little errand tonight, are you?'

'Errand?' asked Doubar, at once suspicious.

Bryn looked levelly at him. 'The medicine woman you met a few years ago... Xanthi, isn't it?'

Firouz, his mouth full to bursting, nodded a confirmation.

'It must be four or five years now,' said Sinbad. 'Before Rongar joined us, and before those two years I spent shipwrecked on that island... when I got this,' he added, holding up his left hand to display his rainbow bracelet.

Bryn looked at her own bracelet for a moment, then finished answering Doubar's question. 'I'm going to see her. It's time I tried to regain my memory.'

Doubar raised his eyebrows. 'Can she do that?'

Firouz swallowed his mouthful of food, then said, 'Point of fact, there are no proven methods for treating memory loss, largely because there's no definitive cause. But Xanthi's methods were working well on some people five years ago. Just imagine how far she might have progressed! For my part, I think there might be any number of reasons why a person loses their memory, and whether any treatment is successful depends on the type of memory loss the patient is suffering. For instance, if Bryn has forgotten her past due to some traumatic event from which her mind is protecting her, Xanthi's methods may well be able to help her uncover those memories.'

'Oh,' said Bryn, looking alarmed, 'I hope it isn't that!'

'It could be magic,' said Doubar, with a suspicious, sidelong look at Bryn.

Rongar tapped Firouz on the arm, then made a fist and mimed punching himself on the head.

'Quite right, Rongar,' said Firouz. 'It may have been caused by some head trauma... although, if it was, I've seen no other signs of such an injury on you, Bryn.'

'What methods does this woman use, Firouz?' asked Sinbad. 'Are they scientific, or magical?'

Firouz considered this. 'Interesting question, Sinbad. When we were here last, she was experimenting with a method recently discovered near these parts, which is neither magical nor yet scientifically explainable. Ever heard of hypnosis?'

Rongar shook his head, while Sinbad looked thoughtful and Doubar said, 'It rings a bell. I think I might have heard about it once, and thought it sounded like nothing but moonshine.'

'Does it hurt?' Bryn asked nervously.

Firouz smiled reassuringly at her. 'Not at all, my dear. Xanthi will simply put you into a trance... not your usual kind, but rather a sleep that will help you to reach deep into your mind.'

'Like I said,' said Doubar, frowning into his wine goblet, 'moonshine.'

Bryn made an effort to lose her anxious expression, and smiled around the table. 'Well, anyone who wants to come along with me and see it for himself is more than welcome.'

Sinbad smiled back at her. 'I'd like to come along for moral support, Bryn. If it were me, I'd want my friends with me when it happened.'

'So would I,' said Doubar, 'if I were about to uncover some forgotten association with Rumina.'

Sinbad frowned at him.

'It might not work, Doubar,' said Firouz. 'Remember, if the reason Bryn lost her memory is something that hypnosis can't –'

'All right, Firouz, I heard you the first time,' said Doubar. 'But I for one hope it does work. I can't stand all this wondering and worrying.'

'I know you can't, Doubar,' Bryn said dryly, before looking away to take up her drink.

There was an awkward silence, then Sinbad said bracingly, 'Well, what will be, will be. We'll find out tomorrow. Now, I'll go and see about those rooms...' and he stood up to approach the bar, where the pretty waitress stood ready for him with a coquettishly tilted head and a flirtatious smile.

In the early morning, Maeve found herself at a busy dock, standing by the gangplank of a large vessel and counting her money into the hand of a middle-aged sailor.

'Sixteen... eighteen... twenty,' she said, then closed her purse over a few remaining coins and hooked it onto her belt. 'And that'll buy me board as well as passage, you say?'

'That's right,' said the sailor. 'Meals are included, but we can't guarantee protection, and you'll have to check your weapons on board. Are you sure you want to travel alone under those conditions?'

'I don't have any other choice,' said Maeve.

'Well,' said the sailor, pocketing the coins she had given him, 'I daresay there's no harm. Our passengers are a respectable bunch, generally speaking.'

'As am I,' said Maeve. 'So, Captain, I'll be no trouble at all.'

She smiled at him, turned towards the gangplank and then cried out in surprise and alarm as a creature shot spear-like from the sky and landed on her shoulder with four sharp-clawed feet. She reached up and wrenched a snakelike, winged creature from her hair; it writhed and hissed in her grip, eyes glaring from beneath a diamond-shaped head, a serpent's tongue darting out at her.

The ship's captain stared in horror and amazement. 'That's a javelin snake! If it had gone for you a moment sooner, it would have pierced your skull!'

'Really?' said Maeve, affecting an air of mild curiosity as she wrestled with the creature in her grip. 'What a very strange thing to have happened.'

The captain looked at her with suspicion. 'Why would it be after you?'

Maeve laughed unconvincingly. 'Of course it's not after me specifically. These things just launch themselves at whoever happens to be passing, don't they?'

'Well, yes,' said the captain, 'but not at the docks. They live in the forest... according to the stories. I never actually saw one before.'

'Oh, me neither,' said Maeve, trying to be charming as she held the writhing, hissing creature at arms' length. 'I'm just a simple farmer's daughter, after all. But according to these stories... they kill like an arrow, don't they? This thing has no venom.'

'So they say,' said the captain, looking warily at the creature.

'Good,' said Maeve, sounding agitated despite her best efforts. 'Do you think it would be safe to put it down for a moment? I think...' She glanced upward, to where Dermott was circling. 'I really do think that hawk is hunting it. He can get rid of it for us, yes?'

'Well...' said the captain, and Maeve at once threw the creature to the ground. It scuttled off in the direction of the crowd, but had barely made it a yard before Dermott swooped down and pierced its sides with his talons. The creature hissed and writhed in pain. Dermott bent over it and nipped and pecked at it until it lay dead.

Maeve, who had been watching all this, looked at the captain with one of her disarming smiles. 'There. No harm done,' and she turned back towards the gangplank.

'I've seen that hawk before,' said the captain, watching Dermott as he carried the body of the javelin snake into the air. 'It arrived at the same time you did. It's not with you, is it?'

'With me?' said Maeve, already making her way up the gangplank. 'Such ideas as you have about me, Captain! I'm quite flattered to be thought so interesting.'

Dermott deposited the dead serpent into the sea, circled the ship a few times and then dropped behind the main sail, out of the bewildered captain's line of sight.

Early the next morning, Firouz led Bryn, Rongar and Sinbad through a dense forest. Bryn and Firouz looked businesslike, while Sinbad and Rongar looked warily about them all the time. They came to a relatively clear patch, where a large, brown-headed Boer goat was grazing. It bleated as they passed it.

'Firouz,' said Sinbad, 'has Xanthi really always lived this far outside the town?'

'Oh yes,' Firouz said reassuringly. 'This is the way all right, Sinbad. Traditional healers often live in the forest, so the essential ingredients for their work are close at hand.'

'Really?' Bryn said grimly. 'I always thought it was because they were driven out of the community by superstition.'

'Well,' said Firouz, 'yes, there is an element of that. But the people here trust and like Xanthi, and she doesn't even use very much magic. She has more faith in scientific remedies.'

'Reaching into a person's mind doesn't sound very scientific, Firouz,' Sinbad said dryly.

'Granted, we don't fully understand hypnosis yet,' said Firouz, 'but that doesn't mean it's not scientific. Anyway, it's not magic.'

'Then what is it?' asked Bryn.

'An innovation,' said Firouz. 'Point of fact, the Persian Empire has long produced great innovators of healing and medicine. I'll be fascinated to see how Xanthi – mmfff!'

Firouz's three companions looked at him in alarm, and saw that his mouth had been stopped by a long stretch of creepers wrapped tightly around his face. He struggled as more creepers appeared, binding his arms and legs. Sinbad and Rongar drew their swords and began hacking away at the creepers, themselves impeded by more that appeared in order to grab their arms and hold them fast. Bryn had reached for her own sword but also found herself bound by the wrists. She struggled against the creepers for a few seconds, then a jet of light shot through her and she was able to release herself. She tried aiming the magic at her three companions, but to no avail.

'Any time now, Bryn!' said Sinbad, as the marauding plants crept up towards his mouth.

'I'm trying!' said Bryn.

'Oh yes, you are,' said a familiar voice, and Rumina materialised several yards in front of them. 'Very trying.'

Doubar was back at the tavern, downing another goblet of fine wine, while the pretty wench who had served them before polished a tankard on the other side of the bar.

'You look lonely,' she said.

Doubar acknowledged the truth of this remark with a grunt.

'Why didn't you go with your friends?'

'I don't know,' said Doubar. 'I always have before. But it feels different this time. The woman, Bryn... it's been uncomfortable between us lately. Even more so since Dermott left us!'

'Who's Dermott?' asked the serving girl.

'A hawk.'

'Oh.'

'Maeve's hawk,' said Doubar. 'Maeve was a member of the crew who had to leave us, and I... well, I miss her. And when I think of how easily Bryn stepped into her place... it just doesn't seem right somehow. The others almost seem to have forgotten her.'

'What makes you say that?' asked the girl.

'They hardly ever talk about her, and even if they do, it's only a passing mention.'

'How often do you talk about her?'

'Well...' Doubar looked uncomfortable. 'Not very often, as it happens. I think about her every day, you understand, but talking about her... well, if you must know, that isn't always easy.'

'Oh, I see,' said the girl, with a small smile. She put down her tankard and took up another one. 'We'll talk about something else, then. Where did your friends go?'

'To see Xanthi, the medicine woman.'

'Is one of them sick? Xanthi makes very good tonics and poultices, but if it's anything unusual, I don't know if I'd recommend her. She likes to... try things... on people. You know?'

Doubar smiled. 'I know exactly what you mean. No wonder she got on with Firouz. He's our physician on board ship. If it was anything like that, he'd cure it in a heartbeat. No... it's an affliction of the mind that troubles one of us.'

The girl shook her head sadly. 'Nobody understands those. But I didn't notice any of your friends acting crazy.'

'It's not that,' said Doubar. 'It's a case of memory loss.'

'Oh, I wouldn't go to a medicine woman for that,' said the girl. 'I don't see what could cure that except for magic.'

Doubar raised his eyebrows. 'I thought whatever magic you had around here came from Xanthi.'

'It used to,' said the girl. 'We used to think she was very powerful, but since that hermit showed up... well,' she finished with a half-smile, 'we don't anymore.'

'What hermit?' asked Doubar, though he didn't sound particularly interested.

'He lives in a cave beneath the Eastern Mountains,' said the girl. 'Haven't you heard about him?'

'We only arrived here yesterday.'

'True. But people have been talking about him ever since he appeared about a year ago. They say that he's a very great magician, or he was. But now he hides himself away because he's been... I don't know... injured or weakened or something.'

Doubar looked up, his brow furrowed. 'What does he look like?'

'Nobody knows,' said the girl. 'He lives in a cave and hides his face. At least, that's what I've heard, from people who looked farther afield when Xanthi couldn't help them.'

'What else do you know about him?' Doubar asked sharply. 'How was he weakened? What has he said?'

'Nothing, to me.' She put down her tankard and looked directly at him, surprised by the urgency of his tone. 'I've never seen him. Perhaps you'd like to talk to somebody who has.'

'I would, at that,' said Doubar, putting down his goblet and getting to his feet. 'Who has seen him?'

'Oh, let me think...' said the girl, and Doubar frowned impatiently. 'The apprentice blacksmith, I'm certain, because he had a bad burn that Xanthi couldn't soothe. When he came back from seeing this hermit fellow, it was absolutely healed.'

'Thanks,' said Doubar. Then he downed the rest of his drink, slammed his goblet onto the bar and headed for the door.

Bryn stared at Rumina with wide, frightened eyes. 'You again!'

Rumina frowned at her. 'Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't remember me.'

'I don't remember you,' said Bryn, looking her squarely in the eyes. 'We're going to see a woman who can try to help me recover my memory, but if you can tell me –'

'You will remember,' said Rumina. 'You will die by nightfall, and you will know the reason why.'

'Leave her alone, Rumina!' said Sinbad, through the creepers that surrounded his face. 'Whatever Bryn has done to you, I know it was for the greater good.'

Rumina glared at him. 'Stay out of this, Sinbad! It doesn't concern you.'

'Bryn is my friend,' said Sinbad. 'Of course it concerns me.'

Rumina raised an eyebrow. 'You are leaving your friends in quite a predicament, Bryn. If you leave them like that much longer, they'll suffocate.'

Bryn looked over at Sinbad, Firouz and Rongar struggling against the creepers.

'Your magic is very powerful,' she said to Rumina.

Rumina smiled sinisterly. 'So is yours.'

Bryn looked curiously at her for a moment, then turned her whole body towards her friends and closed her eyes in intense concentration. A visible wind whipped up around her and began moving towards the creepers, but before it had got anywhere near them, a blast of energy hit Bryn in the small of her back; she cried out, then collapsed to the ground.

Sinbad, Firouz and Rongar all began struggling violently against their bonds.

'What have you done to her?' cried Sinbad.

'I have infected her with fatal magic,' said Rumina. 'You... the tinkering fellow... don't worry about dying before you can get to her. There is nothing you can do.'

'What is it you've done exactly?' demanded Sinbad. 'Tell us, Rumina!'

Rumina laughed. 'Why on earth would I tell you that?'

Sinbad struggled and growled like a wild animal, while Rongar's eyes looked anxiously out from the creepers wrapped around his face.

'Don't lose your temper, Sinbad,' said Firouz. 'There's obviously hope.'

Rumina's triumphant smile turned to a scowl.

'If there was really none,' Firouz went on, 'there'd be no harm in Rumina telling us what she's done.'

'Hope if you want to,' snarled Rumina. 'It will be in vain. And,' she added, with a vicious glance at the creepers binding Firouz, 'I don't have to prove it.'

With that, she vanished.

'Too bad,' said Firouz. 'I really thought that might work.'

'Never mind about that,' said Sinbad, still struggling in his bonds. 'We have to get free!'

'Struggling isn't the way, Sinbad,' said Firouz. 'You know as well as I do that traps such as this only increase their hold the more you struggle against them.'

'We have to do something!' said Sinbad, through his exertions.

'Point of fact,' said Firouz, 'you're absolutely correct. But it has to be something else. Rongar agrees with me.'

Sinbad stopped struggling in order to shoot Firouz's creepers a look of irritation through the gap in his own. 'How can you tell?'

'Because he isn't struggling,' said Firouz.

'How can you be so calm with Bryn like this?' demanded Sinbad.

'Sinbad,' said Firouz, 'I'm as anxious for Bryn as you are, and I want nothing more than to get free and examine her.'

Sinbad sighed, his temper subsiding. 'If only Dermott were here. He would have gone back into town and alerted Doubar by now.'

'Of course. Doubar!' said Firouz. 'He'll come looking for us eventually.'

'Not until nightfall at the earliest,' said Sinbad.

Rongar, as best he could inside his creepers, nodded in agreement.