Gaueko's pup comes into the bar. I wonder if the child she carries within her will have her sharp teeth, her air of shadows. Blood will out, and I think hers is thicker than that of the milksop she calls a husband.

"I'd take him for a canny dog, maybe, but to call him a wise one... That's its own oddity, a match for anything I hear of here. Glass of Tintagel when you've a moment, Lannie?"

"Why good miss - mistress," I say, with a nod to the ring she wears, "it almost sounds as if you have met my friend here," I say, rubbing my hand over Gaueko's head again. I look back at the barmaid, who offers food.

"Please," I say. "Something hot. If you have a stew, perhaps? And a dish for Rollo, for be he wise or merely canny, I think he would like to fill his belly."