Miralda ignored her.
'Are you hungry, Little Cat?'
Alison said she'd not eaten anything warm that day.'
Miralda reached for a wooden bowl. 'Then you must try some of this gruel.' She ladled a portion for Alison and filled the other bowls. There was an air of solemnity about the proceedings. Miralda looked from face to face and settled on Fury.
'Brother, you are of the bear totem. Our new sister is of the cat totem and Adrina does not have a totem. Since I am of the owl totem we may proceed, there being neither bear, cat nor owl in this gruel ... only brother rabbit.'
It seemed to Alison an odd rule. She could eat Peter Rabbit but not Felix the Cat. She spooned up the gruel, pleased she had not claimed affinities with any of the ingredients. As its warmth took hold, she began to recapture some of the magic she'd felt when she first arrived in her new realm.
Miralda recalled how, when she was a girl, her father, Balduur of Gorm, was killed in battle by Adrina's grandfather. She and her brother, Pius, fled into the wild country to the west. There they had lived amongst the mountain people, who were the descendants of the original inhabitants of the land.
'People in these parts call them savages,' Miralda said. 'Yet they are the custodians of ancient knowledge. They know that all things are sacred. They know about the sacred pathways between the realms. They know that all things are blessed by a soul light, whether they be animal or plant, mountain or stream.'
Suddenly, Adrina burst into life.
'By the Great Poof's Arse. Do you really think those painted savages can teach us anything?'
Miralda stared back over the flames.
'You should learn to be humble, my child. I was once arrogant like you. I thought the mountain people were little better than wild beasts. Then, at the Battle of Baddon Marsh, your grandfather cut the head from my father's living body and that one stroke changed my life. One day I was a rich princess with fine clothes and a bodyguard of handsome young men ... the next I was a fugitive.'
Adrina's dark eyes flashed.
'Are you saying I've had an easy life?..Have you ever stopped to think what it is like to live in Brother Pius' household?..He might be a good and saintly man but he does not rule. He is king only in name. When I go to bed at night I need my bodyguard of handsome young men. Do you think I shut my eyes, secure in the knowledge I shall ever open them again?'