By David Williams BBC Wales Political Editor

Could Adam Price lead his party to its promised land?

As Plaid Cymru members gathered in Llandudno for their annual conference, BBC Wales Political Editor David Williams gazed into his crystal ball to imagine a possible future for the party. It hasn't happened yet, but you never know...

Adam Price, the brilliant young nationalist MP who successfully led the campaign to impeach Tony Blair, is the new leader of Plaid Cymru.

He will take his seat in the new Welsh Parliament alongside two of Plaid's former MPs, Simon Thomas and Elfyn Llwyd.

They will be joined by another former party leader, Dafydd Wigley, who makes his political comeback after winning the Conwy seat. His re-emergence in frontline politics follows a bitter internal feud with the former Presiding Officer Lord Elis Thomas over what constitutes nationalism!

Lord Elis Thomas, another former party leader, decided to abandon his plans to stand again for the assembly and announced that he intended to spend more time with his family in the House of Lords.

You begin to understand why the thinkers in the party are thinking the unthinkable

Mr Price, the new party leader, in an audacious move to deny Labour continuing control of the assembly, is expected to announce an unholy alliance with the Conservative group in Cardiff Bay.

The Plaid Cymru/Tory pact will end more than a decade of Labour dominance of the assembly. Key posts will be shared between the two parties when Mr Price announces his cabinet later this week.

Dafydd Wigley stepped down as Plaid president four years ago

Already it's becoming clear that the cerebral Conservative AM, David Melding, will be one of the big winners, taking over the health portfolio held in three successive administrations by Jane Hutt.

It's almost certain that Elfyn Llwyd, the party's former leader in the Commons, will become Wales' new home secretary. Simon Thomas will be charged with the unenviable task of reforming the Barnett formula.

Another winner will be Glyn Davies. His first ask will be to drive through a new Welsh Language Act. Mr Davies has already said that if he's given the brief he will appoint another former leader of Plaid Cymru, the recently retired member for Ynys M�n, to help him draft the legislation.

Helen Mary Jones is expected to become sports minister following her considerable success in challenging Rhodri Morgan's plans to spend the entire departmental budget on the Ryder Cup.

The coalition pact will mean the temporary suspension of Plaid's commitment to independence and the Conservatives unconditional loyalty to the union.

Mr Price said: "Today is a very good day in Wales. Our country has a parliament and a stable government committed to providing our people with sustainable environmental policies; affordable housing and a health service free from creeping privatisation."

"I ask you all to support us in our ambitions as we work together for a fairer society."

Ah, you're still there!

It's little wonder that the party is reaching for the stars and, in the firmament, they've found one - Adam Price

No doubt by now you're wondering about the sanity of the writer. Sounds too fanciful to be credible doesn't it?

But, believe it or not, the scenario outlined above - or something close to it - is already fermenting in the minds of those who ferment such things.

It may even have occurred to some of those who wound their way to Llandudno at the weekend for the Plaid Cymru conference, whose main theme was trust.

The party gathered at the seaside after what its chair, John Dixon, described as a "mixed year" electorally.

The party retained one seat in the European elections, but slipped to third place behind the Tories. At the local elections it lost 28 seats and two symbolically important valley councils.

Add to this the indifferent performance of the party in the assembly and, at times, the almost invisible presence of the group leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, and you begin to understand why the thinkers in the party are thinking the unthinkable.

In the gloom generated by the combination of events outlined above, it's little wonder that the party is reaching for the stars and, in the firmament, they've found one - Adam Price.

He sits at the apex of a triangle of ambitions which the party hopes to roll out in Llandudno. Before the conference began, much talk was expected of creating sustainable communities, green industries, affordable housing and the draining influence of outward migration.

The focus, though, was on preparing for next year's general election and ensuring that the party consolidates its four parliamentary seats. That achieved, Plaid can then concentrate on the real challenge - the assembly elections in 2007.

If it is to move towards anything like the dream scenario outlined at the outset, it must first of all get real and convince the electorate it is a credible alternative to Labour.

Much is hanging on the success of Adam Price - the man tipped as the next leader but one. But he and his party know there's a great deal to do before be becomes first minister.