Carys nods and pulls a knitted cap over her curly hair. She takes my face in her hands and speaks very quietly. ‘Go well, dear girl. You give my love to your mother, will you? We’re here if you need us.’

The man is jiggling up and down, one hand on the door handle.

Carys hugs Efa and speaks quietly in her ear. ‘You should skirt around Dolgoed and over the goedwig ddu. Be careful of that house on the lane right after the wood. And if it feels too hard or too dangerous, come home.’ She picks up a big bag by the door, and raises her voice. ‘Let’s go, Aiden, and meet that babi boy of yours.’

CHAPTER 23

Efa and I stand on the back step. ‘Thank goodness it’s stopped snowing,’ she says.

In front of us is a line of bare, leafless trees, and beyond that, empty fields. The moon’s faint light reflects from the snow that blankets everything in sight.

Efa flicks through her Book, using the torch on her phone. ‘I haven’t used this spell for a long while.’ She sounds rattled. ‘I wish Milly’s babi had not chosen this moment to come. Mam should be doing this, not me.’

‘Why’s flying so dangerous?’ I ask.

‘Has your mam not told you?’ She looks at me with that perplexed, slightly irritated expression that’s becoming familiar. ‘It’s because if someone sees us, they’ll think we’re gwrachod, or witches. And over the centuries, people have not been kind to the women they think are gwrachod. We were pretty shocked that your mam talks about magic to non-magicians. I mean, even my dad didn’t know anything. My parents are not together anymore, but when he was here, magic was something between just me and my mam.’

‘What did they do to the women they said were witches?’

She shakes her head. ‘They told lies about them and ran them out of town. Sometimes even killed them. And the women were simply using herbs and their healing hands to help people. People are frightened of powers they cannot understand. That is why we really should not be flying.’ She pauses. ‘Years ago, when Bethan was a little girl, she spotted Mam flying, and she’s made Mam’s life a misery ever since.’

That’s why Bethan was so suspicious when I said I was related to Carys.

‘Mum and I are pretty sure she’s a haneryn, or half-magician,’ Efa continues.

‘A halfling?’ I say.