‘I am a hunter,’ she said slowly. ‘I belong in the Great Forest. It’s the only place where things make sense to me … where I make sense. But perhaps that’s only what I want to be, and I must become something else instead.’

‘You’ll get to the Forest,’ said Bel encouragingly. ‘I mean, it may be a while, but I’m sure Kilp will be defeated, and then everything will go back to normal. Like I said, I’ll fly you to Estwael –’

‘How can you be so sure Kilp will be defeated?’ demanded Clariel. She stepped close to Bel, her eyes angry. ‘No one’s doing anything! What about Aunt Lemmin? If they … She’s just a herbalist. She’s kind and wise and she always looked out for me … They’ll put her in a hole like they did to me, or worse! Someone has to do something!’

‘Don’t get angry,’ pleaded Bel. He took a step backwards, making calming gestures with his hands.

‘I’m not going berserk,’ said Clariel, through gritted teeth. ‘I can control the rage.’

‘She’s got a book about it,’ said Mogget helpfully. ‘Mind you, you should have seen the berserk that wrote it. Huge she was, and if the sendings didn’t bring her wine fast enough, she’d pick them up and snap them in half and throw the pieces on the floor.’

‘How do you snap a sending in half?’ asked Bel, easily distracted by some even more arcane knowledge than usual.

‘When fully manifested, they are solid, as are their accoutrements,’ said Mogget. ‘They may be attacked, torn apart, broken up. If properly made they can be put back together, some can even reform themselves. It’s all covered in Simple Sendings, I think –’

‘How interesting,’ said Clariel. ‘I’m going to leave you two to your lesson. Mogget, I want to talk to you later.’

‘Clariel! No, wait, I came to see you,’ said Bel hastily. ‘I can’t stay. Tyriel told me I mustn’t –’

‘Go then,’ said Clariel. She had spoken truly about not going berserk, but she was angry. Not with Bel, but with her grandfather, and the King, with all the useless people that had let things get so out of control that her parents could be killed, and an innocent like her aunt Lemmin could be swept up, taken away from her home …

Clariel stopped in mid-stride, so quickly that Bel, starting after her, almost ran into her back.

‘Kilp must want Aunt Lemmin as a hostage,’ she said. ‘To make me go back to the city.’

‘Very likely,’ said Mogget. ‘I am interested in this Kilp fellow. Few Governors of Belisaere have had much intelligence, by any measure. Um, perhaps if you could just leave me those fish?’