‘I must go,’ the voice said. ‘You will be safe here now. The Spirits of the Forest have spoken to me. They will ensure you are not harmed, but I am not welcome in this place.’

‘No,’ gasped the boy. ‘Don’t leave me. My eyes! I’m … I’m blind!’

There was a flapping of wings and he was alone.

Unable to fight it any longer, Lann slipped into unconsciousness.

When he woke again, the smell of the meadows and the distant sound of birdsong told him it was daytime, but to his eyes it was still featureless night. Fighting the panic that threatened to engulf him again, he cocked his head and listened. If the leaves up there were stirred by the wind, the sound never made it down as far as the forest floor.

On all fours, he groped around until his hand brushed against the corpse of the wolf that had pursued him. He jerked his fingers back from the charred flesh in horror. Despite his fears, Lann couldn’t help but wonder what powerful majik might have been unleashed on the beast and by whom.

Terror still gripped him, but he knew he couldn’t stay here beneath the ancient trees. Managing to get to his feet, he stood as still as he could. Without the ability to see, he was forced to trust his other senses to provide him with a sense of where he was and which way he should go. A slight breeze brushed his face from the right, and as he turned in that direction he fancied he caught the distant call of a redthroat warning other birds away from its territory. ‘Redthroats are meadow birds,’ he mumbled to himself. He couldn’t recall ever seeing one in a forest. Hands held out before him, he slowly made his way in the direction of the birdsong.

It was hours later that Orlof, the head cattleman from Gord’s farm, spotted the boy, his face and hands cut and bruised from the many falls he’d taken, stumbling among the foothills. When he called out to the boy, Lann’s head swung round in the direction of the sound, and the older man fancied he caught a faint groan of relief. He called out again, and as he did so, it was as if all the strength and fight suddenly fled the youngster’s body and he crumpled to the floor, where he lay, unmoving.