‘That’s right. At first I couldn’t believe she’d chosen me. After all, she travelled all over the Davidfolk Ground, including the big clusters like Davidstand and Veeklehouse, and every few wakings she stood in front of a different crowd of people. But yet out of all those hundreds of people she’d met, it was me she’d picked out and asked to be her helper. Of course, my mum begged me not to go, all my friends told me I was crazy, everyone was angry angry angry. And of course, when I sat in Mary’s boat, heading to Nob Head, I began to have doubts, wondering if I’d been a fool and done the wrong thing. But then I remembered how lonely I’d felt when that handsome man from across the water had asked my friend Starlight to go with him, and I felt a bit better. “Now it’s happened to me as well,” I told myself. “Someone has chosen me. And I’m doing as Starlight did, leaving everyone else behind for the sake of that someone who sees something in me that no one else has ever done. Starlight was scared as well – of course she was – and she must have had doubts too, but she didn’t let them stop her. And I’m going to be brave as her.” That’s what I said to myself, whenever I began to panic.’

Trueheart glanced at me again, not speaking her thoughts, but thinking them so loudly I could almost hear them.

‘How far is Davidstand now, Mum?’ my Fox asked.

‘Too far to walk in one waking, my love. We’ll rest soon and have something to eat.’

Presently Metty began to wail, and Dave gave me one of his long looks to let me know that he thought I should carry the boy for a bit and give him a break from the crying. Poor little Metty didn’t know what was happening, but he could feel the fear, and he could tell that this was different from any other waking he’d ever known. I held him to my breast while we walked.

‘You guys alright?’ asked Tom, striding up to us. Straight away Trueheart fell back, to be out of the way of her dad.

‘Yeah, we’re okay. You must be worried about your boys at Veeklehouse.’