‘Brilliant. I know they don’t have telly here, but you’d get some sort of top award for that speech.’

‘I do not know what you mean, Mary.’

‘Course you don’t. Come back, Crows.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘You’ll follow us every step of the way, no matter what we want. So the only way to stop you is to break your legs. What we have are two votes for, and two against. You need to convince me you’re worth the bother.’

He scratched at his chin. ‘I do not think I can,’ he said eventually. ‘Your friend was most eloquent and perceptive. I am all that she says I am.’

‘It’s me you hurt the most. But it’s me you helped the most. I’m not going to say I’ll trust you, but I am prepared to have you along. A deal’s a deal, right? You can have the maps after we’ve finished with them, and not before.’

‘I do not know what to say. I do not deserve such kindness, such mercy.’

‘No. No, you don’t. Just try not to get us all killed.’

‘I will make every effort to deliver you safe to the White City.’

‘Which probably is as good an offer as we’re going to get.’

The sky above the trees began to lighten, and the crows chattered to each other. The eclipse was almost over. Colour flooded the forest. What had been shades of grey were now greens and browns, the orange of the others’ overalls, and the red of her dress. Crows’ skin glowed.

‘Why don’t we see what everyone’s been fighting over?’ Dalip slid off the crate, and pulled at the stiff metal hasp on the lid. ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if it was empty?’

‘No,’ said Mary and Crows simultaneously, urgently.

‘It was just a joke.’

The hinges creaked, and they all peered in. It was stuffed with rolls and folded squares of parchment.

‘That’s …’ said Mary. ‘Even I know that’s a fuck-load of maps. Where do we even start with them?’

She reached in and picked out the top leaf. When she opened it up, she saw that it was hers. She flattened it out on top of the pile. The others, not knowing that she’d drawn it, pointed out the features that they thought they recognised.

Dalip put his finger on the symbol she’d used for the door to Down Station.

‘There,’ he said. ‘We know where that is, and where it led. Everything else has to fit around that fixed point. So that’s where we have to start.’

She folded the map back up, and closed the lid. They’d come with nothing. Now they were rich. Powerful, even. She wasn’t used to the idea of that. She was someone, even if she wasn’t a queen. Not yet, anyway.