‘You can do whatever you want,’ he said. ‘There’s no one to tell you what to do, no one who can make you do something you don’t want to do.’ He reached out his hands and laid them on the animals’ heads, and they stretched their necks slightly to butt into his touch. ‘You can be whatever you want to be.’

Dalip frowned at the idea. Almost his every waking moment had been planned, since he’d been old enough to remember. This school, that club, a friend’s house, the gurdwara, plays and concerts and recitals, and family, so much family: brothers and sisters and cousins and second cousins and uncles and aunts. The thought that he might be free of all that was … intoxicating. Even if it was for just a while, before someone was able to show him the way home.

It must have shown on his face, because he became aware that Stanislav was nudging him with his toe and shaking his head slightly. Was there any reason to believe the first person they’d met since arriving? No.

He swallowed. But what if it was true? ‘We’re not exactly set up for just, you know, starting. Where do the other people live?’

‘Wherever they want,’ came the infuriating reply. Then the wolfman relented. ‘You mean a village.’

‘Yes. A village, or a town. Do you have towns here?’

‘If there are, I don’t know of any. There are villages, here and there. Sometimes they’re empty. You just have to find one.’

‘And you know of somewhere?’

‘You got a walk ahead of you. Or you could try the geomancer. She’s close enough.’

The way he said it, it just tripped out like he was saying they could ask in the local pub.

‘A geomancer?’ Dalip sort of knew what that meant, because geomancy scored a lot of points in Scrabble. ‘Would he know more about where we are?’

‘She,’ the wolfman corrected. ‘Yes, if she’ll wear all your questions. She’ll want to trade, your knowledge for hers, so you’d better be prepared to answer, too.’

‘Where does she live?’

‘Up the river.’ The man pointed. ‘There’s a gorge, steep, and best you went around it. There’s a lake beyond it, and a castle by the shores of the lake, and that’s where you’ll find her.’

‘How far?’ asked Stanislav, and Dalip watched as the men eyed each other suspiciously. Stanislav still hadn’t let go of his club.

‘For you? Two days. If you don’t stop to smell the flowers.’

‘I will be certain to stay away from them.’

The exchange was apparently over. The wolfman sprang to his feet with a grace that belied his size, and the wolves were suddenly up, too, and straining to be back in the forest.

‘Do we tell the geomancer who sent us?’ asked Dalip.