I rolled over and peered down. There, wedged against another snow-covered rock, was a body. I couldn’t tell from here whether he was alive or dead but he certainly wasn’t moving.

‘Isla!’

She understood immediately and joined me at the rim of the crevasse. ‘Arse,’ she muttered. ‘He’s too far down.’

‘We can get him.’

‘Not without going in after him.’

‘Grab my feet.’

I couldn’t see Isla’s face because of her balaclava and goggles but I knew what her expression would be. I gave her a nudge. She muttered another curse and hunkered down as I unwound the rope I always carried on these rescues. ‘How much time do we have?’

‘Not enough.’

I gritted my teeth; I’d just have to work faster. Isla’s hands curled round my ankles and I stretched out. At least the crevasse provided some shelter from the wind that was whipping around us. I pushed my body out as far as I could. My gloves made my fingers clumsy but I managed to snake the end of the rope round the body, tying a knot to hold it in place.

‘Integrity!’ I heard Isla scream. ‘I can’t hold on for much longer.’

‘I’ve just about got him,’ I shouted back. I checked the knot. It would hold. Hopefully. ‘Okay, pull me up.’

Isla wasted no time. She heaved and pulled until, slowly, I returned to safer ground. She must have been exhausted but she still took the other end of the rope and, with both of us using all our strength, we jerked it backwards. My feet slipped on the ice but I managed not to fall. Inch by inch, we strained to bring him up. When he was almost at the lip, Isla tapped my shoulder and I nodded, darting forward to pull him up the rest of the way.

‘You’d better be alive, buster,’ I told him, as I rolled his body to safety and checked for vital signs. I leaned towards his face, peeling up my balaclava until I could feel warm breath on my cheek. He was still with us ‒ for now at least.

‘We’re out of time, Integrity,’ Isla said urgently. ‘We have to go.’

‘Then let’s get out of here,’ I told her with a dark grin.

Chapter Two

Taylor, Lexie, Speck and Brochan, my mentor and old thief buddies who’d followed me here from Aberdeen, were far more interested in what I had to tell them about Debbie than my prowess and death-defying rescue at Aladdin’s Mirror.

‘A giant spider?’ Lexie breathed, her eyes wide as she handed me a mug of hot tea.

‘Just like in Lord of the Rings,’ I said, taking a sip and scalding my mouth. ‘But scarier.’

Brochan threw me an exasperated look. ‘You’re even more of a geek than Speck is.’

I punched him in the arm. ‘By the way, Jimmy says hello.’

The merman’s face took on a distant expression. ‘I can’t believe he’s working for the Carnegies,’ he muttered.