***

I was dragged through many narrow corridors. Given how vast this place was, together with the fact that it appeared to be made entirely of stone, there was only one answer: I was in Edinburgh Castle. That was both good and bad.

I kept my eyes peeled and my wits about me, trying to learn as much as I could during the uncomfortable journey. Other than a large number of closed doors and a lack of decoration, there was little I could work out. The silence, however, was gradually giving way to a strange sort of thunder. I’d never been past the Veil when the weather was anything but hot and muggy but it was possible that storms occurred.

Eventually I was taken up a winding flight of stairs. A female demon was waiting at the top; she glared at me with such ferocity that I thought she was going to kill me right then and there. Instead she unlocked the door next to her and I was shoved inside.

Shaking my head and rubbing the bruises on my arms, I looked around. The noise was deafening. It waxed and waned but it sounded too unnatural to be a storm. I still couldn’t work out what it was.

‘It’s you!’

I jumped half out of my skin. From the shadowed corner of my latest holding pen came the tiny, familiar figure of a pixie. The last time I’d seen her, she was chained to a wooden pole on Arthur’s Seat. Now she didn’t look any the worse for wear for the experience; she was smiling so broadly, I wondered if her cheeks would split.

‘You’re here to save us,’ she breathed. ‘You came back.’

Uh-oh. I was here chancing my arm because I was out of other options and the Fomori army was on the verge of invading the Highlands. I was as much of a prisoner as she was, even if I had a plan or two up my sleeve. Taking the cautious route, I shook my head. ‘If only,’ I muttered.

She stared at me. ‘You’re right,’ she said eventually. ‘There’s always someone listening.’ She glanced round and raised her voice. ‘You hear me? We’re not imbeciles! We’re not going to fall for your stupid plots!’ I gaped at her. She turned her head and winked, then settled down in a heap on the floor.

‘Where are we?’

‘Castle, of course.’

I nodded. ‘Yes, but…’

‘Arena,’ she said sourly. ‘We’re in the holding pen for the arena.’

Nausea rose in my stomach. That sounded… ‘That’s cheering, isn’t it?’

The pixie nodded and my shoulders sank. So the arena was some kind of gladiatorial hell-pit. ‘They think it makes them civilized,’ she spat. I didn’t need to ask who they were. ‘Instead of killing us outright, they pretend to give us a way out. Win and you’ll be freed.’ She paused. ‘As if. No one ever wins.’

‘Execution as sport,’ I whispered. Even Aifric wouldn’t conceive something so horrific. No wonder the Fomori hadn’t hurt me.