‘That tends to be the case.’ She held up the slippers. ‘I shall keep these for now.’

‘The words of many a thief.’ The atmosphere between them was charged and the huntsman’s blood rushed hot through his body. The ache in his muscles was almost forgotten.

‘You should watch your mouth.’

‘If I’m going to die I’m not sure what difference my words could make.’

‘I was going to offer you a deal.’ This time she did take a step back and he saw the slightest shift in her posture as her spine stiffened. She was the queen again. What was she hiding? Why were there so many layers of defences around the queen in the clouds?

‘What kind of deal?’

‘The kind where you do as you’re told and you get to keep your life.’ Her mouth twisted; tight with bitterness. ‘But it does involve taking another one. Something you seem to be adept at.’

‘But you have a whole guard for that.’

‘There are some lengths,’ she turned away from him and moved towards the window, ‘that I wouldn’t ask my men to go to. For some tasks, you need an outsider. I also want it done cleanly and with respect.’ She didn’t look at him as she spoke, her voice dropping until he had to strain to hear her.

‘She hasn’t been in the castle much. Not for a while. Not since I banished the dwarves from the inner city and replaced her maids with some of my own. Now she comes in late at night and goes out in the early morning. I hear whispers about her, though. Helping the poor, riding through the streets and distributing her father’s alms. The kindest, the most gracious, fairest princess in all the kingdoms. That’s what they say. They’re running out of superlatives.’

The huntsman wondered how much she was talking to him and how much to herself. She was lost in her own thoughts, and as the light caught her face for a moment he thought he saw another animal beneath her cool surface. A rare creature, one who had been hidden so long that perhaps she’d forgotten that she even existed. He felt himself stir despite his torn muscles and aching body.

‘She’ll be in the forest somewhere. I hear that’s where she spends her days.’

‘You seem to hear a lot for someone who prefers the top of a tower to having the warm grass beneath her feet.’ He moved closer until he was standing only a foot or so behind her.

‘I have eyes everywhere,’ she said. He thought of the ravens sitting so still on the rooftops. Ethereally beautiful she might be, but she was damaged and dangerous. He wanted her, he couldn’t deny that, but this would be no conquest. There would be no love in it. Not from her.

‘How will I recognise her?’ he asked.