“Is it possible we could come for you now, you and your friends?” asked the Prince. “If you allow that, we can protect you completely.”

“No, it would be too soon,” said Kapetria.

But why? Derek wondered. He had told her how he’d been carried through the skies by Rhoshamandes. But then, she knew all the lore and powers of these beings. The Prince and his companions could come now through the air.

“Very well,” said the Prince. “But you do understand the quality of the danger?”

“Yes, I do,” said Kapetria. “We’ll be there well before sunset tomorrow.”

“Excellent. And I make one final request. Say nothing whatsoever of our private concerns to my village people, my workers.”

“You don’t have to worry in this regard at all.”

“Glad to hear it,” said the Prince. “Then tomorrow night we can discover what it is that we have in common, and what it is that concerns us in common.”

“Exactly,” she said.

It was over, done, finished. Dertu collected the little throwaway phone.

Now they only had to survive for the next eight to nine hours of darkness in this nest of human dwellings, with the car safely hidden in the garage, without being discovered by Rhoshamandes.

None of the others had spoken a word during this exchange, but Garekyn had been called away for a call of his own, and when he came back into the room, he looked deeply disturbed.

“The monster burned my house in London,” he said. “That was less than an hour ago.”

“Contemptible,” said Kapetria. “But it does mean the monster has no idea where we are. Or he wouldn’t be wasting his time with such gestures.”

It will be fine, thought Derek. It will all work. We will be safe, thought Derek, because she is here now to think of everything.

Welf was the first to dispel the gloom.

“It’s time for us to feast,” he announced. He had cooked a roast for them earlier, and he was ready to serve it up with cold beer, which should not affect their senses too badly. Welf and Garekyn set the table in the dining room. Dertu went about checking the locks of the house, though what good that would ever do Derek did not know.

At last they sat down, and clasped hands and bowed their heads, and they were together again, breaking bread, for the first time since those ancient days and nights, and Derek found himself weeping. He was ashamed and wanted to leave the table, but Welf sat beside him, and comforted him, saying how sorry he was for all his early questions.

Kapetria was cutting Derek’s food into small pieces as if he were a child, and Dertu was devouring everything in sight, carrots, potatoes, bright red slices of tomato in olive oil with garlic, hot bread dripping with butter, and slabs of pink meat.