It’s Win who wakes me up. “Arthur!” he cries, shaking my hammock. “You’ve got to see where we are. It’s so cool and SO COLD!”

I pull on my onesie and stumble after him on to the deck.

The bitter icy cold hits me first, stealing my breath away, then I’m dazzled by bright light. I shove my hands deep into the pockets of my onesie and join Rose at the railing.

We’re moored in a curving bay surrounded by towering mountains. The sea around us is slushy with ice and larger sheets knock against the side of the ship.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” she says.

I nod. It’s all I can do. I’m too cold to speak. Instead I let my eyes run over the rocky shoreline. Beyond it lies a forest of snow-covered trees that has a path running through it. No, not a path; a river—a band of blue sparkling ice that leads from the sea to a gigantic waterfall.

And this is what Rose is staring at.

The waterfall is frozen. Great blue icicles point toward the ground as if the water was gushing one moment then froze the next. Two of the icicles are bigger than the others and they form sharp, curving points.

“The Vampire,” I say, my breath making a cloud in the air. Just then something soft lands on my nose. I look up and see that the sky is bulging with clouds. A few more snowflakes settle on my face. Except for the sound of our breath and the creaking ice, thick silence surrounds us.

“You’ve not seen it, have you?” Rose’s voice is a whisper.

“Seen what?”

She points at a narrow gap between two cliffs. Crowky’s tall ship, the Raven, is tucked inside it, almost invisible. It dips up and down with the waves. The sails are hauled in and the deck is deserted.

The sight of it makes my skin prickle with fear. I pull my onesie closer to me and look around. I scan the forest and the base of the mountains. I blink into the light, looking for any sign of Crowky.

“I’ve not seen him or any scarecrows,” says Rose.

“But he’s here,” I say. My eyes flick back to the forest, looking for moving shapes, footprints, any sign of life. Could he have already found the Box? Is he dragging it out of some cave or hole right now?

“We need to work out where Mitch hid the Box, and we need to do it now,” I say. “Then we get out of here.”

Rose nods, but then she says, “He’s always one step ahead of us, Arthur.”