Joe put his hands over his head and crouched low, trying to avoid the rocks and half cover Tiago at the same time.

Asa backed away, sword raised, looking all around for the hidden assailants.

Stones came whizzing down – now from this broken window, now from that rotting balcony. But there was no one to be seen.

‘It’s the ghosts!’ one man yelled. ‘I told you we shouldn’t come here.’

‘Don’t be a fool—’ Asa ordered. But then a stone hit him on the back of his head, and he spun round, looking furious. 141

Above them, a pair of shutters burst open and a stream of bats came pouring out, a mass of fluttering shadows, flying in all directions.

‘Argh! There’s a bat in my hair!’ one man cried, dropping his sword to brush the bats away.

Meanwhile, the stones kept coming, sometimes hitting the men, sometimes the bats, but never hitting Joe or Tiago, though one bounced off the cobbles right by Joe’s foot.

It was too much. The men fled in terror, leaving Yannic unconscious on the floor, while Asa stood there, still search­ing for his hidden enemy, his vision clouded by the swooping swirling bats.

Joe saw his chance. He bent and grabbed Tiago under the arms and dragged him to his feet. Struggling under his weight, he managed to wrap his right arm round his shoul­ders, and stumble away down a side street. He ignored the bats – he was used to them now from the cave.

‘Walk! Come on, Tiago,’ he hissed in his ear. ‘Use your feet. We’ve got to get away.’

With his eyes still closed, and blood dribbling from his nose, Tiago managed to stay upright and help Joe a little as they fled the scene.

They struggled through the streets back to the healing house, always choosing the narrowest ones.

‘Joe! Wait for me.’

He gently lowered Tiago to sit down, and peered round, as a patch of shadow detached itself from the walls.

Winter emerged, breathing hard, dangling a catapult from one hand. She held a stone in the other.142

‘It was you!’ Joe could hardly believe it. ‘Where did you learn to do that?’

‘A girl alone has to be able to defend herself,’ she said.

‘You were amazing! Thank you!’

‘Not really. They’re superstitious fools. Scared of harm­less bats! Is he all right?’

Tiago was folded forwards on his knees, holding his head in both hands. One eye was so swollen he could barely see, and his face was dappled with bruising.

‘He will be, once the healers have him.’ He asked, ‘Did you hear those men? What they said?’

‘Once I thought they were drunken fools,’ Winter said tightly. ‘But the Brotherhood are getting bolder. I’ve seen them – meeting at night. They’re not going to go away.’

‘My sister and the duke will have a plan to deal with them. I’m sure they will.’ But Joe shivered, remembering the meeting he’d been to, and he hoped he was right.