‘Forgotten?’ she chimes. ‘When I make a rule, it is not forgotten, Peg. It is not broken! You were told never to come back! That spell you used last time nearly destroyed a whole cluster!’

‘A cluster?’ I frown from Rory to Peg. ‘A cluster of what?’

‘Spiders,’ Peg says, winding his tail through his fingers, looking at the ground. ‘I was searching for the truth, deep in the forest, looking for the palace, and they attacked . . .’

‘Peg! You were searching for chestnuts, and the spiders spooked you. We do not harm nature’s creatures in here, even if we don’t like them. What you did was unforgivable.’

‘I’m very sorry,’ he says, looking up at her with a nervous, toothy imp smile. ‘I acted wrongly in a moment of panic, and I have repented ever since. I swear, I’ll never do it again. Now I bring these children to you, for they are determined to find the palace.’

Rory snorts and paws at the ground. ‘Pretty words, little imp – that’s all those are.’ She turns her steely gaze to me. ‘I told these girls, this creature, not to return. I told you not to return!’

‘She isn’t a creature,’ says Peg quickly, leaping up on to my shoulder. ‘Don’t you see who she is, Rory? Have you been blinded by all these years among the shadows?’

‘I have been too busy fighting to listen to dusty old legends,’ she whispers, and her face is changed; it is a wild, cruel place where hope no longer lives. ‘If what you say is true, then they will find their way, Peg. But you may not go with them.’

She is suddenly still, just inches from us. The air smells of metal, it’s cold as a knife in my throat.

‘You were banished by my word, and my word shall have power here, whatever else may happen. Send your girls to do their little hunt, if you dare. That one –’ she indicates me with a cool nod of her head – ‘brings the shadows close. There is no doubting that. They have grown worse than ever since I first saw her in here. If she really has something to do with it all, she may as well do it now, for we are heading for the fight of our lives.’

She casts a glance towards Zara and me. ‘I see they have one of the old lanterns. Perhaps that will help. Perhaps not. In either case, I have other things to attend to, for today we mourn, for the thousandth time.’ The knife sharpens as her voice breaks, and she is grief, and wilderness, all trapped in sharp angles.

Peg crouches still as stone upon my shoulder, and I sense something passing between Rory and him. The moment stretches, and I can almost hear it, but every time I try to tune in, something snaps, tight as elastic. I close my eyes to focus better, but the air turns still . . . and when I open them, she’s gone.