It wasn’t a long way to the Shadow Sect’s lair, but in that moment Lily wished it was still days of travel away. All of a sudden, she felt unprepared, like a scared little girl with a big impossible plan. They had spent all that time scouring their maps in Jem’s study. Late nights, early mornings, headaches from the intense concentration, sore eyes, aching hearts, they’d battled it all. They’d done all of that for this day, for this moment. Doubt was a luxury they could not afford. No, she thought, I specialise in impossible plans. If anyone can do this, we can. Because we must.

Lily had memorised the final part of the journey, so the two of them set out with their packs on their backs, feeling barely ready for the day ahead. The chatter between them had vanished and a nervous buzz surrounded them, like a whole hive of honeybees stalking their every movement. This wasn’t a time for small talk, for laughter or jokes. They had to focus. They couldn’t lose their nerve.

After what felt like a hundred thousand strides, they spotted what they had been looking for: a vast but unremarkable edge of stone jutting from the hillside. Nothing about it suggested that it housed the most dangerous group of people known in this land. In normal circumstances, Lily would have loved nothing more than to clamber onto the top of the ledge and gaze out at the landscape, relishing the wind in her hair and the fresh air in her lungs. But these were not normal circumstances, so she quashed that yearning and turned to Jem.

‘I think we should leave our packs hidden here amongst the underbrush. We don’t want to be carrying bags that jangle with our belongings every time we take a step. Plus, it’ll be easier to move and sneak around if we aren’t weighed down.’ She was already swinging her bag to the ground. Jem just nodded and followed suit. They found a patch of bracken and ferns that acted as an adequate shelter for their packs and, making sure they were completely out of sight, they left the bags behind.

They climbed and clambered for what felt like an age, but finally reached the bottom of the sheer stone cliff. They followed their meticulously researched route and headed to the right of the cliff, edged around its furthest side and, to their immense relief, they spotted the slim cave entrance that marked the beginning of their rescue venture. Just before they were about to march inside, they heard scuffling, voices, footsteps. Lily turned to Jem. His face had drained of colour and his eyes were wide; he looked like a cornered animal.

‘Hide!’ Lily whispered with desperation, and pushed Jem back around the corner of rock in the direction they had just come.

He disappeared, and Lily was left alone.

Chapter Forty-One

Lily dropped to her knees and rubbed some of the mud from the ground onto her face and hair, hoping to make herself look vulnerable. She racked her brains to think of a convincing cover story and hoped against hope that Jem had managed to hide.