Uncle Alf’s eyes traced the lines on the paper slowly, deliberately, until he reached the final line. The creases on his forehead grew deeper and his face drained of colour. He dropped the letter and rested his face in his hands.

‘Wait,’ Lily asked, ‘what is it? What does this mean?’

‘The Shadow Sect. I knew them. Or-or-or at least,’ he stuttered, ‘I knew of them. They haven’t shown themselves around these parts in a very long time. Last time they were in the area, there were a series of disappearances, grisly unexplained murders, missing children, that sort of thing. They disappeared after a while, no doubt to stalk through a different area. I never dreamed that they would come back. I heard the rumours from the other village councillors when I last went to pay our rents to the baron, and I suppose I hoped they’d got the wrong end of the stick, y’know?’

‘You heard about this the last time you went to the borderlands? But … that was so long ago. Why didn’t you tell me?’

He shrugged. ‘I didn’t think anything of it. There’s always strange stuff said out on the border … I think the baron likes to start rumours; he fought on the other side during the wars, you know. I don’t think he likes that we were left to our own devices; he thinks we should all be joined as one fiefdom, with the Brotherhood ruling us all.’

‘What? What brotherhood? Alf, how much have you been keeping from me? You always said your trips to the border were quiet, uneventful. None of this sounds quiet or uneventful.’

He looked up from his hands and met Lily’s eyes. He went to respond, and then caught himself, his mouth opening and closing like a codfish. He shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter now. You’re right – maybe I shouldn’t have shielded you for so long but … there’s no time now. If they really do have Alice, then you have two options. You give up and accept that your friend is gone – and by the sounds of things, she’s gone willingly, so they might spare her life. Or…’ He paused, hoping, perhaps, that Lily would be content to let her friend go. Instead, she knew there was a terrified defiance in her face, a fierce refusal to accept Alice’s disappearance. ‘Or you go after her. You go after her and hope with all of your might that you catch her before they get under her skin. But you have to be willing to accept that the Alice you find may not be the Alice you remember.’

‘Does it have to be me that goes? Could you not contact someone in Kelseth? The warden would help, I’m sure he would. We could write to him and send it on the afternoon mail coach… It would reach him by this evening, and we could have an answer by tomorrow, or perhaps the day after. Or come with me and we can ask around, see if anyone has seen her?’ But Lily knew she was asking too much.