“Yes, the river. There are people there. Will you lead us?”

The woman seems to consider the request. She crouches motionless for a moment, cocking her head. In profile, she becomes strange all over again, her features foreign: the jawline strong, the small dark eye almost hidden in its thick fold. When she jerks her head to them and beckons, Charlie gives a sudden start.

“I have seen her before!”

“Where?”

“On a picture of your father’s, taken fifteen years ago. But there she had two heads.”

But he does not explain what he means by this, bends down and shoulders Thomas instead, out of whose face mud grows like a dirty tumour.

“Do you think we are being followed?” she asks him as he makes to set off.

“Don’t let’s wait and find out.”

ф

They walk for more than an hour. Very quickly Charlie tires of his burden and at Livia’s insistence they take Thomas’s slumping body between themselves, his arms slung over their shoulders, feet dragging in the leaves. Progress is slow and there is no way of telling how much distance they are putting between themselves and their attackers. The woman walks a good ten paces ahead, melting into the trees seemingly at will, then stepping out a few yards farther on and beckoning with her head. At long last they reach the river. They see it first as a wall of brightness cut into the dark mass of the trees: the sun is out and is hitting the water, reflecting up. It’s so tranquil it makes no sound. On the other bank the trees cluster thickly. Wherever they are, there are no people here.

But their guide has a reason for choosing this spot. She beckons them on, walking quickly along to the riverbank. Livia knows she cannot carry on much longer. Charlie too is staggering under Thomas’s weight, his breathing ragged, the head beetroot-red. There isn’t far to go: thirty steps on the woman stops and disappears in the shrubs to the side. When they reach the spot, she is gone, somewhere in the shadowy darkness of the woods. The riverbank is steep here. Swollen as the river is by the recent rains, they are walking no more than a yard above the waterline.

“Can you see her?” Charlie pants.

“No. But there is something behind this shrub. Something she wants us to find.”