Elissa was feeling confused. The trees all looked the same.

‘I forgot to leave a marker,’ Silvius spoke uncertainly.

Now it also seemed that they were a lot further into the trees than Elissa had thought, as if the forest had somehow dragged them inwards. Suddenly she longed for the clarity of the stream.

Ruffler, ahead, flattened his ears and growled. Then he turned tail and pattered back to Elissa, hiding behind her legs.

She could see along a clearing towards a path where, in the gloom, she could make out a shape. Hunched over, it appeared to be on four legs. It raised its head, and from the angle she was at, it resembled the silhouette of a centaur.

‘Maybe a friend of Stargazer!’ said Elissa, relieved, stepping forwards. Silvius grabbed her elbow.

‘Careful …’

Ruffler was right up against Elissa’s legs, his back arched, his hackles raised. The silhouette stepped into a patch of grey light.

It wasn’t a centaur at all. It was a beast, tawny and huge, with black, wet eyes and a rough, shaggy mane.

‘A lion …’ breathed Elissa. The sense of power coming from it was immense.

And on the back of the lion was a woman, dressed in a simple brown tunic, with long golden-brown hair. There was something odd about her, and it took Elissa a fleeting moment to work out what it was.

Her eyes were milky white.

‘She’s blind,’ she said under her breath.

‘Let’s back away,’ Silvius replied. ‘Quietly.’

They began to inch backwards.

The lion shifted its head lazily, and yawned, a huge pink tongue lolling out. The woman’s head turned sharply and she uttered a word of command. The lion started padding, at first slowly, then loping; soon it was charging towards them.

‘Run!’ Silvius sprinted away, Elissa close after him. There was no sign of Ruffler. Hoping that the wolf cub would find them later, she ran onwards through the undergrowth.

She caught up with Silvius. ‘What shall we do?’ Elissa panted.

‘Find a tree?’

‘And wait on a branch till we starve?’

‘Let’s shoot at her!’ Silvius turned to go back.

‘No, wait!’

The lion rider appeared over the brow of a ridge, fierce and fast, the blind woman’s hair billowing behind her.

There was a tall tree a dozen or so paces ahead. Silvius was right. It was the only thing to do, and Elissa flung herself at it, scrambling up from a thick low branch to a thinner one above. Silvius followed her, sat astride the lower branch and had just enough time to fit an arrow to his bow.

Elissa breathlessly watched the flight of the arrow.

And gasped in horror. It never reached its target. Instead, the woman made a small movement with her hand, and the arrow simply shrivelled into dust in mid-air.

The lion rider laughed.

‘You are in my woods now, mortals, and you would do well to follow my commands.’