Ben peered through the archway of vine, back stooped, peeling apart its glossy leaves with careful fingers. Another sharp bank led into the field. There was no way to see into the open without first climbing down. No easy feat considering their backpacks and the thorny barbs that spiralled through the shrubbery like steel wire.

The child would have reached the men by now. One might have even caught sight of them before they turned down the hill. Either way, their presence was known. He was certain of that if nothing else.

‘I say we follow her,’ he said. ‘They already know we’re here.’

‘Yeah, I suppose you’re right. We did ring a big bell, didn’t we?’

‘That was all you. Come on.’ He smiled. ‘I’ll go down first in case you blunder into another trap.’

‘Hey!’ she protested. ‘That’s no way to talk to your anchor.’

Sparling’s enthusiasm, however deluded, had awoken in Ben a nervous energy. These wouldn’t be like past interviews, praised by academics who already knew the answers to every question. Nobody knew what secrets the Tír Mallachts had hidden away.

He crept towards the edge of the embankment, where the tunnel dropped into the leafy unknown. Briars scratched and swished against his rucksack as he squeezed his way down. He blinked away the clay that crumbled as dust in his fingers. One branch even raked across his head like a long fingernail. Eventually, traumatised and blind, he fell into the open, narrowly missing his head on a low-hanging branch.

‘How is it?’ Chloe’s voice asked from above.

‘It’s grand,’ he called up. ‘Come on down.’

There was nothing to be gained by telling her the truth.

He looked towards the far end of the field, where the men had convened over tools and pipe smoke. But where there had been many, there was now only one. The child stood crookedly to his side like a devious familiar. They seemed to be waiting for them.

Ben could hear Chloe shrieking to herself as she bumbled down the bank.

‘Are you okay?’ he shouted back.

‘I’m just fucking fine, thanks.’

The man by the child’s side was stood so stiffly, as though every muscle in his body were tensed like a cat charging up to pounce. There was no telling if this implied hostility or not. He was too distant to discern his expression, but Ben knew that he was staring him down across the upturned soil. Welcome or not, it was too late to go back now.

Chloe landed in gracelessly beside him, spitting, and brushing dirt from her hood. She fell still when her eyes lifted to the horizon.

‘Where’d they all go?’ she asked.

‘Let’s find out.’