The four of them stood in silence for a moment, gathering themselves for what was to come. Angela reached for Sammi’s hand and took it, but Vince saw that Sammi did not seem to notice. Her hand lay limp in Angela’s, like a landed fish. She stared into the darkness ahead as if she could see beyond, and her eyes were wide, tears streaking her face. If she could see, what she witnessed was only bad.

Vince kept hold of Angela’s other hand and led them through.

* * *

In the darkness, it was easy to imagine that nothing was wrong. The bushes and trees around them were still, and other than the rustling of small night creatures, the valley slope was silent. Any curious sightseers would have gone home, away from the rain and the darkness.

Downhill, the expanse of grey silt caught the starlight like a scar on the world.

“Maybe you should stay here, hidden away,” Angela said to Sammi.

“I need to come. The closer I am, the more chance this will work. I think I’m almost ready now. I think I can do it, but we need to get close.”

“We stick together,” Vince said. “Angela, we don’t want to leave her under a bush. There are things out here that have come to join Mallian, and one of them might find her.”

“Strength in numbers,” Dastion said, wielding his heavy pike and slamming it into the ground. It entered with a heavy thud. Sparks flew. The dwarf’s strength was humbling, and Vince felt a moment of hope.

“Okay,” Angela said. “Let’s move down the hillside and wait.”

They edged through the trees, with Sammi taking the lead. She said she could feel ahead of and around them, probe outward for other Kin.

Vince wished he had a way of staying in touch with Bone. The older man might have been mad, but he also now seemed to have the same end in mind as Vince and the others. His connection with the Kin was strange and Vince had yet to fully understand it. He hoped that he would soon.

They reached the line between lush ground and the exposed reservoir bed. Down the hillside and beyond the remains of Longford was the river, and it was this that they had come to watch.

“Shashahanna should have reached it by now,” Angela whispered.

“If she hasn’t been caught,” Dastion said.

“And if Fellian is what she claims,” Vince said. “She might come through and then side with Mallian. Dastion?”

“You’re asking me?” the dwarf asked. Even in a whisper his voice was like a rumble through the ground. “I know her as well as you. As well as any of them who were in the Fold. I spent most of my time underground, you know that.”

Vince nodded. “You okay, Sammi?”