All at once Vin-Si, holding onto the doorway with one hand, let go and tumbled out into the yard. Sah-To followed, and finally Mah-Li, his broad grin frozen into a rictus of pain, staggered back through the doorway. Isaac pushed the ice storm after them, and in the moonlight Alice could see the three figures loping away as fast as their legs could carry them. She let the swarmers vanish and stumbled to the door, slamming it closed and shoving the iron bolt into place. Isaac lowered his hands, and the wind died away. The little cottage went silent.

‘Are you all right?’ Alice said.

Isaac nodded, breathing hard. ‘You?’

‘I think so.’ Alice ran a hand along her neck. She found half a tooth dangling from where it had cut shallowly into her skin, and tossed it aside with a shudder. ‘Just a few scratches.’

There was another pause.

‘You are the stupidest—’ Alice and Isaac both began, almost simultaneously. Then, catching each other’s expression, they both stopped, and equally simultaneously began laughing. Isaac doubled over, hands on his knees, while Alice leaned back against the door and shook with slightly hysterical giggles.

‘Do you want to go first?’ she said, when they’d calmed down a little.

Isaac took a deep breath, leaning against the table. ‘I thought he was going to tear your throat out.’

‘I was a little worried about that myself,’ Alice said. ‘I’d never tried using the Swarm like that before.’

‘You were planning on that? Your plan was to walk in here and get one of them to bite you?’

‘More or less.’ It didn’t sound like such a great idea, now that Isaac said it out loud. ‘I didn’t have a lot of time to come up with it. What were you thinking when you told me to run? I thought you were coming too.’

‘I have no idea,’ Isaac said. ‘I just . . . I really don’t know.’ He shook his head. ‘Thanks for not running too far.’

‘Well. I still needed your help. And you saved me from Mr Black.’ Alice paused as something occurred to her. ‘Why didn’t you use that . . . song when they grabbed you?’

Isaac sighed. ‘She’s called the Siren. She can put people into a trance, and eventually to sleep, but it takes a little while to have an effect.’ His hand went to his trouser pocket and patted it to make sure something was still there. ‘It also takes a lot of energy. I’m not sure I could have got all three of them at once.’