She bunched her muscles, ready to jump in, then hesitated, remembering the huge river they had crossed with Toklo and Ujurak. She had almost drowned then . . . She swallowed nervously. I’m a black bear, she reminded herself. We’re the best swimmers of all the bears. And this river is nowhere near as wide as the other one.

But she still couldn’t forget the feeling of the black water closing over her head, her ears roaring with bubbles, and her nose and mouth filling with something that made it impossible to breathe . . . She shivered.

‘What’s the matter?’ Kallik asked. ‘We can find a different way if you want.’

Lusa forced herself to shake her head. ‘I’m fine,’ she insisted. ‘We’ve seen the signs, so we know this is right.’

In her heart she was certain that whoever had sent the signs to Ujurak had also sent this one to her. She had to trust in that power, and accept the guidance.

‘Let’s go!’ she barked.

‘Wait!’ Kallik shouldered Lusa away from the edge of the river.

‘What’s the matter?’ Lusa asked, confused. ‘I’m OK, honestly.’

‘I know,’ Kallik told her; she was keeping herself between Lusa and the river. ‘And I’m willing to give this a try. It’s just . . . well, look at the current. I think if we want to go across the river, it’s no good to swim straight across. We have to swim as if we want to go upriver. The current will drag us the other way, and we should end up where we want to be.’

‘But won’t crossing like that take longer?’ Lusa asked, impatient to be moving.

‘Yes, and it will be very tiring. But at least we won’t get washed away.’

Lusa studied the fast-flowing water. She imagined a stick floating out from the bank and shooting downstream as soon as it reached the middle of the river where the current was strongest. To reach the shore directly on the other side, the stick would have to start higher up along the bank, to be carried down as well as across. ‘OK, we’ll do it your way,’ she said.

She launched herself into the river, striking out forcefully against the current. Immediately she felt its strong pull, tugging at her legs. But she kept on paddling determinedly, with Kallik swimming at her shoulder, nudging her upstream. Lusa huffed and puffed as she fought the drag of the river, almost swimming sideways as she tried not to get swept away. Gradually they drew closer to the opposite bank.

Just as she was beginning to think that the danger was over, she heard a yelp from Kallik. ‘Lusa! Watch out!’

Lusa glanced over her shoulder to see a fallen tree branch being carried downstream, turning over and over in the white-tipped water. She was swimming straight into its path.