‘Do you think I want to leave him?’ Raffi muttered, despairing. ‘If there was any chance, Carys, any chance at all. But there isn’t! No one can get into those places!’

She got up abruptly and walked to the edge of the cloister. Pinned on a row of broken pillars, a dead vine rustled. Owls hooted, far off in the stillness. Standing with her back to them, she said, ‘I can get him out.’

After a second Raffi looked up. ‘What did you say?’

‘I can get Galen out.’

Raffi stared at the Sekoi in bewilderment. It stood up. ‘Explain,’ it said, dangerously.

Carys turned round. She forced herself to look at it, but its eyes were yellow and sharp, and she couldn’t face Raffi either.

‘I work for the Watch. I’m a spy, and I have been from the beginning.’

There was a second of intense silence. Then Raffi said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ but his voice was cold and he stared at her in growing horror.

She forced herself to meet his eyes. ‘I’m not. It’s true.’

‘You can’t be!’ He jumped up so quickly the pile of stones behind him slid down. ‘You’ve been with us all along! Your father –’

‘I haven’t got a father.’ She glanced at the Sekoi. ‘I was brought up in a Watchhouse. I came with you because … well, at first because I was hunting Galen.’

‘And then the Crow. You wanted us to get you to the Crow!’

‘Raffi –’

‘Don’t speak to me!’ He turned away, then helplessly swung back. ‘You used us! All that time you lied to us? All you told us about your father …?’ Choked with anger, he gripped his fists; to her astonishment tiny green filaments of light flickered round his fingers. ‘Carys…’ Then he laughed, harshly. ‘I don’t even know if that’s your name! I don’t know who you are any more!’

She bit her lip. He looked as if his world had crashed to pieces. ‘It is my name.’

‘Did you betray Galen?’

The Sekoi’s question was icy; the fur of its nape had swollen and thickened.

‘Of course not!’ she snapped.

‘But someone did.’

‘No. It wasn’t like that.’

‘So you did betray him?’ Raffi gasped.

‘I had to get us into the city! Let me explain!’

‘Why should I let you!’ he raged. But then he sat down, suddenly, as if his legs had given way, and his voice was bewildered. ‘I just can’t believe this is happening.’

Carys sat beside him. Her voice was dry and hard. ‘At the gate, when we hid under the waggons, I was caught. It was a hopeless plan. I told them who I was, that you were spies. They let us in. I swear I never said anything about relics, or keepers. I wouldn’t have. I wanted the credit of your capture for myself.’