After he had gone, I lay on my side gazing at the lantern that he had left behind, thinking about Angina and wondering over and over if what I had done had been an evil thing, or right and merciful. I would not know until Miky lived and woke, if she ever did. I shivered at the thought that she might wake knowing what I had done and hate me for it. I thought of getting up to snuff the lantern wick, but was still gazing into its wavering flame when sleep claimed me again. This time, mercifully, I did not dream.

I woke again to darkness, though it seemed to me it was not far from dawn now. The lantern had gone out and the fire was burned down to the merest ruddy glow. I shifted my shoulder. It still twinged slightly but there was no pain. Perhaps the power Nerat had given my body to heal itself extended to healing my spirit-form. I stretched out my arm and was glad to find there was no numbness.

What had wakened me, I wondered, when I might easily have slept another hour or two?

‘Marumanyelloweyes woke you, Elspethlnnle,’ came the acerbic thought.

My heart leapt and I started up in shock to see the form of a cat on the sill, dimly lit by the red glow of the embers in the fire. One yellow eye watched me.

‘Maruman!’ I cried, flinging away the blankets and rushing across the room to scoop the old cat into my arms and smother him with kisses. I had not realised the extent of my fear for him until I held him in my arms, risking his claws and his uncertain temper. To my intense relief, there was no singed smell from his fur or scabs or gashes from fighting; best of all, his good eye glared at me with clear intelligence; ire, too, at my lavish outpouring of relief and happiness. That he did not scratch or bite me told me that he had missed me, too. I had not known I was crying until he beastspoke me to stop raining on him.

‘I am sorry my friend, but you … you have been gone so long,’ I gulped, knowing that unrestrained emotions really did irritate his mind. I wanted very badly to ask where he had been, but he loathed being questioned. Indeed, curiosity seemed to trouble his mind almost as much as human delight or anger. He would tell me what he wanted to tell me when he chose, and until then I must be patient. ‘I am just so glad you are back,’ I said at last.

‘I came to tell you that you must travel at all speed/ haste to the high mountains, ElspethInnle,’ he responded composedly.

‘The high mountains,’ I repeated, and set him back down on the sill so that I could look into his yellow eye. ‘Did Atthis send you to get me?’