‘Greetings, pack leader,’ I heard Darga beastspeak in a very formal respectful tone. ‘The oldOnes bade me bring this funaga to you and ask that you hear her request.’ There was a silence, then he sent, as if in answer to a question, ‘I am not the slave or the servant of the funaga. She is my companion, as is the feline. We, serve the oldOnes. I ask again that you will open your mind to the funaga.’

The big wolf responded with a low rumbling growl and it was a truly terrifying sound.

‘That is so, but before that, she instructed me to bring the funaga here,’ Darga said. This was met by another rumbling response from the ice-hued pack leader.

‘I do not fear death, for the beastheart will welcome me, but if you kill the funaga you kill the hope of all beasts, for this is that Innle who is to lead beasts to freedom,’ Darga sent calmly. The wolf shifted his silvery gaze from Darga to me, and then to Maruman, who uttered a soft but unmistakably challenging yowl.

‘It would not be wise for you to eat the feline for he is the protector of Innle, appointed by the oldOnes,’ Darga sent quickly as the wolf took a step towards Maruman. ‘Also he is old and likely his meat would be very tough and bitter.’

Darga did not move and I realised with dismay that he, too, had been rendered helpless by the wolves. The pack leader came to Maruman, who looked very small and fragile beside the enormous wolf with the cold eyes. His lips curled back from his sharp, white teeth and I realised with horror that he was on the verge of attacking the old cat. Unable to reach the wolf’s mind to coerce him, I envisaged the spirit sword, and drew on the dark force at my core. I directed its eldritch potency into the slight ability I had to coerce small things, and used it to scoop a handful of scalding water from the pool and hurl it into the wolf’s face.

He gave a shocked yowl of pain and reeled back, shaking his head. When he turned his blazing eyes on me, I saw that there was now a murderous red light in their depths. He padded past Maruman to confront me, and bared his fangs. He was so close that I could smell the rank stench of meat on his breath.

‘This one will kill tha, dinrai,’ the wolf sent the words scything into my mind.