Despite the dramatic arrival of the wolves, my spirits had risen because I had done what Atthis had told Maruman I must do; I had convinced the wolves to go with us, and the pack leader knew the way to the Beforetime city. Once again knowledge had come to me at the very moment I needed it, and I told myself that here was proof, yet again, that no matter how impossible things seemed, a way would open that would enable me to proceed, so long as I was willing. The pack leader said he had seen darkness beyond the city, but there might be many reasons for that, the simplest being that his vision had not extended beyond our arrival in the Beforetime city. At the least, it could be taken as a warning to be careful when we approached the city and its unknown denizens.

‘You have not yet said what went on between the wolves,’ Dameon reminded me gently.

‘Yes, I thought the older female was going to tear your throat out,’ Analivia added.

Before I could respond, Gavyn and the pale ridgeback Rasial emerged from the night with Darga. Maruman opened his yellow eye to regard them briefly, then curled back to sleep. The boy wore loose pants, light woven shoes and a coat that hung open to reveal a wrongly tied vest. He had no shirt, his hair was unbrushed and there was a streak of dirt on his face. He cast off a hempen forage bag that bulged with whatever he had collected, hardly seeming to notice any of us, though when Analivia handed him a bowl of soup and set down some campbread for the dog, he gave her his vague sweet smile before squatting and gulping down the soup hungrily.

Rasial ignored the bread and came to fix me with her pale eyes.

‘Greetings Innle,’ she sent as coldly as ever.

Her manner lit a chilly flame of anger in me. ‘You told me once that you had come to Obernewtyn to seek your death,’ I beastspoke her. ‘You did not find it there, but I think you will find it on this journey. Have you considered what will happen to the boy?’

‘The oldOne came to me in a dream and showed me how to come to thisplace. She bade me wait for the blind funaga and bring him here to wait for you / Innle. The cub shared the dream.’ She sniffed the air and nar-rowed her eyes. ‘Wolves have been here.’