Liska stayed as a griffyx because her fur coat and scales held in more warmth than human skin. She hunted groundhogs with Fishbone and they ate them, cooked over small fires made with dry grass and scraps of gorse, when they made camp. When they slept, Fishbone and Liska curled up next to Lug, trying to give him their warmth. He was wrapped in every spare blanket they had and still couldn’t stop shivering. Elowen had torn up an old quilt and used her sewing kit to tack together some mittens for him. If it got much colder, Liska worried he might get frostbite, or worse. More than once she thought of telling him to turn back, but then he would walk right into the clutches of Thresher. Even though his lips were blue and frost clung to his hair, Lug kept stumbling on, too cold even to moan about how much he hated it.

Elowen didn’t feel the temperature at all and her legs didn’t seem to tire. In between practising magic, she chattered to them as they marched, trying to keep their spirits up, pointing out arctic foxes and ermines, bison, elk and wild horses.

Every now and then, Liska would take to the sky, flying above the tiny specks of her friends as the icy winds buffeted her, trying to gauge how far they had left to walk.

On the afternoon of the second day, she spotted a grey speck amongst the glacier ice. Halfway through the third it had grown to a splinter. There was definitely something big up ahead – surely it could only be Nammu?

The others were filled with excitement when she told them, and even found the energy to dance around in the grass and moss. Soon they could see it too, and the sight of it inching ever so slightly closer spurred them on.

But all their hope was shattered the day after when Liska saw four tiny figures emerge from the forest behind them. Smaller than grains of sand, she was still able to count them, and her eagle-keen eyesight could even pick out the way they moved. One stalking, striding, the other three surging and slinking. A hunter and three hounds.

It was a hard decision to stop that night, especially as Nammu was now so close. Near enough to see its trunk and branches. Near enough to hope that they could actually make it.

‘W-will she c-come at us w-when we sleep?’ Lug managed to stutter. He was sitting so close to their fire that Liska worried he might catch one of his many blankets alight.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Not tonight. Even if they run without stopping, they’re still four days behind.’

‘And I shall be keeping watch,’ said Elowen. ‘I have had more than enough sleep for several lifetimes. Nobody will sneak up, I promise.’