All Liska could do was flip her hood over and shift into her beast shape. Then with her fiercest snarl on her fox lips, she padded down to where Fishbone stood – his claws popped – ready to fight to the death alongside him.

*

‘I finally caught you.’ Thresher’s voice, when it came, was husky and rasping. Liska could see the deep scars on her neck that caused it. If only that wyvern had finished the job.

‘We’re not caught yet,’ she snarled. Two of the seepers had broken off, coming around from either side of the fire to flank them. She turned to face one, flaring her wings and snapping. She could hear Fishbone hissing at the other. Somewhere behind her there was a scrabbling and flapping as Lug clambered out of his blankets and started muttering prayers to his worm god.

‘Shame,’ Thresher continued taunting them. ‘You got so close. The heart was here as well. All the time. Even Noxis thought it was probably just a story.’

The seeper closest to her took another step around the fire. It was only a pounce away now, waiting for orders. But if Liska could just keep its master talking for a few minutes more . . .

‘Why are you doing this? You’ve betrayed your own kind for these . . . things.’

Thresher tried to laugh. It sounded like a crow being sick. ‘You mages and half beasts have no idea of the power. Bitterblight has shown us what it can create. An empire that would put Arborven to shame. One that isn’t ruled over by those walking wooden monsters.’

She pointed her spear at Embla, still joined to the tree, straining to pull her half-formed arm free.

‘Instead you’ve chosen worse monsters,’ Liska said. ‘Evil, poisoned things. They stink of rot and death. Can’t you smell it?’

‘Oh, you get used to it after a while.’ That tortured laugh again. ‘I even quite like it. Better to be a lord among the diseased than a servant of the treekeepers. And now I’d best let my pets kill you before your tree girl can come to the rescue.’

She snapped her fingers and the seepers launched themselves.

Liska was ready. She saw one of the things leave the ground and fly towards her, mouth wide open, seams of grey smoke trailing.

But she was already gone. With a beat of her powerful wings, she drove herself down, skimming along the ground underneath the seeper’s feet, then digging her paws into the dirt to spin round, ready to attack.

The seeper landed, jaws closing on the flattened grass where Liska had just been. It tumbled over itself before jumping up, whirling round to face her . . .

. . . and met a cloud of sparks and embers that Liska had just scooped from the fire and thrown with her paw.