Liska winced, expecting the worst, but the spear tip simply bounced off Embla’s silvery wooden hide. Then, copper-leaved hair swirling about her head, Embla took a giant step towards Thresher.

One trunk-like leg landed just in front of the hunter, and she brought her other foot swinging past it in an almighty kick. Thresher was caught in the chest and punted high into the air, sailing up almost as far as Nammu’s topmost branches.

She flew up, over the lip of the oncoming glacier, and then began to tumble downwards. Liska closed her eyes, not wanting to see the landing, but she felt it through her paws. She flinched. There was no way a human body could have survived an impact like that. Even if it did, the ice would freeze it in minutes.

And just like that, Thresher and her hounds were gone.

*

Liska raced first to Fishbone, who still lay crumpled amongst the gorse after bouncing off one of Nammu’s gargantuan roots. Luckily he was just bruised and winded, his side sore where Thresher’s spear shaft had smacked him.

Next she saw to Elowen, who had stumbled to her knees by the fireside. She wasn’t hurt, simply exhausted from channelling magic all night long.

‘A short rest, I think, and then I shall be fine.’ Her voice quiet as a sigh. Lug fetched his collection of blankets, Liska built the fire up again, and Elowen was soon fast asleep. Liska thought it was the first time she had seen her with her eyes closed. She looked more like a marble statue than ever.

Throughout all this, Embla stood silently by Nammu, one wooden hand resting on the great tree’s trunk. Liska thought she ought to speak to her, given that she had saved all their lives. But what did you say to someone who had just become a magical being of immense power?

Although, Liska thought, it’s not that different from when a shapewalker changes. No matter what they look like, it’s still the same person on the inside.

She went to stand quietly beside her and cleared her throat.

‘I . . . um . . . I just wanted to say thank you. For helping us.’

There was a creaking sound as Embla turned her head to look down at the small creature beside her. Her cascade of red leaf hair rustled as she moved.

‘It is I who should be thanking you,’ she said. Her voice was lower now, booming and thrumming with power, but Liska could still pick out a trace of Embla’s human accent. ‘You have made me a part of Nammu. Now she will never die. You have saved us both.’

Liska nodded, feeling the same awe and unease as when she met the treekeepers back in Arborven. But she was also filled with a burning curiosity. ‘What’s it like?’ she asked. ‘Being a treekeeper . . . how does it feel?’