‘You will attend your first class tomorrow morning at the Undrentree temple. You will hold your head high. You will learn what you can, and you will show them all – mages, manticores, elders – that the griffyx clan take responsibility for their actions. They follow orders. They show respect. And then you can walk away from this whole thing with pride. Can you do that? For me?’

Liska gave a silent nod. There didn’t seem much to be proud of, especially with Ylva still giggling her stupid head off in the other room, but she would try.

‘That’s my girl,’ said her mother and, to Liska’s great surprise, she squeezed her tight and kissed her.

*

The next morning Liska woke early, hoping to leave before having to endure another round of smirking and sniggering from her sister. Her father was waiting for her at the launching platform, to give her a final hug and whisper in her ear.

‘We’re proud of you, cub. Your mother is too. Even if she doesn’t show it sometimes.’

Too choked to do anything but nod, Liska shifted into her griffyx form and let herself fall from the platform, dropping forty, fifty metres before spreading her wings and gliding down towards Arborven once again.

She landed in Undren Square, empty at this hour, the mages all still sleeping in their wooden tree houses. Padding on silent paws, she sniffed her way towards the tree, to where rows of buildings towered amongst the roots.

From the ground everything seemed so much larger. The Undrentree’s trunk made the Noon Fort look like a doll’s house. Its roots loomed like hillsides all around her. Each leaf on the enormous branches above was bigger than Liska herself. She suddenly felt very small and very alone.

The school was part of a complex of buildings next to the arbomancer Academy, her mother had said. It was easy enough to find. The Academy towered over all the surrounding houses and was covered in enough silver-plated carvings to make the thing topple over. It made everything else look very plain and humble. The school was just a simple longhouse beside it.

Liska had no intention of being the first student there. She also didn’t think it would go down very well if she turned up in her griffyx form. That meant waiting for a while before shifting back. Changing too quickly could be dangerous for shapewalkers.

Following her nose, she wandered in amongst the roots looking for a spot to rest.

*

An hour or so later, having found a perch on a moss-covered tendril, she looked down on to the square as the mages began to wake up and go about their business. Crowds of them, in their different coloured robes, wandered out of the tree circles, milling around like a kicked ant hill before streaming off into the various buildings and workshops that poked out all over the roots.