‘What secret?’ Her mother glared at her, daring her to prove herself.

Liska silently cursed. ‘Well. He hasn’t actually told me yet . . .’

‘I knew it!’ Her mother shouted that part, then went back to angry whispering once heads began to turn towards them. ‘There is no tree in the north. Everyone knows that’s just a story. You’re too young and stupid to know better! I don’t want to hear another word about this Lug or other trees again. Leave the business of saving Arborven to the grown-ups! Now, go outside and wait for us on the Undren Square. And try not to get into mischief this time!’

Liska pulled away from her mother’s grip with as much force as she could muster. All the hope and excitement of the day had curdled into anger and disappointment. No stripe, barely any thanks for saving everyone and now – yet again – she was being treated like a naughty child.

She slunk between all the mages, who had already begun to call out their plans and suggestions to the chamber. Nobody even noticed as she walked out of the hall, even though they would have been eaten by rot and gloop if it hadn’t been for her. And they would probably still all die just because they were too stubborn to listen to her.

She stood in the doorway for a bit thinking up the rudest curse she could imagine, until Lug walked past her, heading for the staircase that spiralled around the Undrentree’s trunk to the ground below. He deliberately avoided looking at her, which made her even angrier.

‘I think it’s time you explained your guilty secret properly, worm-boy,’ Liska muttered to herself. She tugged the straps of her armour tight and hurried down the stairs after him.

*

‘Lug, wait!’

She caught up with him as he was walking out of the temple entrance into a wide space between the Undrentree’s roots that had been turned into a beautiful ivy garden. Leaves of all different shades grew around them, water trickled gently through streams, spilling into ornamental pools, and carved wooden statues of treekeepers stood watch over it all.

‘Stop storming off! I need to speak to you!’

When Lug finally turned around, his face was set in the fiercest glare he could manage. He clearly wasn’t very good at it.

‘Is that your best angry look?’ Liska couldn’t help giggling. ‘You look like you’ve just wet your robes. Try scrunching your eyebrows up a bit more. Curl your top lip. Show your teeth a bit . . .’

Lug gave up and shook his hands at the sky. ‘Nematus below, I’m trying to be cross with you! Why did you have to go and say that to the treekeepers? I told you it was a secret!’

‘No, you said it was a legend. The way you found out about it was the secret.’