Liska couldn’t speak. She could only stare at her mother as one of the healers gently separated them both and the stretcher was carried away. Her mother raised a fist to her heart in the shapewalker’s salute, but all Liska could think about was her backpack stowed behind her room door, filled and ready to go.

If Arborven was going to fall, if she was going to have to run anyway . . . well, it might as well be north. And there was a chance, just a slim one – but still a chance – that she and her friends could stop all this before it even came to that.

She had to do it she realised. She had to at least try. If she didn’t, everything she knew and loved would be lost. And if she did, she would prove once and for all that she wasn’t ‘too young’ for anything.

Forgetting about waiting for morning, she ran for the stairs to fetch her pack, find her friends and save the Undrentree.

*

Gliding low over the treetops, backpack clutched in her fox jaws, Liska came in to land on the scrap of rough ground between the Cryptwood and the mossherders’ tree circle.

Even though it was pitch dark out here, past the edge of the city, she could see perfectly with her night vision. The barkless trees of the Cryptwood glowed white in the moonlight. Its scents came alive in her new nose. It smelled of age, dry wood, old bones and a faded gleam of tree magic.

It was easy for Liska to pick up the trail they had left on their walk to Elowen’s house. She scampered along the path, into the clearing and down the earthen steps to the hidden front door. Staying in her griffyx form – there was no time to change – she scratched at the wood with her paws, dropping her pack to bark and whine as loudly as she could.

After what seemed like an age, the door creaked open and there stood Elowen, a white smudge in the darkness, holding a candle up to light her way.

‘Hello, baby fox,’ she said, kneeling and holding out a hand. ‘What are you doing here deep in the dead wood? And look, you have wings!’

‘It’s me,’ Liska said, rolling her eyes. ‘Liska. You know – from yesterday?’

‘Oh, yes!’ Elowen stood up, beaming. ‘I was forgetting you were a shapewalker. So this is your beast form? It’s so beautiful!’

‘Never mind that,’ said Liska, unable to keep an edge of panicked growl from her voice. ‘We have to leave right now. The rot creatures are attacking Arborven again, and this time we might not be able to hold them back!’

‘Ah,’ said Elowen. ‘I wondered what was going on. I was walking in the wood earlier and saw all the mages from the swamp go running into the city. I think your friend was among them.’