‘Do not worry,’ said Elowen. ‘I know the way very well. We shall easily outrun anyone trying to chase us. Besides, a little pursuit will add an extra bit of excitement to our adventure!’

‘It’s a life-or-death mission of extreme danger!’ Lug wailed. ‘Not a mage-school field trip! We’re all going to die in horrible, painful, awful ways.’

‘Oh, stop moaning!’ Liska gripped a corner of Lug’s robe and began to pull him along behind her. Elowen followed, blocking his path in case he tried to run off.

A part of Liska wished Lug wasn’t so melodramatic, but then she remembered her glimpse of Thresher, of those cold, cruel predator’s eyes. As they set off through the city again, she couldn’t help casting a nervous glance or two behind them.

*

Just as Liska was beginning to think her legs might drop off, they stumbled out of the trees on the eastern side of the city.

The sheer, grey face of the Shield Mountains reared up before them as bleak and tall as ever. Perched on the top somewhere was the Stormfort. A tower like her own, filled with warrior shapewalkers ready to defend Arborven from attack. There were no signal fires lit here, though. No sounds of battle or stench of rot. It looked as though Noxis was concentrating his attack on the other side of the city.

‘The caves are over here if I remember rightly,’ said Elowen. She skimmed over the rough patch of grassland between forest and mountain, towards a series of dark shadows amongst the slabs of tumbled, broken granite that had toppled down over the centuries. Liska followed and, as she got closer, saw that the shadows were actually deep holes in the rock. Most of them were clogged up with mounds of . . . stuff. Broken jugs, glass bottles, washtubs, smashed plates, pots, vases, pieces of teacup. All the unusable rubbish of Arborven, probably dating from since the mages first moved in five hundred years or more ago.

‘I never knew this was here,’ said Liska.

‘Nor me,’ said Lug. ‘In fact, I didn’t really wonder where our rubbish went at all.’

‘Most people don’t,’ said Elowen. ‘Once it’s broken they just buy new things and forget about the old. Although there’s a bit more here than I expected. I hope we can still find our way inside the caves.’

She led them to the third cave along, and then paused to open her pack and take out a lantern. Liska cursed under her breath – she hadn’t even thought to bring candles or lamps, let alone anything to make fire. It made her wonder what other essential survival tools she might have forgotten.