I’m never going to take flying for granted again, she thought, remembering how it felt to soar down from the mountain top in just seconds, or to lazily circle on a thermal, rising up and up until she reached the top.

Just when she thought she was going to have to stop and scream, or at least have a little cry, Elowen turned to them and said, ‘We’re here!’

‘Oh, praise the Tree,’ gasped Lug. Liska heard him collapse on the steps behind her. She felt like having a lie-down herself. A very long one.

‘Just another secret door to open,’ said Elowen. She set her lamp down on the top step and gave the wall in front of her a push. This time it swung open easily and sunlight poured in through the opening, making them all squint and blink.

‘It’s morning!’ said Lug. ‘We were walking up those stairs all night!’

‘Well, probably only for a couple of hours,’ said Liska. ‘It was almost dawn when we went in. But it was long enough to make my feet feel like they want to fall off. Come on, let’s get out of this horrible stairway.’

They heaved themselves up the last few steps and walked out on to the top of the mountains. A familiar ring of jagged granite stretched off around them, jutting up from a writhing sea of mist. A hundred metres or so along the summit loomed the Stormfort, a towering structure of stone battlements and turrets that looked almost identical to the Noon Fort that Liska called home. Behind them was the tree-filled bowl of Arborven, a round dish of green that seemed to be still unscathed.

‘It’s . . . it’s incredible,’ said Lug, looking all around him. ‘I can see so far! We’re so high up! And I’ve just remembered that I’m terrified of heights!’

Liska was forgetting that her friend had never been anywhere except inside the city. To her, this view was just an everyday thing. She often forgot how impressive and beautiful it was: filled with the immensity and the power of nature.

‘The city seems to be intact,’ she said, peering down at the smudges of treetops. ‘Maybe they fought off the rot army.’

‘I doubt it,’ said Lug. ‘Bitterblight won’t give up that easily. There will be more and more attacks until the whole of Arborven is covered in rot.’

‘You’re right,’ said Liska. ‘They’ll be back as soon as night falls I expect.’ She wondered how her mother was doing, lying in the infirmary. Were her father and sister safe? Or might they be injured as well? Or perhaps even worse . . .

‘The fort has grown a lot since I was last here,’ said Elowen, interrupting Liska’s scary thoughts. ‘And the mist! There’s so much of it. I hope we won’t get lost on the way down.’