A seeper? But it didn’t look humanoid like the others. It was four-legged and scrawny, with a barrel chest and pointed snout. It looked like a hunting hound.

‘She’s here!’ Fishbone shouted. ‘Hurry, hurry!’ Even as the seeper hound set one gloopy paw, then another, into the passage, Fishbone was leaping, ricocheting from one wall to the other, high over Liska and Lug’s heads. He landed in the open grabbed hold of Liska’s cloak, trying to pull her free from the crevice.

That was enough to get Liska moving. Using every last scrap of strength she forced herself out, and then snatched up the rope that attached her to Lug. With Fishbone and Elowen helping, they began to heave the vermispex out of the passageway.

‘It’s coming! It’s coming!’ Lug shrieked, frozen in place. Peering behind him, Liska could see the hound edging its way closer and closer.

‘Don’t just stand there!’ Liska shouted at the petrified worm mage. ‘Get wriggling!’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Fishbone, through gritted teeth. ‘We want it in there. But we have to get pasty whining boy free quickly or he’ll be turned into humie jam.’

Wondering what he was talking about, Liska gave the rope a final heave. Lug popped clear like a sweaty, trembling cork from a wine bottle. As he tumbled to a heap on the floor, Fishbone laid a paw against the rock wall and made some cattish miaowing noises.

‘Kittimew magic,’ he said with a grin.

Back in the crevice the seeper hound was only a few metres away from them now, slipping and sliding between the narrow rock walls much more easily than they had done. Liska could see the thick, gelatinous liquid it was made of. There were tiny particles of fungus and mould suspended in it. They twitched and moved with a life of their own as their host stretched and shaped itself, all the while steaming with wisps of poisonous smoke.

‘Bye bye, rotten thing,’ Fishbone said. He jumped back from the rockface and then, with a crack like a sudden burst of thunder, the crevice snapped shut. Now there was only a smooth wall of granite before them. No passageway. No seeper.

*

‘Dear worms below, is it over? Has it gone?’ Lug had both hands clamped over his eyes and had missed the whole thing.

‘That was amazing,’ said Liska. ‘But are you sure there isn’t another way for them to get through?’

Fishbone shook his head. ‘They will have to climb over or go around. Both will take them much longer. We will be down the slide and in the mistless lands by then.’

‘Slide?’ Elowen tapped her fingers together in her I’m so excited gesture. ‘I love slides! I haven’t been on one for centuries!’

‘You never been on one like this,’ said Fishbone, grinning. Then he was off again, scampering on all fours, looking more like an actual cat than ever.