Liska could see the back of Edda’s head beginning another of its slow shakes as she sailed past. She had time for one last look down at the group before her orbit took her back out over the square. She was surprised to notice someone else was present. A silent, dark shape who stood some way off, half hidden in a pool of shade.

Peering into the gathering shadows, she tried to catch a glimpse of the third figure. If it hadn’t been for her sharpened griffyx senses she might not have been able to see anything in the gloom, but as it was she picked out the slender wiry shape of a woman. Dressed in leather armour, with short spiky hair, she was leaning on a barbed spear, appearing to be very casual – bored, even – but Liska could see her needle eyes watching every move that Edda and the arbomancer made.

Looking closer, Liska noticed some kind of scar on her face. It twisted down from her mouth to her throat, puckering the skin in what looked like the trails of claw marks.

Leather armour. Spear. Scars. She didn’t seem like any kind of mage Liska had ever seen. And she definitely wasn’t a shapewalker.

But she held herself with the same kind of quiet confidence. That of a skilled warrior. Muscles ready to spring at the slightest danger. Twitching, looking for threats and weaknesses. What was someone like that doing here at the Undrentree? A place that was supposed to be sacred and peaceful?

Intrigued, Liska leant harder into her turn, trying to come around for a better look.

As she did so, the woman looked up. Had she sensed Liska there? Had her passage through the air made some kind of noise?

It didn’t matter. The woman had seen her now. Those sharp, predator’s eyes locked on Liska and the pose of their owner changed instantly. A fighting stance, the spear gripped and ready to launch, to strike Liska from the sky.

By pure instinct, Liska drove her wings down, sending herself up high out of range. But, with her eyes locked on the dangerous figure below, she forgot completely that she was flying beneath the boughs of a gigantic tree. She had a sudden sense of a very large and solid object in front of her, and then there was a crunching smack as her head met hard, unmoving wood.

Sparks danced in front of Liska’s eyes and her whole body jarred. Dazed, she expected to begin the long tumble to the ground, but instead she felt her back paws being gripped tight.