In Karan’s dream, Sulien was hunched on a rock at the edge of the campsite, gagging as she tried to force down a mouthful of the Whelm’s chunky black and grey gruel. It had grub-like things in it and looked revolting.

I can’t get it down, she kept saying, I just can’t.

A bony grey hand, a Whelm that Karan could not see clearly, took the stone dish from her. No dinner then. And for breakfast this again. You will finish it.

It’s disgusting. How can you eat such horrid things?

You asked us to take you. You’re a Whelm now.

Karan saw no more, but when she woke in darkness she sensed far too much. Sulien was hungry, exhausted and utterly miserable, and her heart went out to her. As the Whelm had said, they were treating Sulien just like one of their own children – harshly.

Karan started to make a link to her, but broke it off. The magiz might locate Sulien and drink her sweet little life.

How could she have allowed her gentle daughter to make such an awful and dangerous choice? Since Idlis had saved Karan’s life ten years ago, he had been utterly reliable, but what if Yggur was right? What if the Whelm betrayed her as they had betrayed him?

Was there anything she could do? No, because they might have taken any of half a dozen routes south to their homeland, and even if she started searching now, she would never catch them.

Fury overwhelmed her, at the magiz and the Merdrun, at Snoat and Shand and Thandiwe, and Llian too. Karan punched her pillow, hurled it across the room, groaned then burst into tears. Things were getting worse, not better, and the Merdrun would soon invade.

“Karan,” said a scratchy voice, “what is it?”

Lilis was kneeling beside her in the gloom. Karan had forgotten that they were sharing a room.

“How could I do it to my daughter?” she wailed. “I can’t eat, can’t sleep. Can’t even focus on rescuing Llian.”

She jumped out of bed. It was just past dawn and the sun had not yet risen. “Sorry,” she said. “Go back to sleep.” She dressed.

“Where are you going?” said Lilis.

“For a ride. I need to think.”

“Do you mind if I come? Llian was kind to me when I was a street kid; I can’t bear to think of him in Snoat’s hands.”

“I’d love you to come,” said Karan.

They were riding down the drive when two horses turned in at the front gate. The first was a gigantic red stallion, eighteen hands high, on which sat the biggest woman Karan had ever seen. Her skin was coal-black and her hair was coiled on top of her head. Behind her, on a piebald mare, was a small blonde woman.

“Is Tallia here?” said the big woman. “Or Shand?”

“Who are you?” said Karan. She had never seen her before, yet there was something familiar about the shape of her face.

“Ussarine?” said Lilis, doing the clumsiest dismount Karan had ever seen. She caught her left boot in the stirrup and almost fell on her head. “What are you doing here?”

“Bodyguarding.” Ussarine sprang down and they embraced. It was like a bear hugging a child. Karan got down too.

“You must be Karan,” said Ussarine, looking at her hair. “You know my father, Osseion.”

“I do!” said Karan. “I didn’t know he had a daughter. How is he?”

“Very well, apart from the arthritis. It troubles him to walk.”

“I’m sorry to hear it.” She went across to the blonde woman, who had her arms folded across her chest and was scowling at Ussarine. “I’m Karan.”

The blonde touched hands. “Esea. Where’s Tallia?”

“Still abed. She hasn’t recovered as well as she should have. Is something the matter?”

“I bear very bad news.” Esea hesitated. “You’ll soon hear, anyway. The enemy, Snoat, has the code to the council’s spell vault.”

“How did he get it?”

Esea’s mouth set in a hard line. She rode on without answering and, at the stables, dismounted and yelled for the stable boy, then limped into the house.

“How did this happen?” said Karan.

“I wasn’t aware it had,” said Ussarine. “But I’m just a bodyguard. Where are you off to so early?”

Karan did not answer.

“Ussarine came to the Great Library with Osseion,” said Lilis. “Eight years ago. We’re the same age, can you believe it?” She looked up at Ussarine, beaming. “It’s so good to see you. Won’t you come with us?”

“Ussarine must be exhausted after riding all the way from Sith,” Karan said pointedly.

“You can trust her with your life. And Llian’s,” said Lilis. Then, as if the matter needed settling, “I showed Ussarine all around Zile when we were girls. We spent a month together.”

“One of the happiest months of my life,” said Ussarine. “Is there something I can assist you with, Karan? Any friend of my father, and of Lilis, as the saying goes.”

They rode out of town together, Karan in the middle, Lilis hunched in the saddle on her left, her hair shining in the sun, and Ussarine towering to her right. Karan explained the situation.

“And Pem-Y-Rum is where Llian is held?” said Ussarine.

“I’m not sure it’s wise to show your face outside Pem-Y-Rum, Karan,” said Lilis. “Since he’s after you too.”

“I’m sick of doing what’s wise,” Karan said irritably. “No sensible approach is going to get Llian out, so I have to consider reckless ones.”

“Talk to Esea,” said Ussarine. “She makes an art form of recklessness.”

“Maybe I will. What’s she doing here by herself, anyway?”

“What do you mean?”

“Tallia said she and her twin brother were inseparable.”

Ussarine’s face turned into a mask. “You’d have to ask Esea about that,” she said in a dead voice.

Karan glanced at Lilis, who looked as puzzled as she was. Oh well, none of her business. Karan stopped in the middle of the road.

“You’re right, Lilis. It’s not a good idea for the three of us to go sauntering past Snoat’s estate in broad daylight. Together we’re quite…”

“Unforgettable,” Ussarine said wryly.

“Why don’t you two go back? I’m going to make a quiet sortie past the place and see what I can find out. I’ll be back tonight.”

They headed back to Chanthed. Karan urged her horse on. A mile from Pem-Y-Rum, according to her map, she took a side track into the forest. When she judged that she was opposite the gates, she cast around for a suitable tree to climb.

She had been a brilliant climber once, but her bones were aching before she found a suitable perch, thirty feet up, from which she could see the gates, the villa and outbuildings. Guards patrolled the walls and there were more at the gate. Beyond, hundreds of people toiled in the gardens, orchards, vineyards and fish ponds. The place was the size of a small town.

She spent an hour watching and making notes in a little book, then lingered, hoping to spot Llian, but in vain. She was grimly contemplating the climb down when a furtive movement in the forest caught her eye.

It was a sandy-haired young fellow with a big frame, though with not enough muscle to fill it out, dressed in grubby homespun. A girl appeared, small but well fleshed. She stood up on tiptoe to kiss him and he put his arms around her. Young lovers with nowhere to be alone but outdoors. Karan smiled and wished them well.

She climbed down and limped back to her horse. Pem-Y-Rum could not be entered by normal stealthy means. She would have talk Tallia into a rescue mission.