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And into alake.

I stumbled to a halt in the frosty water, blinking at the landscape that opened up before me. The creek fed into a lake the size of a small town, so crystal clear that I could see the orange and silver flashes of fish below the water. At the centre, a small island rose from the mirror-like surface. No white trees grew from that small patch of earth; its shores were besieged by weeping willows and thorny hedges instead, looking about as welcoming as a glass-spiked wall.

But behind that first row of vegetation, a thin trail of smoke rose towards the bright blue morning sky.

Smoke.

Life.

I splashed forward with more vigour now, ignoring the water spraying up to my knee-length skirt. All I saw was that thin column of smoke, evidence of fire, evidence of habitation. And really, how many people could reasonably survive here, in this plague hell at the heart of a murderous forest?

The lake wasn’t deep. By the time I reached the island, boots in my hand, my dress was soaked to my hip, the bodice still mostly dry. Now I only had to find a hole in those mean-looking hedges so I’d be able to climb on land and—

A growl rumbled through the forest behind me, deep and mighty as thunder.

I snapped around so fast I nearly fell and went under. A flash of gold moved between the trees at the shore, and then I blinked again and that shadowy silhouette grew into …

Into amonster.

I barely felt myself stumble backwards, never mind the soft sand and sharp stones below my feet.

Here it was, then, the dragon for which Edored had nearly given his life – as tall as an average house on Cathra, its serpentine body so long that I couldn’t see the end of it between the trees. My eyes registered fangs, claws, knife-edged spikes along the spine. Its scales were far brighter than the old one we’d found in the deserted nest in Lyckfort: on this living body, they shimmered with fire, a rich gold that appeared to move restlessly below the polished surface.

The dragon’s eyes – amber-coloured and unnervingly knowing – burned too, and they were fixed on me.

My lungs gave up on me. The air fled my body in a single powerless sigh, and I couldn’t quite blame it for getting the hell out. I staggered another step back, found cold earth in the small of my back, and stayed there, caught between thorns and the unearthly creature slowly slinking up to me from the shadows of the wood.

The dragon did not release my gaze as it leisurely lowered its first paw into the shallow water. A few sparks burst from its long, narrow snout as it growled again, more quietly now.

‘I’m not here to cause trouble,’ I squeaked, grasping for support in the wet earth and grass. ‘No need to eat me … I’m just—’

The dragon yawned. Three rows of small sharp teeth blinked white and deadly in that giant beak, drool dripping over its leathery lips.

Zera help me.

‘Of course,’ a voice I didn’t know said behind me, sounding wistfully amused. ‘This way, please, Emelin.’

Chapter 17

Thistime,Ididlose my balance.

My feet tangled up as I spun around, and only some brand new battle reflex saved me from submerging entirely; I caught myself somewhere mid-fall, drenched to the chest as I stumbled upright.

Behind me, the impenetrable wall of thorns had parted without a whisper. And there, in the misty morning light …

A small woman in muddy homespun clothes and knee-high leather boots stood between the weeping willows, a small rake in one hand and a bulging hessian bag by her feet. Her long, grey hair lay loosely over her shoulders, slightly tangled and sandy. A fine web of wrinkles covered her tanned face and hands, and her long fingers were bony, the way my fingers had looked after the longest, hungriest winters of my youth.

She did not look like a goddess. If anything, she resembled Miss Ariella from my village on Cathra, who went to visit her sister on Orthune once a year and returned with sweets for all the island’s children, even me.

But I’d never seen this woman before, and she’d called me by my name.

I stared at her. I couldn’t quite come up with anything else to do.

‘You should come out of the water.’ Only then did I realise I didn’t know the language she spoke – didn’t know the sounds that spilled from her lips – and yet I understood the meaning of her words effortlessly, as if somewhere on the way to my ears they slipped into a disguise more familiar to me. ‘It’s chilly around this time of year. You’ll catch a cold if you stay there too long.’

A cold. I parted my lips in the desperate – and idle – hope that some fragment of civilised language would return to me at the hint of that familiar motion. Acold.I had just travelled through a tree, a giant dragon was standing behind me, and I was being warned againstcoldsby …

By …