Again that disturbing use of the word ‘mate’. She had to remind herself that lyrinx were alien, with an entirely different culture and way of life. Perhaps love was meaningless to them. ‘I didn’t ask your opinion,’ she snapped.

‘You could take ship around the Horns, then sail across the inland sea.’

Tiaan consulted her mental map of Lauralin. ‘At this time of year? That would be as dangerous as going over the mountains, and the entrance to Tallallamel may be frozen over. Anyway, no ship would take me. I have no papers.’ However she went, travel was expensive. Would she have enough to go so far? She had no idea. She had not opened Joeyn’s money belt but surely there could not be much in it.

‘You speak our language well, Ryll,’ she said tentatively, using his name for the first time. Naming him seemed to change their relationship.

‘I was brought up with captive humans, so as to learn. I am one of the most fluent.’

He regarded her steadily. She could not meet his gaze. Her world kept turning upside down.

‘May I have back my crystal?’ She had to work hard to keep the quaver out of her voice. He tossed it to her and as soon as she caught it Tiaan felt better.

‘What do you know about the tetrarch?’ He was looking at her intently.

‘What is a tetrarch?’

‘You don’t know?’

‘I’ve never heard the word before.’

Ryll held her gaze for a moment, said ‘No matter,’ and stalked across the cavern in that strange, sway-backed stride. She watched him all the way. What did he want from her? The secrets of power – hedrons and controllers? Was the tetrarch a similar kind of device?

Ryll bent down, put his foot against something on the floor, and wrenched. There came a gruesome butchering noise. He stripped the trouser leg off a haunch of soldier and began to feed noisily. Tiaan wanted to vomit. The creature really was a beast, for all that it could talk.

The lyrinx tore off a piece of meat that would have fed her for days, chewing and swallowing with a few head-back gulps.

Tiaan gagged. Once he had what he wanted he would eat her too.

Ryll strolled back, gnawing on a thigh bone.

Putting her arms across her face, she turned away.

‘Are you sick?’ he asked.

‘You’re eating my people!’ she screeched.

‘They were not your friends, surely?’ Ryll seemed surprised.

‘Eating human flesh is disgusting!’

‘It tastes good to me.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with it! It’s just wrong to eat it. It makes me want to vomit, seeing you …’

‘Only human flesh?’ he enquired, cracking the bone over his knee and hooking out a quivering length of marrow with one claw. It went down with a slurp.

‘And scavengers and carrion eaters,’ she conceded, unable to look.

‘Do humans see themselves as carrion eaters?’ said Ryll with a puzzled frown. Waves of colour washed over his skin, like watercolours being mixed on wet paper.

‘Certainly not! It’s just that … human flesh is sacred to us.’

‘Would it help if I ate where you could not see?’

‘I’d prefer you didn’t eat us at all.’

Shrugging, Ryll tossed the bones to one side. ‘I will take you into the mountains.’

She did not believe him. The creature was toying with her. She had to escape. ‘Now?’

‘Later tonight. There was a thaw today. As soon as it sets hard we will go.’

Tiaan slept badly, with unpleasant, fractured, crystal dreams. She woke to find Ryll standing over her. With the torch fluttering, he looked particularly menacing. She jumped up. ‘What do you want?’

Ryll stepped back a pace. ‘Time to go. You have food?’

‘Enough for a few days. How long will the journey be?’ It felt unreal. They might have been discussing a picnic, except that the feast would probably be her. She wished she was a quick-thinking hero who would instinctively know to escape.

‘We are here.’ With a long yellow claw he drew on the floor, a shape like the head of a fork with two tines, one rather longer than the other. It made an unpleasant scratching sound on the marble. ‘Here is your city of Tiksi.’ He marked a point just north of where the longer tine met the head of the fork, which represented the main mass of the Great Mountains. ‘To cross the first range to the land you call Buh-rr … Bhur …’

‘Burlahp!’ she corrected.

‘Buhrr-larp! That is about ninety slgurrk.’ Ryll thought for a moment. ‘Which would be about ten of your leagues, were we able to fly.’ He grimaced.

A strange expression crossed his face, almost a shudder, and the vestigial wings stirred involuntarily. He snapped them down. ‘Across Buhrr-larp is fifteen of your leagues, and ten more across the second range.’ He indicated the second tine with his claw. ‘This is the land you call Tarralladell. It is a long way from Mirrilladell, your destination.’ His yellow eyes searched her.

‘To walk to Buhrr-larp might take as little as six days, or as much as twelve, depending on the weather. That is, if I carried you. I will get food on the way.’ Noting her horrified look he said, ‘Mountain goat, fish, or maybe a small Hürn bear. Fill your pack, in case.’

Tarring up a torch, she rifled the dead soldiers’ packs. There was more food than she could carry – dried meat and fruit, tiny onions, cheese and rice balls, some starting to go mouldy. Ryll was busy across the other side of the cavern, feeding again, judging by the nauseating rending and gulping noises. He did it in the darkness, thankfully.

By the time she had packed, he was on his way back, wiping his enormous mouth on a rag torn from the seat of a soldier’s pants. Tiaan turned away, busying herself with her gear. She did not want to know.

‘Ready?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Bring one of those spears, in case of a bear.’

How little he feared her. ‘I already have a crossbow.’

She took a few more bolts, just in case, and was surprised that he allowed her. A spear would not help her against a Hürn bear, for she felt so weak that a breeze might blow her away. However, Tiaan had a good eye and the crossbow had been her weapon of choice in defence training. She might, just possibly, bring down a lyrinx with it. That made her feel better, though the crossbow was an awkward weapon and took a long time to reload.

Now heavily laden, she followed Ryll down the passage. Outside he turned left, the direction she had taken after first leaving the tunnel. It was cold, but there was no wind and the moon was shining. They went along the ledge past the old tree, which somehow had survived the landslide. The stars were out.

A beautiful night for walking, were it not for the company.

They continued until dawn, getting in a good five or six hours. It was hard going, up and down all the time, though at least the snow had a solid crust. Ryll seemed to know exactly where he was going. After half an hour he left the ledge and headed up through unmarked snow, sometimes across alpine meadows, sometimes along ledges which fell into chasms hundreds of spans deep. As it grew light his skin plates changed colour. In a few minutes he was as white as a Hürn bear, disappearing into the landscape.

Tiaan felt a mixture of emotions. Did he really have a code of honour, or had he some ghastly use for her? What twisted purposes, what warped desires, what strange lusts might he be planning to slake upon her?

Tiaan stopped abruptly, staring at the monster’s back. One hand slipped down to the butt of the crossbow, though she did not draw it. She could not shoot Ryll from behind. Even had she been able to, the armour was thick there. To kill him she would have to hit him in the eye, the throat, or send a bolt between chest plates and ribs, into the heart. Assuming it was in the same place as hers, of course.

Ryll spun around, going into a crouch. The retractile claws extended. ‘I have a sense for danger, small human.’