The next morning, waking refreshed, they got Helen to point them in the right direction. She looked and sounded much more healthy from having been attended to by Ceres.

Unsurprisingly she led them North, but now off the road again, cross country, claiming that she had Olivia’s scent, and also using various other esoteric means of tracking her...

Now and again she would stop, put her ear to the ground, close her eyes, and listen to it for a while. Sometimes she would take a bit of soil between her thumb and forefinger, rub them together for a bit, then put it in her mouth and make thoughtful murmuring noises. Then she would spit the earth back into her hand and throw it into the air, watching which way it blew. When they came out of fields and into woods, she would point out things like broken twigs, and strands of wool caught on branches and brambles, and trampled leaves, and claim that Olivia had passed that way.

For his part, Horatio was pretty convinced that it was all an act, especially since they also happened to be making directly for the Bay of Vishay, where Helen had already pronounced she thought the girl was going anyway, and where Olivia’s trajectory thus far had suggested was her destination.

Give Helen credit for something, though, she often knew when they were about to be attacked by a group of monsters, and alerted them accordingly so that the party was ready.

She warned them just before some monsters fell upon them on the outskirts of a wood…

Battle1

Helen also somehow knew when a group of monsters was just about to jump out at them from atop one of the rocky outcroppings that was beginning to become more common amidst the landscape as they neared the Fardan Peaks…

Battle2

Helen also told them all to stop and ready their weapons as they were climbing one of the lush green Peaks, just before a collection of monsters ran round the corner and ambushed them…

Battle3

And as they were making their way through a forest on the other side of the Peaks, Helen had them prepared well in advance of a monster-party leaping at them from where they were hiding behind some trees…

Battle4

So Helen evidently was gifted with some kind of considerable tracking skills. At the very least, she had far better hearing than all the rest of them and was able to sense when creatures were nearby.

She completely failed to spot or warn them, however, about Fabian.

After crossing the Fardan peaks at a place where they were thin, the party came to a vast swamp. Brown and purple mud, steaming and bubbling in places, stretched out before them for as far as they could see amidst more trees. Horatio held his nose. The swamp stank of eggs, and worse. Here and there bits of twig and branch jutted out of the seething mush, as if the swamp had swallowed whole trees, and possibly some other things in the distance, though they were too far away to make out properly.

‘I do not like this place,’ said Primus. ‘This land is cursed.’

‘I agree,’ said Ceres.

Nonetheless, Helen was adamant that Olivia had passed this way, and the swamp was just too big for them to go around it without losing a lot of time, so the only thing to do was to go through it.

Horatio took the first testing step from the grass into the muck, and immediately his foot sank into it and was sucked downwards.

He cried out in alarm, waving his hands to try to balance himself, and almost pitched headlong into the swamp, except Ceres grabbed onto his belt and hauled him back, stopping him from going over.

‘Thanks!’ he said. ‘It’s like quicksand! Pulls you right under!’

‘We must cross it where the mud is shallower,’ said Helen, a grim expression on her face. She gestured, pointing out where in places grass peeked up through the muddy bog, so it must not be so deep there, and even some different fragments and strips of wood which floated horizontally on its surface without being pulled down, perhaps placed by other travellers who had gone this way before.

Helen led the way, picking out a path over these shallower places and wooden walking-aids as the others followed, single-file.

‘Ouzo does not like this either,’ said the druggist.

‘I don’t think any of us do, wolfman,’ said Egea. ‘Just keep going: When you’re going through crap, keep on going.’

Occasionally Helen would put a foot wrong, and Horatio, following second, would have to yank her back from falling into the noxious swamp as Ceres had done with him. Sometimes he or one of the others would slip, or accidentally fail to follow quite Helen’s path, and then there would be more calling out and hurried gathering around the fallen party member, and scrambling and pulling until they were safely out.

In the end they decided to tie a long length of rope from Ouzo’s pack to themselves, looping it around each of their waists and then tying it to the next person so that they were linked together in a line and could pull one another up with it if they fell.

‘How the hells did your granddaughter make it through here all by herself?’ asked Silvia when they were all tied together.

‘Her seer’s abilities,’ Primus said straight away, without a trace of optimism in his voice. ‘She would have been able to see which steps were solid, and which would lead to ruin.’

‘Well that’s just an unfair advantage,’ said Silvia.

‘Yes,’ said Wyvera, ‘but if it’s slowing us down this much, hopefully this swamp will slow down any other Braxians chasing her as well.’

‘Good point,’ said Ceres.

‘If only it were that easy, eh?’ said a faint, malevolent male voice which dripped with slime, that Horatio didn’t recognise.

He looked around for who had spoken.

‘Who said that?’

His companions looked at him blankly.

‘Who said what?’ said Silivia.

‘Someone just said “if only it were that easy”?’

‘No they didn’t…’ said Egea, frowning at him.

‘I could have sworn…’

‘Come on,’ said Primus, indicating for Helen to get moving again at the front of their line. ‘This place has a fell air. Let’s keep moving and get through this swamp as soon as we can.’

As they began to move forwards again, a profound unease bubbled up in Horatio’s stomach. What was going on?

After they had gone a few more steps, Wyvera screamed.