He kept his face calm, not wanting to give the Everqueen the satisfaction of seeing him in pain.

‘Let me see it,’ Alarielle said. Tyrion wanted to refuse but to do so would have seemed childish, so he stood there while she bent down to look at it.

‘You might have been lucky, but I don’t like the shadow surrounding the wound. If it gets worse, let me know.’

He looked at the wound again. There was a curious blackness around its edges that did not bode well, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

‘What will you do, work magic on it?’

‘I might have to.’ She did not sound at all confident in her ability to do so.

In the distance horns rang out again. They made Tyrion think of hunters with packs of hounds. ‘Not now. We had best be going,’ he said. ‘Run!’

They raced off into the night.

‘A new day at last,’ said Tyrion, looking at the red sun as it rose upon the horizon, clearly visible through a gap in the foliage. Birds had begun to sing. The grass was moist with dew. It all seemed strangely normal after the long night of flight and terror.

‘Let us hope that it proves to be a happier one than the last,’ said the Everqueen. ‘I am not sure that I can endure another like yesterday.’

‘I’m afraid you’re just going to have to, your serenity,’ said Tyrion. ‘There will be many days like yesterday and worse ahead of us.’

‘You’re doing nothing to bolster my courage, Prince Tyrion,’ said the Everqueen.

‘I am trying to be realistic. We don’t have an army. We don’t have any friends. We only have the two of us to rely upon for our own safety.’

The Everqueen nodded. Her jaw tightened. Her eyes narrowed. She straightened her shoulders and stood a little taller. She was grim but resolute, and for the first time in a long time it seemed to Tyrion that here was someone he could follow.

‘Where should we go?’ the Everqueen asked. Just when she seemed ready to be a leader, she reminded him she was hardly more than a young girl. It was a strange mix.

‘That’s a very good question,’ said Tyrion. ‘We need to go in the direction that Malekith’s minions least expect.’

‘That’s all very well, but it needs to be a direction in which we can eventually find refuge and get help.’

‘Indeed. I say that we should strike out east.’

‘How do we know that the dark elves are not waiting for us in that direction?’

‘We don’t – we will just have to take our chances.’

‘What I still don’t understand is how they managed to get to us. It should have been impossible for a force so large to penetrate so deeply into Avelorn without being spotted.’

‘Magic,’ said Tyrion. ‘It’s the only explanation.’

‘Even so, I should have been able to sense such magic in the very heart of my domain. I may only have just become Everqueen, but in these lands nothing should be able to happen without me knowing it.’

‘I am no sorcerer, but if you’ve only just inherited the power, perhaps you overlooked something.’

‘You’re not making me feel any better, Prince Tyrion.’

‘I don’t think it was a coincidence that the dark elves attacked so soon after your mother’s death. I think that we have fallen into a trap that has been in preparation for a very long time. I think that we are very lucky indeed to have escaped it with our lives.’

The Everqueen looked thoughtful. ‘The only reason that I am here, that we managed to escape at all, is because of you.