The relief at seeing Aira and Domino made Moll stagger backwards in Wallop’s palm and, as her friends rode closer still, right up to the peak of the mountain behind the giants, Moll saw that Domino looked just as he had when they’d said goodbye to him at the North Door; he was no longer a slave to the Shadowmasks’ darkness! Instead, he held himself tall and Moll’s chest swelled with pride. This was the Domino she remembered. This was the man she’d come to regard as an older brother. Moll readied herself for the fight, but then a strange thing happened.

Aira slid from her horse and threw Wallop a large smile. ‘How are you, pal?’

Wallop shrugged, ‘Nae bad, Aira. About to eat some lying smidglings, that’s all.’

Aira led her horse closer to the giant. ‘See, I wouldn’t eat those smidglings if I were you.’

‘Why not?’ Petal grumbled. ‘They look delicious.’

Wallop nodded. ‘And they stole the Oracle Arrow from our cave which we were meant to protect until the child from the Bone Murmur came for it.’

Aira smiled. ‘Well, for a start the girl’s far too spicy to sit comfortably with your digestion – I know what you’re like, Petal – but also because that girl is the child from the Bone Murmur. And the wildcat there is the beast.’

The giants glanced at one another and then Petal groaned. ‘Can we eat the boy and his stupid ferret instead then?’

Siddy promptly fainted, but Domino only smiled. ‘Siddy here has helped Moll and Gryff on their journey to save the old magic. These are the children you’ve been waiting for. They are the ones who will force the Night Spinner and his Veil back.’

At the sound of Domino’s voice, Moll wanted to leap down from Wallop’s hand and throw herself into his arms – if only to block the mocking laughs she knew would come from the giants at the idea that she was the child from the prophecy – but the Ancient Ones didn’t laugh. Instead, they crunched down on to one knee while Wallop settled Moll, Siddy, Gryff and Frank on the peak beside Aira. Then Wallop, too, knelt in front of the group, his head bowed. And Moll stood, baffled, on the snow-strewn mountaintop, because surrounding her in a circle of mighty stone was a ring of giants swearing an oath to help her.

‘Keepers of the Ancient Book before you kneel,

We pledge to you an oath which our words do seal.

The arrow that you carry must slay the Spinner’s Veil

And we will fight beside you, as goes the old sung tale.’

The giants rose to their feet and Moll would have remained where she was, blinking in disbelief at talk of ancient books and old sung tales, had Domino not rushed towards her and swallowed her up in his arms. Moll leant into his thick coat and breathed in the familiar smell of campfires and trees.

‘You’re OK,’ she whispered.

Domino squeezed her tighter, then he bent down and tucked Moll’s hair back from her face. ‘The dark magic couldn’t crush my soul, Moll. It couldn’t crush Angus’ either, not when we both knew you and Sid and Gryff were out there.’

Moll shook her head. ‘But how? Did Aira and Spud find a cure?’

Domino nodded. ‘They took me down into Kittlerumpit’s tunnels with them – that mangy goblin said he wouldn’t hand over the cure without seeing the patient first.’ He paused. ‘Unicorn tears. Turns out only a creature that pure can lift the darkness of a Shadowmask’s curse.’

Moll shifted. ‘What was the price? I can’t see Kittlerumpit giving that out for free.’

Domino brushed the snow from Moll’s coat, then he smiled. ‘It’s not important. Not now.’ He tightened his spotted neckerchief. ‘A few of the Highland Watch are travelling south and along the way they’re giving the cure to all those poisoned by the Veil, but Aira heard your call so we knew you needed our help.’

They turned to see Aira helping a dazed Siddy to his feet and Frank hopping excitedly between Gryff’s legs. Domino hugged Siddy tight and Aira put an arm round Moll.

‘I see you’ve been keeping up the fight,’ Aira said.

Moll smiled as Gryff slunk to her side and rested his head beneath her hand. ‘Trashed a castle, killed a Shadowmask, escaped from a kraken, found the Oracle Arrow . . .’ She looked at Siddy who had recovered enough to give a shaky smile. ‘We’re not doing too badly.’

Wallop lowered his head so that it was level with the mountaintop. ‘I’m sorry for almost eating you all – and for Petal’s attitude. She’s usually a vegetarian, but this has been a long, cold winter with very little food.’ He looked north suddenly, into the encroaching darkness, then turned back to the others. ‘If the Night Spinner stole the arrow, he must have taken the Ancient Book too.’

Siddy frowned at Moll ‘Why steal the book?’ He scooped up Frank who had done so many cartwheels in the snow she was now hyperventilating. ‘What use is an ancient story to the last Shadowmask?’

Moll shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But it’s night already and, if we don’t destroy the Night Spinner and his Veil before the full moon drops, the sun won’t rise tomorrow and everything we’ve done will have been for nothing.’

Wallop placed a hand down on to the mountaintop, spraying an avalanche of snow over the group.

‘You need to keep heading north,’ he said. ‘That’s where the dark magic is coming from.’

Moll knelt down beside Gryff and held him close and, although she knew that somewhere within the Barbed Peaks the last Shadowmask was waiting for her, she wasn’t afraid. They had the Oracle Arrow, Domino was OK and the giants had sworn to help them. They were closer than ever to finishing all of this – and to getting Alfie back.