Danger padded out of the shadows, and to Little Fur’s surprise, Sly was with him. Then she saw that between them, they carried the lumpy unconscious body of a small troll.

‘It was following you,’ Sly told Little Fur. ‘I had to hunt slowly else it would have slipped down a cranny and away.’

Little Fur looked into the twisted face of the troll, realising that this was the reason for the purposeful look the two cats had exchanged in the lane with the metal box. They had obviously scented the troll, and Sly had gone to catch it.

‘You hunted well, Emerald Eye,’ said Danger.

‘I brought it so that you could see it,’ she told Little Fur. ‘Now we will kill it.’

‘No,’ said Little Fur, frightened because one part of her felt so angry at the thought of being followed that she wanted to strike out at the troll, and she had never hit anything in her life. Her troll blood must be growing stronger by the minute.

The wander gave a polite sort of cough and said, ‘No goodly thing ever came of killing unless it protected kin or staved off starvation.’

‘I do not think it meant to hurt me,’ she said, touching the green stone about her neck. ‘It was trying to steal this for the troll king, though I do not know why he would want it so badly.’

‘The troll was spying,’ Sly hissed angrily. ‘It heard everything you said. If you let it live, it will return to the troll king and tell all that it has seen and heard.’

‘Tie up troll and leaving it for humans to finding,’ Crow advised.

Little Fur shook her head. ‘That would be the same as killing it. But it must be held captive until I return.’ She thought for a time, and suddenly saw how to solve the problem of the troll as well as easing a difficult parting.

‘I have some seeds in my cloak that will make the troll sleep for a whole day,’ she said. ‘We can carry it into one of those huts, for the smell of human in them is old. Then Crow must fly back to Tillet and ask her to organise some creatures to fetch the troll back to the wilderness before it wakes.’ She looked at him now. ‘Tell her the troll must not be harmed, but neither must it be allowed to escape. We will let it go after I return.’

‘Crow will not leaving Little Fur,’ Crow said stubbornly.

‘Crow, I need you to let Tillet know about the troll, and Sorrow might need your help in finding Nobody,’ Little Fur said firmly. ‘Besides, you must find Ginger and tell him that I have gone away in a road serpent.’

‘Why cannot Sly doing these tellings?’ Crow cawed, and Little Fur saw the alarm behind his sullenness.

‘I am a hunter and I do not deliver messages,’ Sly said haughtily. ‘Besides, I have some spying of my own to do. I will go to Underth and find out why the troll king wants the shiny green stone.’ There was now a gleam of wicked daring in her green eye.

Crow glared at her. ‘That being stupidest idea!’ he said coldly, then clacked his beak and puffed up his chest as he always did when he was composing a very important message. ‘Crow will telling all things and doing what is needing to do. But when telling and doing are done, Crow will flying after yellow road serpent.’ He gave Wander and Danger a hard look each, as if to make sure they understood that he did not trust them.

Little Fur gathered him into her arms, even though she knew it would upset his dignity, and pressed her face to his sleek blue-black head. She sniffed up the feathery black smell of him before releasing him. He cried, ‘Nevermore!’ and flew up into the sky.

Little Fur watched until he was gone from sight, and then she turned to Sly. ‘You must not go to Underth. You told me yourself that the troll king suspects traitors ever since we escaped from his dungeons.’

‘I am not afraid of the troll king,’ Sly said, her long tail beginning to lash back and forth. Seeing this, Little Fur knew there was no use arguing, and she watched helplessly as the narrow black cat stretched languidly, cast one burning look at Danger and then sprang away.

Little Fur wished heartily that she had said nothing of the troll king and the green stone, but it was too late to stop Sly. Besides, was not Sly’s decision a way to prevent herself dwelling on the departure of Danger?

Sighing, she dug some seeds from the pocket in her cloak, and both Wander and Danger watched with intense interest while she ground them between two stones.

The lemmings were grazing on weeds and grasses, while Ofred sat half dozing and muttering to himself, arms outstretched as if to embrace the sunlight. Little Fur looked down into the troll’s face for a moment then she knelt and began to feed the powder into his wide mouth, rubbing his throat to make him swallow.

Touching him she realised, as she had done the one time she had touched a human, that one sleeping creature was much the same as another. If she closed her eyes, she might have been touching a rough place on her own skin, or that of some small animal she was healing. Then she wondered what she had expected. Had she not been handled by trolls herself, when she had been the captive of the troll Brod in Underth? Their hands had been rough and bruisingly strong and their claws had scratched her, but their trollness had not seared her.

Once she had finished feeding the powder to the troll, she bade Danger and Wander help her to drag it into a shed that was grey with age and festooned with swathes of spider web. She was just tucking a handful of the valuable web into her cloak when a dreadful shrill scream filled the air.

Danger and the lemur threw themselves to the ground, and Little Fur cringed and clapped her hands over her ears. But the wander did not react at all to the sound, save to start slightly. There was another dreadful scream, and then the yellow metal road serpent began to groan and shudder.

‘The road serpent will go soon. We had better get into it now,’ Wander announced cheerfully.

Little Fur quailed at the thought, and yet, seen with its side open, the road serpent did seem less a live monster than some sort of human device. Not that this made her feel much happier about riding inside it. But there was no other choice because her elven blood was weakening, and who knew where they would have to go after they got to the great sea?

She told the lemming horde to get aboard, but many declined. A younger female called Silk explained that some of the horde had decided to remain, for the river ended the territory of the old clan, and so a new one might properly begin here.

‘After all, Healer, the Sett Owl said that those who follow the lemur to the end will find a wondrous territory, but not all lemmings desire wondrousness,’ Silk said.

‘Will you come?’ asked Little Fur curiously.

‘I will follow the lemur to the end,’ said Silk.

Once all of the lemmings who would go were inside the road serpent and those that would stay had bowed low to Little Fur and to Ofred, Little Fur ushered him aboard. She could not help but wonder if he understood at all what was happening. He had seemed to be in a sort of stupor since they had left the beaked house, save for when he had stopped Danger killing Crow or the troll. Little Fur climbed in after him and then Wander and Danger leapt in.

Inside this part of the road serpent, there was a pile of barrels and boxes and bales lashed down so that they could not move, but there was quite a lot of space behind and beside them, and many of the lemmings found a dozen nooks and crannies to hide in. The rest, including Silk, made way for the lemur, who immediately curled to sleep, and then they settled closely around him.

Little Fur went back to the opening, where Danger and Wander sat, gazing out. The road serpent’s groans and wheezes were increasing, and all at once, Little Fur heard a human voice.

They all hastened to hide, as the voice came closer. Humans were doing something to each segment. There was a long rasping sound and then a great bang, and at length Little Fur realised that they were shutting doors in the side of the road serpent. She froze, knowing that if they were locked in, they would not be able to jump out when the road serpent reached the great sea.

Then a human appeared in the opening. At that very moment, the lemur gave a loud moan.

There was a listening silence and the human clambered inside, giving off the smell of suspicion and aggression as it moved toward them. Little Fur trembled at the knowledge that they were going to be discovered.

Then Danger gave a low, savage growl and the human froze and began to give off the sharp stink of fear, but before it, or Danger, could do anything, Wander suddenly got to his feet and trotted out from behind the pile of boxes and barrels to the human, wagging his tail.

The human stared at the wander for a long minute, then its scent changed to surprise and relief and it bent down and held out its hand. Little Fur watched in amazement as the wander sniffed the human’s hand and then licked it. The human gave a shout of pleased laughter and called out to the other human. It put its head in the opening, and when it saw Wander, its scowl melted and it too held out its hand for him to smell and lick.

The two humans began to talk earnestly and Little Fur could smell that they were trying to make up their minds what to do about the wander. Their words smelled of kindness and also of impatience, but slowly another scent began to overtake them. It was a smell of calmness mingled with something like the sweet scent given off by any animal mothering its young. It was coming from the wander. The talk of the humans slowed and then faltered and all at once they simply left off stroking him and went on their way, leaving the door open.

‘What did you do to them?’ Little Fur asked Wander.

‘I soothed them,’ he answered mildly, as if it had been nothing at all.

The road serpent gave another long tortured scream, and shuddered violently as if it were having a fit, and began slowly to move along its rails, gathering speed as it went.

The wind came blustering through the opening, tangling Little Fur’s hair and making her cloak flutter wildly. But rather than taking shelter with the others, she wrapped the cloak tightly about her and went to sit closer to the opening to stare out at the strange sight of human houses and roads and clumps of trees flashing by.

Quite soon the road serpent left the city and was racing through open country where there were human farms surrounded by the maze of fences they used to mark their territories. Then there were fewer and fewer of these until there was only a vast plain covered in grass that bowed down at their passing. Above this marvellous flatness the sky arched like an immense blue gourd.

In the afternoon, the road serpent suddenly plunged into a deep valley where a thick pelt of dark forest grew. Little Fur was sniffing with delight at the mingled scents of so many trees, wishing she might walk among them and commune with them, as she once had.

She felt a movement at her side and turned to see that the lemur had crept forward to sit beside her. She waited a moment, half fearful that he might speak of some dream that had come to him, but he only gazed out as she had done.

After a time, the Wander came forward too. ‘The lemmings have told me that you are seeking the earth spirit,’ he said.

‘I have been cut off from the flow of earth magic and the Sett Owl told me that if I would rejoin the flow I must follow Ofred’s dreams,’ said Little Fur.

‘The Sett Owl,’ murmured Wander slowly, as if he were tasting the flavour of the name. ‘Do you know, it was the Sett Owl who set me to travelling in the first place. There was a great restlessness of questions in me and when I heard talk of a seer living in a beaked house, I went there and made my offering, but the Sett Owl said there was no cure for curiosity such as mine. Indeed, she seemed to think it a gift rather than a burden. She said that I ought to try wandering while I wondered, because at least that would use up the restlessness. I have been wandering and wondering ever since.’ He was silent awhile then he glanced at Ofred who seemed to have fallen into a doze.

‘The lemmings said he was their guide,’ the wander murmured.

‘The Sett Owl told them that if they follow Ofred, they will find the new territory they need, and that those who follow him to the end will find a strange and wondrous territory. But I think lemmings are not much interested in strangeness.’ She looked at Ofred. ‘It is hard to believe that the dreams of one small lemur can lead the lemmings to a new territory, as well as remind Danger how to shapeshift and bring me to the earth spirit.’

‘That explains why he smells of madness,’ said Wander. ‘It is a hard and strange thing to live a life led by dreams.’

The shadows were long when the road serpent slowed down and began to struggle up a steep incline that soon brought them out of the valley and back onto the plains. The rails curved inland slightly for a time and Little Fur caught a glimpse of the cloudlike ice mountains far away on the horizon. They made her think of Nobody and wonder what was happening to her. Little Fur could not imagine the red fox failing to rescue her. His courage was immense, and aside from being very clever, he understood a great deal about the ways of humans. If anyone could rescue the vixen it would be he, and surely then he would understand that he was worthy of her.

‘What do you remember?’ the wander asked Danger, as they all sat together in the fitful square of thin sunlight that shone through the ragged clouds now fleeting across the sky. The day was coming to a close and the road serpent was now travelling over stony broken flatlands. The wind was strong and damp with the promise of rain.

‘I remember a hot wet land,’ said Danger, who was stretched out full length, black muzzle resting on his crossed paws. ‘I saw a black shape full of deadliness that was graceful as flowing water. I wanted to know how it would feel to be so soft and yet so deadly, so I took its shape. That is when the humans caught me in their nets. They caged me and I forgot the truth of myself. I knew only a savage boredom that made me want to kill. I did not remember what I was until Sly freed me.’

‘Why did the cat free you?’

‘I do not know,’ Danger said. ‘I meant to kill her, for she taunted me and called me a fool and a coward when I would not help her to free me. She clawed at me with her words until I told her all I knew about the she-human who had the key to my cage, but once she had stolen the key, neither she nor I could use it. So she went to get a monkey, but when she came back, the lemur was with her. I would like to know why she freed me. When I return, I will take her shape and I will know.’

The pace of the road serpent changed and the swift clackety-clack became a slower click-click-clack, click-click-clack. Immediately the wander rose and said they must ready themselves for the leap from the road serpent’s belly.

Heart hammering, Little Fur shook the lemur awake. He flinched from her hands, red eyes shining with madness and confusion, and she longed to ask if he had dreamed. But this was not the moment and she began to rouse the lemmings, urging them to waken others.

At last they were all gathered in readiness by the opening. As the train continued to slow, Wander said Danger must go first, with Ofred on his back, then the lemmings would go in waves. Last of all, he and Little Fur would jump together. He warned them all that once he gave the signal, there must be no hesitation, for the train would soon speed up again and anyone jumping too late would be killed.

Little Fur was growing more and more nervous, but she was puzzled too, because there was no sign of the great sea. Smelling her question the wander said, ‘After the hills come the sand dunes and then there is the sea. The rails do not go into the dunes so we must jump onto the sand and walk the rest of the way.’

The train had slowed almost to a stop at a sharp bend, before Wander gave the signal. Immediately Danger leapt, and then the lemmings in wave after wave, until only Wander and Little Fur were left.

‘Quick,’ he said, and as he jumped Little Fur swallowed a great choking lump of terror, thought of Sorrow, and jumped.

There was an endless moment in which she flew or fell through nothing, and then she hit something, and fell into blackness.