ALCOLM EVOLENT LEANED DOWN AND LAUGHED IN Delphi’s face. “Scream again. Scream. You can run too, if you like. Go on, run. Run.”

Delphi turned and ran, her head filled with terrible images. Malcolm Evolent’s laughter was ringing in her ears. She could soon hear the thunder of the horse’s hooves closing in. Malcolm Evolent reached down from his galloping horse, scooped her up under his arm and rode away, along the edge of the lapping water.

Delphi bucked in his grip, hoping he would drop her; she knew that the further away she was taken, the greater the chance that she would not make it back alive. She would rather fight and die right there. She clawed at Malcolm Evolent’s hand.

“Stop,” he snarled. “Stay still or you’ll fall and be dragged to your death under my horse’s hooves.”

The blood was rushing to Delphi’s head. “If I’m trampled by your horse, there will be very little left of me to cut open for my autopsy!” she managed to roar, desperately trying to hold herself upright.

“Well, in that case…” said Malcolm Evolent. He pulled Delphi up and threw her in front of him on the saddle, gripping her around the waist, pressing her two arms against her body so she could not move them. She could feel the sickening heat of his breath on her scalp.

Malcolm Evolent rode harder and faster. Delphi bounced up and down with the motion of the horse. She could barely breathe at the thought that she was the Thousandth Soul, a terrible, grotesque creation, yet a prized one nevertheless. She desperately searched her memories to find proof that she wasn’t, facts that she could throw like weapons at Malcolm Evolent to get him to see that he was wrong, to give him no choice but to let her go. But she could sense his excitement, his vindication, burning like a fire against her. Malcolm Evolent had finally found what had eluded him for fourteen years; he was finally regaining possession of his finest work. And, with that, the opportunity to repeat his success over and over for as long as he lived.

Delphi jumped as she felt his lips against her ear.

“Maybe you have heard things about your parents…” he said.

Delphi stopped moving.

“Maybe you heard about their talents, or about your mother’s beauty, or your father’s medals,” said Malcolm.

Delphi stayed very still. She wanted to know. Malcolm Evolent had information she wanted and it sickened her.

“I had heard your mother, Emayo, sing, of course, everyone had,” said Malcolm. “She was famous, after all. But what I didn’t know was that she worked for my brother, cleaning our laboratory at night when I wasn’t there. One night, I arrived back unexpectedly and stumbled upon her. I was enchanted, as everyone who met her was, but I was more enchanted by her union with Chancey the Gold. What fine breeding! And, when she became pregnant with you, well, one night, when there was no one there who could stop me, I had the chance to work some of my experimental magic on her…”

Malben’s words rushed back to Delphi: “a young woman was brought to the laboratory by Benjamin Evolent to watch over me… she would take me in her arms, hold me and sing me to sleep… one day, she was gone… I heard you sing… it was so beautiful, so pure… I could no longer bear who I had become.”

Delphi realised that her mother was the caring woman that Malben had spoken of. He was caged in the laboratory at the same time; he knew that the woman had been experimented on, and he knew that she had left Decresian with Chancey the Gold before Delphi was born. And in Oxlaven, when Delphi was singing Malben to sleep, he realised who she was. And he would never have betrayed the child of the woman who had brought him so much comfort in his darkest times. He didn’t want to tell her, because he knew it would frighten her.

Tears welled in Delphi’s eyes, tears for everyone.

Malcolm was still talking. “And months later,” he said, “your mother gave birth to what she and your father told everyone was a baby boy. Shortly afterwards, I came to their home to claim him and I saw through the window your mother holding the naked child in her arms. All I saw was the child’s back and six perfect gills, and I knew I had succeeded. I went to tell my brother, but when we returned, your parents were gone. Your father took the job as guide at The Falls, and the story travelled back to Decresian that your mother and her baby – a boy – had died on the journey. You can understand my confusion…”

Delphi’s stomach turned. She had no interest in Malcolm Evolent or his confusion or any other hideous thought that snaked through his twisted mind.

“Did you know,” said Malcolm, “that, when you were seven years old, Villius Ren found your mother? He had his reasons for wanting the Thousandth Soul. Your mother had travelled far from Dallen, far from Decresian, but he found her. She told him that she had lost her child, and he didn’t believe her. He caused her great harm, Delphi. Ever since, she clings to life, confined to her bed. Did you know that that’s where your father disappeared to? He climbed up on his horse, and every week he travelled hundreds of miles there and back to see your mother, to be by her side.”

Delphi’s heart pounded. Her mother was alive? She turned to look up at Malcolm. “Is she in Galenore?” she said. “Is that where… where is she? Where is my mother?”

“Because I don’t care, I don’t know,” said Malcolm. “All I know is that she’s in a hospital, far from here. Chancey the Gold was the only one who knew where. Your mother never woke up, Delphi. Not since the day Villius Ren came. And now that Chancey the Gold is gone, well, we’ll never know where she is.”

Delphi cried with a pain like no pain she had ever felt before.

As the horse galloped on, Malcolm Evolent’s chest heaved against her back. A cold, dark feeling grew inside her. Up ahead, she could see the white sails of Bream’s, no doubt stolen, boat. She knew that Malcolm Evolent would use it to take her to his laboratory in The Shadowed Woods. As she pictured the mounted skeleton on Benjamin Evolent’s wall, she was reminded of how it could all end.

The cold, dark feeling turned to fire. Sweat streamed down her face. She twisted in Malcolm Evolent’s grip, a primal strength coursing through her body.

By the time Malcolm Evolent realised the foolishness of holding his perfect, deadly Thousandth Soul so close, Delphi’s jaws had already sunk deep into his neck.

Malcolm Evolent roared in pain and bucked in the saddle, releasing his grip on Delphi. She screamed as she slipped down the side of the horse. Her feet were inches from the ground as she clawed at the damp leather. As she felt her strength drain from her, she made one last grab and caught the reins that had fallen limply from Malcolm Evolent’s hands. As he fell to the sand from one side of the horse, Delphi rose from the other and was soon secured, wheeling the horse in a circle to charge to the water’s edge. She jumped to the ground and fell to her knees, scrubbing at the blood on her face with icy water and shaking hands.

She cried hysterically, clawing at the scars on her back that Malcolm Evolent had called gills. She could feel them move under her fingers, and it was almost too much to bear. She had a body that she had never given any thought to before, and now it repelled her.

Delphi’s sobs eventually slowed, and her breathing calmed. The sound of the waves settled around her. Then, in the distance, she heard the voice of an older man. And then another voice, one that made her heart surge. It was Oland! Delphi started to run in his direction, but faltered and quickly moved towards the rocks to hide. She pressed her back against them, and made herself as small as she could. She panicked when she saw her cape floating in the water, so close, but there was nothing she could do.

She stared out at the platinum sea, the sea that had delivered her darkest secret to her. She could still hear Oland’s voice, but not his words. The older man was replying. Delphi stayed out of sight until the voices passed. She saw no other choice.

Oland Born was a saviour. And she… she was a savage. A killer. She was no different to The Craven Lodge… the very men that Oland Born had run from. The very men he despised.