Rory reached the double doors. Old Winnowner, the keeper of the key, had padlocked them shut. He started to rattle and push at them, but they were very solidly made and securely fastened.

He put his shoulder against them, and rammed.

‘Ow,’ he said, rubbing his shoulder. ‘That’s not going to work. I need something else. An axe, or a crowbar.’

He turned from the doors and found himself nose to nose with the business end of Jack Duggat’s hoe.

‘Whoa!’ he said, recoiling.

‘You was trying to break into the Incrypt,’ said Jack, holding the farming implement like a rifle with a fixed bayonet.

‘It’s really important I get in there,’ said Rory.

‘It really is, Jack!’ Vesta agreed.

‘It is Cat A vital you do not,’ replied Jack emphatically. ‘Look what I found!’ he called out over his shoulder. ‘Just as you feared.’

Old Winnowner came in through the main doors of the hall behind him. She was out of breath from hurrying through the snow. ‘I see,’ she said.

‘Good thing you sent me here direct,’ said Jack, not relaxing his grip on the hoe.

‘Vesta Flurrish, I’m surprised at you,’ said Old Winnowner as she hobbled over to them. ‘Betraying everything we’ve worked for.’

‘Give him the key and let him within, Winnowner Cropper,’ said Vesta firmly. ‘Can you not see he’s a friend?’

‘I have no proof of that,’ Old Winnowner replied.

‘Then can you not see what is happening outside?’

asked Vesta. ‘Fire from out of the sky! Falling stars!

The world’s end! A ruin and disaster the like of which we have not even imagined! Will you just watch it happen or will you try to stop it?’

‘It is being stopped,’ said the old woman. ‘That is all there is to it. It is in Guide’s hands. Now, Jack, bring them. We’ll take them to the barn with us.’

‘I’m not going anywhere!’ cried Rory.

‘Really?’ asked Jack.

Rory backed off. ‘Put like that, and with such a large hoe involved in your answer, perhaps I am,’ he agreed.

Jack and the old woman marched them out of the assembly. The cold clear night outside was bright orange from the flames. The ship, still hovering, was continuing its merciless prosecution of ground targets in the hills. They could smell smoke from the burning trees.

In the town yard, the snow was trampled. The fires were casting long, twisting shadows across the broken snow. The sounds of battle were closer. It appeared that some of the town’s outbuildings down by the heathouses were now on fire.

‘Quickly, get them to the barns,’ Winnowner said.

‘I think you’re placing excessive faith in the protective properties of agricultural storage,’ said Rory.

Vesta yelped.

On the far side of the town yard, two Ice Warriors had appeared. Both were brandishing swords. Ignoring the four humans outside the assembly hall, they strode across the yard as though they were pursuing an unseen adversary through the lanes of the houses opposite. They disappeared from view behind the granary.

‘Oh, Guide!’ said Vesta. ‘Were they those things?’

‘Ice Warriors,’ said Rory. He could see the fear on the faces of the Morphans. Even Winnowner’s resolve had been checked by a glimpse of the towering aliens.

‘Are you going to start believing me?’ Rory asked.

Winnowner didn’t answer. There was a sudden and terrible mauling sound from the direction of the granary. It was the noise of bodies slamming into wooden wall boards, of timber splintering, of armour denting.

‘Get them back inside, Jack,’ said Winnowner.

‘Hurry now.’

Before they could turn, something appeared on the roof of the granary. It had leapt up there in a bound, like a big cat. It prowled down the thick slump of snow on the building’s roof, moving on all fours, and then sprang down into the yard and started to come directly towards them with a lithe, loping stride.

Its eyes flashed red in the firelight.

Rory, Vesta, Winnowner and Jack all backed away until they felt the assembly doors behind them.

‘Oh, Guide! Oh, Guide!’ Vesta babbled, stricken with fear. ‘That’s it. That’s what I saw in the woods.

That’s It!’

Amy landed, on her feet, in the middle of the bridge walkway. She made a resounding clang that shivered the metal work of the entire structure. Slowly, she opened her eyes, waiting to see if there were any clues like, for example, excruciating pain, that could tell her if she’d broken anything significant or killed herself.

She seemed to be intact.

‘Oh my god, it worked,’ she marvelled.

Another loud clang shook the bridge and almost knocked her off her feet. Samewell had landed beside her. His landing wasn’t quite as clean as Amy’s. He went sprawling as he hit, and nearly rolled off the walkway under the lowest bar of the guard rail. Amy squeaked and grabbed him, dragging him back.

‘Don’t fall! Don’t fall! Don’t fall!’ she yelled.

‘Am I safe? Have I landed?’ Samewell asked, entirely flummoxed by the whole experience.

Amy looked up in time to see Bel falling towards them. Her long skirts billowed out as she dropped, almost like a parachute canopy.

Arabel missed the walkway. She had jumped a little too short.

Amy cried out in horror as Bel bounced off the outside of the guard rail and went over backwards, plunging away into the fiery depths.

She stopped falling with a violent lurch. Her skirts had caught up on the rail. Bel was hanging upside down off the side of the bridge by her winter skirts, her arms thrashing.

‘Grab her! Pull her up!’ Amy shouted. She and Samewell rushed to the rail and leant over, each of them reaching down with both hands trying to snatch and grasp at Arabel’s inverted form.

There was a long, slow and ominous sound of cloth tearing.

‘Arabel Flurrish!’ Samewell yelled. ‘If you fall and die, I’ll kill you!’

‘Grab my hand!’ Amy shrieked. ‘Bel, grab my hand!’

Arabel’s skirts tore. Unhooked from the brief suspension of the guard rail, she fell.

Amy and Samewell both grunted out air as they took her weight, straining to hold on. Samewell had both his hands wrapped around Bel’s right hand. Amy had one hand locked around Bel’s left. Arabel was hanging by her arms the right way up.

But Samewell and Amy were leaning out so far, Bel was in danger of pulling them both over the rail.

‘Get her up!’ Amy bellowed.

‘I- can’t!’ Samewell gasped.

‘Get her up now! Now! Before we all go over!’ Amy told him, snorting with effort. ‘On three! One… two…

three!’

They hauled.

Bel came up in a rush, and all three of them tumbled backwards over the guard rail and ended up piled on the walkway in an untidy heap.

‘I am not doing that again,’ said Bel.

Amy got up. The thwarted Ice Warriors were glaring down at them from the bridge above.

‘Come on!’ she urged the two young Morphans. ‘Get up and get going!’

Samewell helped Bel to her feet, and they both followed Amy along the span towards the exit hatch.

The metal walkway rang under their feet.

Suddenly, it did more than ring. It shook as though the bridge had been hit by a wrecking ball. The violent shiver made all three of them stumble.

Amy looked back.

An Ice Warrior was slowly getting up out of a crouched position on the walkway behind them. It had jumped from the walkway overhead, and landed roughly where they had landed.

There was something completely terrifying about the giant green thing’s unexpected display of agility.

It rose to its full height, and reached its right fist up to its left shoulder to grasp the hilt of the sword secured across its broad back. It drew the sword, raised it, and started to pursue them all over again.

‘You know that thing I keep saying?’ Amy yelped.