The valley shimmers with light, surrounded by snow covered hills, moonlit blue and eerie in comparison. But I would rather the cold hills any day because below us lies the most lawless destination in the Carucan Kingdom. The only place where Uru Ana are openly sold to the highest bidder. This is where the poachers would have brought my childhood friend, Asmine, if our fathers had failed to rescue her. This is where the vast majority of glitter-eyed children stolen from the Sea of Trees end up before they disappear forever: The Hybourg.

At the heart of a vast sprawl of stone buildings, campfires, skin-homes and winding streets looms the huge closed market, built from the black rock mined in these parts. The Pit, as I have heard Tug and Brin refer to it, rises above interlocking squares and lopsided taverns, a windowless monster.

In the mind-world, it flashes and flickers with bright swirls of color—memories surfacing and crashing against each other. The vast number of minds crammed together overwhelms me. In another sort of world perhaps the effect would be beautiful, but in a realm of thieves and criminals the chaotic clash resembles a battlefield of motion and pain.

"So," Kel says. "How exactly are you going to save us?" He scowls, jaw locked, mouth pursed. I meet his gaze, sadness heavier than water filling up my lungs. When I do not answer he pulls his hand from mine. It's like a slap in the face.

I want to tell him I'm waiting for the right moment. That we have to stay positive, we have to believe that a window of opportunity will open for us. Timing is everything. But what if there are no opening doors, only doors closing behind us, and each time one closes we are shut further inside this dark, hellish world?

Tug unbound us after the incident with the King's soldiers. He suggested, as though the idea had just come to him, that it would draw less attention if it appeared we were a family hunting together. Kel would just have to keep his eyes down. When I said, for the sake of credibility, he should return my bow and knives, he confiscated my water ration. Brin proposed they skin the wildfowl, take only the furs and abandon the sled and carcasses.

Our captors are nervous, travelling light, ready for anything. Every time I've so much as twitched in the last three hours, Tug has been by my side, ready to stomp out mutiny.

During our trek here, they speculated endlessly on the presence of the King's soldiers so far north, when it is (apparently) well known that the King is south, embroiled in war on the Etean border. For all their guesses, they never came close to the truth. The soldiers search for the King's son, Prince Jakut, who came north last summer and whose escort was found slaughtered not far from here before the long-sleep.

"You think the King's army is there?" Brin asks. The four of us stand on a ledge of the mountainside, gazing at the steep drop below. It is the first time since they unbound us that Tug has allowed Kel and me to stand so close together.

"No," Tug says. "They might send spies into the Hybourg, but there'd be a full-blown riot if the army tried to ride through it."

In the moonlight, I take Kel's gloved hand. He wraps his little fingers around my knuckles and twists.

"They're going to sell me," he hisses.

My muscles clench and my breath grows faster. If Tug and Brin take us straight to the Pit, in less than an hour, Kel may be bought by some rich lowlife, and I will never see him again. I eye the knife in Tug's belt. The two men are staring down the mountain, absorbed by their reflections on what is going on in the Hybourg. My eyes flit to the wolf dog, head poking out from the top of Tug's rucksack.

Perhaps this is the window, and I need to give it a shove to get it open. Once we are in the town, we won't have two adversaries but thousands. Every man down there would maim, fight, perhaps even kill to get their hands on a prized glitter-eyed child.

You've run out of time, Mirra. It's now or never.

The tiredness in my limbs vanishes as adrenaline surges through my body.

"Tug," I say. My voice sounds like a strangled squirrel. "Tug," I repeat. He turns, wariness already dancing in his eyes. I edge towards him. "You don't need Kel. You could let my brother go, just sell me. I'm worth a fortune."

He observes me coldly. "Please," I beg. "Please, Tug." I let the desperation I have kept mostly hidden slip into my voice. He turns back to the view of the Hybourg, as though the sight of me is too pitiful to behold.

That moment is all I need. I lunge for the wolf dog, seize her by the scruff of the neck and yank her from the bag. Tug spins, reaching for his knife but he has not anticipated the dog move.

I leap away, moving to the edge of the cliff. The dog is too large to dangle over the sheer drop, so I cradle her in my arms.

"Step back, Mirra."

"Let Kel go before the mutt has another accident." The wolf dog starts paddling her back legs. Carrying her with my injured arm is hard enough, without the extra struggle.

"You can't help your brother if you fall off the edge of a cliff."

"Get going, Kel." I glance around and catch the look of shock in my brother's golden-flecked eyes. "Get going!"

He moves towards the slope, tentatively at first, then with more speed. In response, Brin crosses to intervene, but Tug holds out an arm to stop his associate.

I lock gazes with Tug, while dipping into Kel's mind. Through the blurry haze of panicked thoughts I see him scrambling up a rocky slope. Run, Kel. Run!

"You're sending him to his death," Tug says. "A cold, frightened, lonely death, if he is lucky. Ripped from limb to limb by savage, hungry beasts, if he is not. Now let the dog go before we have to scrape you both off the rocks below."

Frustration and disappointment crush me. I have been patient. I have waited four days for Tug to make an error, to let his guard slip, to find a way through the fortress of his mind. And now I'm forced to desperate acts.

"You don't need Kel. I'm worth a fortune." I repeat the words over and over, but Tug is right. Kel won't get far by himself.

I hold out the wolf dog. Tug hooks her up, swings her over his shoulder, and drops her into the rucksack as though she were a kitten. I move away from the cliff edge as Brin swaggers towards me. I take a deep breath, trying not to be intimidated, but his fist rises and fires towards my face.

The next thing I'm aware of is the cold and the pain. I blink at the night sky. Stars twinkle. For a moment I have no idea where I am. The world seems beautiful, quiet and frozen.

Kel's anguished cry shakes me back to reality. Everything beautiful vanishes.

Brin curses in the distance. "Stop kicking or I'll knock you out."

I struggle to sit up. My hand reaches for the enormous lump beneath my eye. A little way off, Brin twists Kel's arm, dragging him back down the hill. My brother shouts until a palm clamps over his mouth. Then he stops struggling.

Beast-face's only weakness is the stupid wolf dog. I should have thrown it from the cliff just to show him he doesn't control everything. Even now, he stands with his back to us looking at the Hybourg, as though our scrabble for freedom is so insignificant, it doesn't even bear watching through to the end.

I hug my arms around my chest and shiver. Snow has gotten into my hood, and a wet patch presses into my back. I clamber to my feet.

I cannot bargain the information about the King's soldiers searching for the missing Prince of Caruca. I don't know if it is of any value to Tug, but if he suspected I knew something, he would simply beat it out of me, or hurt Kel until I revealed what I've hidden. A diversion to free Kel is pointless. I need to escape with him, but with Tug pre-empting everything I do that's next to impossible.

I have run out of time. The only option left is to offer cooperation during my own sale, in exchange for information concerning Kel's buyer. Tug doesn't care what happens to us after he has been paid—whether Kel and I escape our new masters is not his concern. But he will have difficulty raising a good price for me if he cannot prove I have the sight. And besides the dog, the only thing he cares about is coin.

I fight a sinking feeling, hold a chip of snow to my swollen cheekbone, and hope Tug does not hold a grudge against me for threatening his precious wolf dog's life, for the second time.

Hi! The next chapter will be posted on Friday 13th March. Hope you're enjoying it so far :)