The torch is knocked from my hand. I feel a sharp prickle, more of a warning than an attack. It is no deer or wolf whose eyes shine in the cave. It is the toad witch! I am relieved and alarmed at the same time.

"Why are you here?" we ask each other at the same time.

I try to think fast. "There are Niafer trackers everywhere!" I explain without waiting to hear why she is here. "I've eluded them for now, but they're all around. I circled back to hide in the back tunnel. I see you've found it too. Looking for more of Faramir's hidden treasure, eh?"

Her luminous eyes blink. I expect her to reply. The toad speaks instead. Is he advising her in their own language? What secrets do they exchange?

No time to wonder. Voices echo from the cave's entrance. I give Winter Mist a push, forcing her farther into the tunnel to make room for me. My arm throbs. I groan in pain.

"We're trapped! My torch is gone. Can you see anything ahead of us? Could there be a way out from here?"

She doesn't move. The voices are louder now. I grope in the darkness, having nothing to go on except her eyes glowing eerily in the dark. If Faramir did keep anything down here, I will need her to help me find it. After that -

"If we find anything of Faramir's, we can half it," I whisper and give her another shove. "If we aren't taken by the Niafer. They held me as prisoner last summer. I managed to escape. If they catch us, I'm sure they'll torture us and try to make us tell where the others are, especially Hadaig - and Sean too, for what he did in Cill Dara last year."