Another breeze touched Silus’s face, and this time it was redolent with the smell of damp caverns and lichen-encrusted rock.

Kelos, too, had climbed to his feet, and he began to move towards the eunuch, who turned to meet him.

“You can hear that, can’t you, Kelos?” he said.

“There is… something, yes.”

“The song?”

“I don’t know.”

“Katya,” Silus said. “Get Zac below, now.”

Emuel began to sing. It was the first time in a long time they had heard him do so, and Silus had forgotten how pure and clear his voice was. The tattoos that covered the pale flesh of the emasculated boy started to move, entwining around each other, swirling to the music that all of them were now beginning to hear.

Katya stood at the top of the steps, entranced, Zac squirming in her grip as he reached out towards Emuel.

None of this seemed right to Silus. This wasn’t the same song that had once empowered the Llothriall. Why couldn’t any of them see that?

Ignacio, though, seemed to have an inkling. He ran up to Emuel and shook him hard.

“This is not the time!” he shouted. “Emuel, snap out of it, something is coming.”

And, indeed, something was. There was a darkness gathering on the horizon, moving swiftly and silently towards them.

Emuel did not stop. Something else added its voice to the song as, above them, Kerberos began to sing.

“Katya, I said go!” Silus shouted.

This time she acknowledged him and hurried below.

The darkness had arisen on all sides of the Llothriall. The small circle of sea on which they sat was beginning to rapidly shrink, and the only ones who seemed to be doing anything about it were Dunsany and Ignacio. They rushed about the deck, trying to ready the ship to escape this new threat.