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walk behind her, holding the hem of her gown in his mouth so they didn’t lose each other.
    Ping began to think that leaving Black Dragon Pool had been a mistake. Perhaps she’d over-reacted. She tried to think of other explanations. A hungry mountain hermit might have come across the goat, but she’d disturbed him before he had the chance to carry the dead animal away. A goatherd could have seen the goat and thought that Ping had stolen one of his flock. A shaman might have climbed up the sacred mountain to give an offering to Heaven, seen the smoke from her fire and decided to punish her for venturing onto the forbidden slopes of Tai Shan. None of her theoriesmade her feel any easier.
    She stumbled on through the fog. When she walked into a boulder, she realised that she had left the track and was up to her knees in wet grass. The path wasn’t the only thing she’d lost. Kai was no longer holding on to the hem of her gown.
    “Where are you, Kai?” she called and then tripped over him where he had stopped in the long grass. He whimpered miserably. Hua was sheltered between Kai’s feet.
    A flash of anger did nothing to warm her numb body. She was angry with the nameless person who had forced her from Black Dragon Pool. Angry that she was so powerless. Then Ping was vaguely aware of a sensation she hadn’t felt for a long time. Something was drawing her, as if an invisible thread were tied to her and someone at the other end was pulling it. It encouraged her. She picked up Kai, and followed the thread.
    An hour later, a dark, squarish shape loomed out of the fog. It was a hut. This was what had been drawing her. Somehow she had known that the hut was there. She also knew that there was no one inside. Ping lifted the latch and entered.
    The hut was small, just one room. The only light came through a hole in the ceiling designed to let out smoke from a fire-place in the middle of the room. A straw mattress hung over the rafters. Ping found a neat stack of chopped wood, a basket containing folded sheepskinsand a chest packed with food. Compared to the chilly cave they’d left behind, the hut was luxurious.
    Hua climbed up into the rafters and found a large selection of insects for Kai. Ping ate salted meat, dried fruit and nuts from the food chest. After she’d eaten, she pulled down the straw mattress and made a bed on the floor. Kai didn’t need any encouragement. He was curled up under the sheepskins in moments. Ping crawled in alongside him.
    She had almost forgotten about her second sight. Living a simple life at Black Dragon Pool, she’d had no need for it. When she really wanted to find something she could concentrate her mind and somehow she was drawn to it. That’s what had led her to the hut. Anger could rouse her second sight unbidden, but she had started to learn how to summon it at will. Her second sight also gave her warning of danger—a sense of dread, like the hard mass she had felt in her stomach when the goat was killed.
    Ping felt as warm as a baked taro root. The delicious, almost forgotten, taste of orchard-grown nuts and fruit lingered in her mouth. The hut was a perfect place to spend the winter.

• chapter seven •
A S HEPHERD’S H UT
    “Dragons can stay underwater for weeks,”

she told Hua, as she peered uneasily through

the weed. “I don’t know how they do it. They

must be able to breathe water like fish do.”
    When Ping woke the next morning, she got up and opened the window shutters. Daylight flooded in. She’d slept late. The food chest was open. Nuts and dried beans were scattered on the floor. Several dried plums had distinctly dragonish teeth marks in them. Kai was squawking miserably. He didn’t like the shepherd’s food. He was hungry.
    The door opened a crack. Hua came in carrying three moths which he put next to the large mushroom that he’d already collected.
    “Look. Hua has brought us breakfast.”
    Ping lit a little fire and cooked the mushroom in the coals.