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keep warm.
    Gloomily Tia waited for the sun to rise and watched the geysers jetting water into the moonlight. Mesmerised by their rhythmical dance, she nodded off to sleep. With a start she woke from her doze. She mustn’t fall asleep again and risk falling down the boulder into a geyser.
    She shook her head. She must have slept for quite a while as the sun was lighting up the horizon. It was all the geysers’ fault, she thought, with their hypnotic pulse lulling her to sleep. She glared at the nearest one as though it was doing it on purpose: whoosh-spout, whoosh-spout, pause, pause, whoosh-spout! It was enough to make anyone drift off.
    As Tia scowled, a narrow gap opened between the geysers just in front of her and also the ones behind them. They’d spouted and paused together. Tia jumped to her feet. She watched carefully and saw that the geysers all gushed and stopped in a sequence. And sometimes they cleared, just for asecond, one after the other. Perhaps there was a way through after all.
    Tia counted carefully over and over again. Eventually she worked out the pattern. If she was right she would be able to run through the geysers as they paused one after the other. She counted a few more times. Yes, she could do it – she was sure!
    She waited for the beginning of the sequence and, just as it was about to start, ran down the sloping boulder and into the geysers as the first row sank into the hot ground.

    She stumbled as the unexpectedly crusty surface cracked under her boots. Frantically she scrabbled upright and ran as the geyser behind whooshed up again. She pelted forward, always reaching the geysers in front of her as they sank into their pools of glopping mud, and the ones behind shot upwards. It was hard to breathe in the stifling air smelling like a thousand bad eggs, but she didn’t pause for a second.
    And then she was breathing cool, fresh air and her feet were running on grass.
    She carried on sprinting until she was sure it was safe to turn and look back.
    Yes! She’d made it! She’d escaped! That would show Skadi. Tia yelled in triumph and turned cartwheels till she ran out of energy and flopped onto the grass.
    Now all she had to do was find her way back to Iserborg town and steal the sapphire.

    Tia used the position of the sun to guide her back to Iserborg. The way was over gently sloping hills dotted with thickets of trees and though the walk was long it wasn’t difficult. She kept up a steady pace all day and at sunset she settled by a stream running through a small wood. After she’d drunk the cool, clear water she made a fire to curl up next to. She ignored her hunger pangs.
It’s better to be hungry and warm than fed and cold
, she thought, and quickly fell asleep.
    As soon as she woke the next morning she started off again. She arrived at Iserborg, hungry and footsore, that evening. She joined a bunch ofquarrymen hurrying down the avenue of beasts towards the town. The raggle-taggle group surged through the gates as the guards were drawing them closed. No-one took any notice of Tia as she rushed through with the latecomers. Nor did they give her a second glance as she sauntered across the square and into the side road.
    She crouched in shadows near the trapdoor, waiting till it was fully dark. While she waited she wondered what her friends would think when they saw her. She expected they’d be angry with her for putting them in even greater danger than before. Maybe they wouldn’t want to help her any more?
    The trapdoor opened and the three children climbed into the street. Tia walked out into the moonlight. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ she said softly. ‘It’s me, Tia.’
    The three children stood stock still and stared as if she were a ghost.
    â€˜But you were taken,’ Ingvar said.
    Tia went closer. ‘I escaped. I’ve been walking for two days without any food. I’m so hungry.’
    They still stood frozen to