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house was a good distance away but she was not out of sight of it. The wall, however, was quite high and she could drop down and hide behind it if she was careful.
    A moment later, the disturbing presence of the human girl was gone and a new goat emerged, as if from nowhere. The wild ones stared at it in astonishment for a few moments before overcoming their mistrust and moving hesitantly towards it. Tess waited, adjusting to the new situation and the altered senses, remembering how it felt to be a goat. The first to approach her was an elderly nanny. Her bones protruded, her coat was long and straggly and clearly she had seen better days. But her age had bestowed two things upon her. One was an enormous pair of horns and the other was an indisputable authority in the group. She approached Tess with an expression of lofty disdain, defying her to make a challenge. Tess did not take up the offer but made herself as unthreatening as possible, waiting for the older goat to make the running. She knew that each species in the animal kingdom had its own protocol, and she knew that in no case could introductions be hurried. But on this occasion, the proceedings were brought to an abrupt end.
    Tess heard the ominous rumble of stones at the same time as the other goats. Unfortunately, however, she had her back to the danger, and the entire herd had launched into a gallop like racehorses coming out of the starting gates before she had the faintest idea what was happening.
    She followed. A goat’s eyes, like most other herd animals’, are on the sides of its head and not at the front, and Tess had often wondered why nature had not provided human beings with the same system. It had a few drawbacks in terms of close focusing, but it was brilliant for observation, since it provided nearly 360 degrees of vision. What this meant for Tess was that even as she ran she could see all around her without turning her head. And what she saw struck terror into her heart. For behind her, rapidly eating up the remaining ground, were a brown dog and a black one. Bran and Sceolan.
    Uncle Maurice was up. He had set the dogs on them.
    Tess ran as she had never run before. There was no time to think, or to plan any kind of a strategy. The chemical fear that surged through her body was like dynamic fuel. She had to expend it. She had to run. The dogs were close behind her as she bolted across the scrubland. She was barely keeping ahead of them. Her hard little feet glanced off the bare rocks, wobbled loose ones and sent small ones flying. Her mind worked with lightning precision as she sped across the rough ground, leaping over bushes and avoiding the dangerous grikes which criss-crossed the limestone like small chasms, incalculably deep. But the dogs were as fast, and as clever.
    Ahead of her the other goats began to prove that they were not sheep and to separate off into pairs and small groups, all taking different routes, improving the odds. Tess, still at the back, followed on the heels of two youngsters of an age comparable with her own. They made a dart to the left, towards the woods and the crag and, without thinking, Tess stayed close, shadowing their progress. To her horror, the dogs stayed with them, too. She could hear their breath and sense their steady, sinister purpose. What was worse, she knew what it was to be a dog; how determinedly they could run, and how tirelessly.
    Ahead of her the two young goats shot into the woods and disappeared. A moment later Tess was in there, as well, and close behind them. Then, quite suddenly, the other two jinked to the right and back towards the open. The movement was brilliantly designed to put the dogs off, but unfortunately it put Tess off, too. She couldn’t follow fast enough and knew that she couldn’t afford to hesitate, either. Alone now, the dogs still on her heels, she plunged on between the trees. And with a dreadful shock, she realised why the other two had turned back. They knew, and the dogs