‘Felebre!’ Sophy cried in relief. Then she questioned her own feelings, for had not Felebre been responsible for leading her to Hidenory? The cat was in some measure responsible for Sophy’s current predicament, so she ought not be pleased to see her. But the cat’s behaviour towards the sleeping girl—and Sophy herself—was strange: gone was her quiet dignity, and in its place she displayed a kind of bounding joyousness, like a gambolling kitten. Sophy noticed, with faint unease, that Felebre’s eyes and Lihyaen’s were almost the same colour.
She was not given a great deal of time to consider these points, for a great howling reached her ears, distant but growing rapidly closer. It sounded as though a pack of hunting dogs was approaching through the trees; and why not? Plenty of stranger thin
