The pig-man growled ferociously, his small eyes darting left and right, searching the darkness.

"I know you are here, spies," he roared. "I heard your voices. I saw your light!"

There was a rustle in the tree above him and he looked up, snarling. But when he saw only a black bird silently watching him, he grunted in disgust and looked down again.

"How did you cross the line, spies?" he roared. "What trick did you use to break into the secret field? Are you going to tell me you fell out of the sky?"

Lief, Barda, and Jasmine looked at one another, all realizing the truth at the same moment. They had assumed that the moths in the hedge were to stop people moving from the field to whatever was on the other side.

But it had been the other way around. The moths were to keep intruder out of the field, and out of this part of the forest.

How could they have known? The really had dropped into the field from the sky. But they could not tell the pig-man that. And, even if they did, he plainly would not believe it.

"Show yourselves!" the pig-man bellowed.

The companions remained utterly still. There was a chance that if they remained hidden, he would grow tired of the dark and the cold and go back to his den.

Though together they could no doubt overpower him at last, none of them wanted to be forced to try. They still had far to go. Their quest was too important for them to risk needless injury. The pig-man was powerful and filled with fury.

But that is not all, Lief thought, his skin crawling as he stared at the ugly figure stamping on the other side of the ditch. There is malice here. Something terrible, that none of us understand.

He realized that he was shivering, as if chilled to the bone.