We arrived home after dark.

The palace gates were open and lit and Lyra was there, which she always was when it mattered, and beside her was Senna with her hands in her sleeves and her composure doing its work and something underneath it that didn't require the composure.

And Mira.

She was at the edge of the lit courtyard and she looked at the group coming through the gate and she found, without difficulty, the four-year-old on the horse in front of Dante, sitting upright with the ...