‘I have too, Winnowner Cropper,’ said Vesta firmly.

‘You were frightened by something in the dark woods, child,’ said Winnowner. ‘I ask you all, in Guide’s goodness, we don’t know what we face here.

But we do know there have been three strangers come among us from afar. A new star moves through the heavens, and then they show up, unannounced, claiming to be well-wishers come along in the dead of a winter’s night.’

She glared at Rory.

‘Maybe they are the real Ice Warriors,’ she said. ‘Did that occur to any of you? If they hope to damage our Firmers, and make winter come for ever, and so wipe us out, then maybe this is their conjury trick to get their hands on our Guide Emanual! What’s wrong with you all?’

‘Winnowner is right,’ said Chaunce Plowrite. ‘If this man and his friends are our enemies, then we should not let them near Guide’s words. We’d be handing them the very secrets that they crave. We’d be giving them the means to destroy us.’

Everyone looked at Rory, even Vesta.

‘Oh, come on,’ he said. ‘Please. Please. Do I look evil? I can’t do evil. I can barely pull off dangerous.

This is one of those moments when you’ve just got to trust something. I’m on your side.’

‘I believe him,’ said Vesta Flurrish. ‘I honestly do.

What about you, Elect?’

Bill Groan had bowed his head. He was gazing sidelong at Rory as though that might make it easier to see some kind of answer or eternal truth.

They waited for him to reply.

The main doors to the assembly burst open, letting in a wall of icy chill. Able Reeper, one of Jack Duggat’s men, hurtled in along with the bitter cold, lugging his scythe. He was extremely agitated.

‘Elect! Elect!’ he shouted. ‘You must come quick now! You must come and see!’

‘What’s the commotion, Able?’ Bill Groan asked.

‘Hurry, Elect!’ the man replied. ‘Come and see!’

They all followed him outside into the snowy yard.

It was bitterly cold. Rory inhaled, and the air stabbed into his lungs like a frozen knife. Able Reeper strode off across the town yard towards the Back Row and the hedges that ran along the perimeter of the Spitablefields. He kept beckoning them to follow. A lot of other Morphans were out too, roused from their beds. They were flocking in the same direction, some carrying solamps.

It was surprisingly bright anyway. The blizzard had stopped, leaving the world under a deep blanket of snow, a thick white layer that flowed like a soft duvet over the roofs and trees and tops of walls. It looked like the deepest, richest royal icing that had ever decorated a Christmas cake.

With the snowfall stilled, the sky had cleared. It was like black glass overhead, a polished darkness that sucked the heat out of every breath and made brief, trailing clouds. The sky was so clear, it seemed to Rory that he could see every single star that there had ever been. The spiral pattern of a galaxy filled half the sky, a trillion, trillion winking points of light. The moon was up, huge and bright, a dazzling silver disk low in the sky. The moonlight was intensely bright. It was bathing the entire landscape with a radiance that meant they could all see for miles. The snow cover was reflecting and amplifying the glow.

Some of the stars were moving. Rory could track at least three of them, very high up overhead, moving in formation.

A fourth was descending.

It was growing brighter by the second. Its descent was steady and level, perfectly controlled, but it made no sound. The Morphans came to a halt and gazed up at the star as it moved directly overhead and then swung to the east until it seemed to hang above Would Be. It looked as large and as bright as the moon. The light shining from it picked up the slopes of Firmer Number Two, making the sleeping darkness of the mountain stand out against the night sky.

It wasn’t a star. Rory knew that. If you squinted against the light, you could see faint details of the structure behind the lights, vast and sleek.

‘A star has come loose and fallen down the sky,’ said Vesta.

‘That’s a spaceship,’ said Rory.

The Morphans of Beside, almost every single one of them, stood in the snow and looked up at the vast, bright shape suspended in the eastern sky.

‘What is that sound?’ asked Bill Groan suddenly.

They listened.

Noises were echoing up the valley from the direction of Would Be. Similar noises could be made out coming from the Spitablefields, Farafield and the Fairground beyond the heathouses. They were ugly, ragged noises, the sound of fierce blows being traded by formidably strong opponents. They could hear the blunt force of weapons cracking armour and breaking bone. They could hear grunts of effort and cries of fury, metal striking metal, the crash and shiver of objects colliding with snow-laden trees.

They couldn’t see it, but there was some kind of battle going on in the woodland, a vast, medieval-style battle involving close quarters, hand-to-hand violence.

‘Who’s out there?’ asked Bill anxiously. ‘Who’s fighting?’

‘Some of our men?’ Jack Duggat ventured. ‘The patrols? The nightwatchers?’

‘It sounds like hundreds of them!’ Bill exclaimed.

He turned, pale in the moonlight, and faced his assembled community.

‘Morphans of Beside, listen to me. If the fighting moves this way, we’re in danger. We have to fall back and protect ourselves.’

‘How do we protect ourselves from a star, Elect?’

someone shouted out. Some of the community’s children were sobbing.

‘Just do as I say, for Guide’s sake,’ Bill replied.

‘Come back into the plantnation. The bams and the grain stores are the most strongly built. Take the children there to make them safe. Sol, get guards up to protect the cattle sheds and the stockhouses. Jack, gather a force of men and form a line here and halt whatever comes our way.’

People started to move, obeying his orders, but many simply wanted to linger and stare at the hovering star. Rory edged back through the crowd a little. He was no longer prepared to wait for permission, nor was he going to rely on his powers of persuasion.

Everything was about to get very confused and busy.

He was going to head directly back to the Incrypt and get access to the Guide. The Doctor was counting on him.

He was about to slip into the shadows of the hedgerow and risk running when things suddenly got worse.

Several long, slicing beams of energy speared down from the hovering ship. They made a keening, screaming noise that split the air. Where the beams struck, large plumes of fire belched up inside the wood. Rory, aghast, saw the black skeletons of trees silhouetted by each vivid fireball. The sounds of the blasts - gritty, ground-shaking roars of fury – echoed back to them. The ship was firing its main weapons at ground targets.

Total panic gripped the Morphans. Screaming and shouting, some carrying children, they began to scatter in every direction.

Rory watched the ship bombard the wood with its battery weapons for a few moments. People ran past him. He could feel the overpressure of the distant concussion as a gusting wind against his face. The ship seemed intent on devastating the entire landscape.

He made his decision.

Rory didn’t stop running until he’d reached the assembly. There was no one inside. He could hear the panic and commotion in the streets of the plantnation.

He could hear the crump and boom of the bombardment. Each blast vibrated the ground and made the building tremble.

‘Where are you going? Rory? Where are you going?’

He turned and saw Vesta in the doorway.

‘I have to help the Doctor,’ Rory said.

‘What is happening, Rory?’ she asked, coming forward. ‘Is it the end of the world?’