PREVIOUSLY IN DARKMOUTH

       (How it was won. And lost.)

      They had won the battle but lost Darkmouth.

      There had been an invasion, a fight, death, victory … and when it was all over Finn was accused of being a traitor.

      When this shocking reversal began to sink in, Finn’s mother, Clara, suggested that the awful situation should force them to do something they’d not done before.

      “Let’s go on a holiday,” she said.

      Worse than that, she thought she knew exactly where they should go.

      “Let’s go to Smoofyland.”

      Smoofyland was a theme park based on a popular TV unicorn she kept telling Finn he loved. It was fifty miles up the road from Darkmouth and yet, because Legends kept getting in the way of their plans, they’d never been.

      “You would love Smoofyland,” Clara told Finn.

      “I would not,” Finn insisted.

      “You love Smoofy,” Clara told him.

      “I do not,” he said, deeply unamused by the very suggestion.

      “Well, you used to,” she said.

      “When I was a baby,” he conceded.

      “You had a Smoofy cake for your ninth birthday,” Clara reminded him.

      “You promised not to mention that again,” said Finn.

      “You used to love the Smoofy the Magic Unicorn TV show theme tune,” his mother said, before bursting into song.

      “Who’s the sparkly unicorn with magic in his mane?

      “Smoofy! That’s who.”

      “If you sing one more line—” Finn warned.

      Clara sang two more lines.

      “Who’s the flying unicorn who’s friends with a rainbow train?

      “Smoofy! That’s who.”

      Finn did not want to hear the Smoofy theme tune. He did not want to go to Smoofyland. He did not want a holiday at all.

      He wanted Darkmouth back. For his family. For his dad. For himself.

      They had saved the town from an invasion by Fomorians led by the particularly brutish Gantrua, who had brought with him a house-crushing Hydra. They had rescued a group of Half-Hunters, including Emmie’s father Steve, who had been trapped between worlds by the spectral traitor Mr Glad. This had occurred on Finn’s birthday, when he was supposed to be made a proper Legend Hunter. But that did not happen because a man called Lucien had turned up, and stolen Darkmouth from them.

      An assistant to the Legend Hunters’ leaders, Lucien had seemingly spent too long in a small office in a narrow corridor in a tall building in Liechtenstein, and wanted some proper action for once. He had struck lucky when all those leaders – the Council of Twelve – were desiccated at the same time.

      It cleared the way for him to give orders and take control of the shell-shocked and confused Half-Hunters who had survived the Darkmouth invasion, and who didn’t know who to believe. Lucien pointed out that a boy who had spent time palling around with Legends should be the last one to trust.

      Estravon Oakbound, the rule-obsessed assistant who had once journeyed with them to the Infested Side, agreed.

      That sealed Finn’s fate.

      Lucien captured Broonie the Hogboon and took him away for Desiccation. He stripped Finn and his father Hugo of their right to defend Darkmouth and forced them to move into a small house with Emmie and Steve.

      In the weeks that followed, that house saw disappointment, anger, bewilderment, and several arguments about who ate the last of the biscuits.

      What happened next? Steve was sent to Liechtenstein to report back on his strange experiences. The Half-Hunters had gone home too, as the threat was over for now – besides, most of them had to go back to their jobs as accountants or washing-machine repair technicians or balloon-animal makers and the like.

      Lucien stayed in Darkmouth though, bringing loyal assistants with him. He claimed to be looking for the truth of what happened. But nothing about Lucien rang true.

      It was clear to Finn and Emmie that Steve had been sent to Liechtenstein not just for information but to get him out of the way. It was even clearer that there had been a