Cuss may have a reputation for bad luck and destruction, but he's never been one for killing kids. When raiders attack the Guildhouse he is in, and he is the only one who has a chance of buying time for the trainees to escape, he makes his stand in the gatehouse.

E H Timms won the BBC Wildlife Young Poet of the Year award, hasn't managed to stop writing since, and now lives in South West England with a computer tethered to one elbow and far too many books.