‘Do I look all right?’ she said through clenched teeth. ‘Something’s happening. Someone’s trying to say something to me.’

‘Are you sure?’ asked Myla.

‘No, I’m creating a diversion. Of course I’m sure!’

‘No, well you don’t look at all well. There is a bed just through here. Come this way. Risha! Risha!’ she called.

But as quickly as it had come, the pain went, along with the teeth-grinding voice. Amelia felt suddenly drained, her energy depleted, and stumbling forward to a nearby stool, she sat down carefully.

‘What was it?’ Philmon asked.

‘I’m fine,’ Amelia replied. This wasn’t what Philmon had been asking – she knew that – but she didn’t want to talk to him about it until they were alone. Myla and the nursemaid, who was now fussing around getting a cup of water for Amelia, didn’t need to hear what she was about to tell Philmon.

She was going to tell him that someone had been trying to mind-meld with her, but that she didn’t have a clue who it was.

‘So tell me again, what did the voice say? Tell me exactly.’ Philmon seemed excited at this new development. Excited and thoughtful.

Amelia glanced around to make sure that no one could hear her. There was no chance of anyone within the infirmary overhearing her, since the door had been shut rather firmly behind them when they left. But these days it was hard to know who to trust out in the street.

‘Come over here,’ she said, leading Philmon to one side, near the path that led around to the back of the infirmary. ‘I told you, the voice sounded as if it was saying something like “Armla, armla, these is steel kelp”.’

Philmon screwed up his face as he thought about this. ‘That’s strange,’ he said at last.

‘I know. I’ve been going over it in my mind, and I think it might have been meant to sound like “Amelia, Amelia, this is steel kelp”, whatever that means. Steel kelp… Steel -’

‘No!’ Philmon said suddenly. ‘No, I’ve got it! It’s saying “Amelia, Amelia, this is Stelka”. Help. Could that have been it?’

‘Of course!’

‘So why wasn’t she clearer?’

‘The thing about the mind-melding is that Stelka’s not very good at it yet. I mean, Tab’s been teaching her through the mind of a rat, for goodness sake.’

‘And can you do it? Can you mind-meld?’

‘Tab’s tried to teach me, but it’s not a skill you can just pick up, like playing hooey.’

‘I know that, but I didn’t ask if it was hard. I asked you, can you do it?’

‘I’ve managed once or twice, but it’s hard to get right. I’ve watched Tab do it – she’s amazing.’

‘Yes, well in case you hadn’t noticed, Tab’s not here, so it’s up to you. Did Stelka give you any kind of hint of where she might be?’

‘No, she only said what I told you.’ Amelia frowned. ‘This is getting very strange now, Philmon. First Tab disappears, then Torby, and finally Stelka sends a message asking for help.’

‘You said “finally”. There’s no guarantee that there’s anything final about it. For all we know, we could be next.’

‘Don’t,’ Amelia replied. ‘That’s not funny.’

‘Do you see me laughing?’

‘So, what now?’

Philmon scratched his ear. ‘Do the goat, the falling wall and the fire strike you as a little odd? Especially considering that while all that was going on, Torby disappeared.’

‘Connected?’ Amelia said.

‘What do you think? Since we have no other leads just now, we should probably check out this wall and the burnt-down kitchen. Do you know where it is?’

‘She said it was around the back. Come on.’

Trying to ignore the dull headache that lingered after the message from Stelka, Amelia led the way around the back of the infirmary. The gate in the little archway was locked firm. Philmon jiggled the latch, then craned his neck to peek over the gate. He glanced up at the wall, which was far too high to climb over, then went back to jiggling the gate.

‘No, it’s no good. We’ll go around the other side,’ he said at last. ‘There’s a laneway that runs along the other side of the wall.’

‘Can you see where’s it’s fallen over?’

‘Yes. It’s a bit of a mess.’

They hurried around to the other side, and down the narrow lane that ran along the starboard side of the infirmary. The lane was empty, and the courtyard wall was slumped over in the middle. Several rows of bricks had fallen in, and were now rubble on the courtyard paving stones.

‘Oh, that poor goat!’ Amelia said. ‘I’ll be surprised if it ever gives milk again!’

She stepped closer to the gap in the collapsed wall and looked across at the kitchen. A small added-on section jutted out into the courtyard, and part of its corner had been struck by some of the falling bricks. The damage from the bricks was minor, but not so the damage from the fire. Above the broken window, the eaves had been blackened by smoke, and the smell of fire and damp ash hung in the air.

‘How do you think that happened?’ she asked.

Philmon shrugged. ‘I don’t know – there are dozens of ways a fire can start. A brick fell through the window and knocked something into the stove, maybe?’

‘Must have been a pretty light brick, or a brick with wings,’ Amelia said. ‘Look where the chimney comes through the roof.’

‘And?’

‘The stove’s way over on the other side of the kitchen. That fire didn’t start by accident. This was a diversion.’

‘Hmm,’ Philmon said. He was busy inspecting the part of the wall that was still standing. ‘This is interesting.’ He pointed at a mark about halfway up the bricks. ‘What does that look like to you?’

‘Um… mud?’

‘Look down here,’ he said, pointing at the base of the wall.

Amelia looked down at a large patch of mud. There were footprints in it.

‘So?’

‘Someone’s tried to climb this wall. See how they’ve stepped in the mud, then tried to climb over and left mud smeared on the bricks? And their weight on the wall has made it fall down.’

‘Yes, onto a defenceless goat,’ Amelia said. ‘Poor thing.’

‘Hey, hold up, what’s this?’ Philmon said, bending over and picking something up. It was small, about the size of a peanut. ‘What do you make of this?’

Amelia shook her head. ‘I don’t underst… It’s a pip, Philmon.’

‘I know. And there’s another one here.’

Amelia was beginning to think that her friend might have finally lost it. ‘I don’t know why that’s such a huge discovery,’ she said.

‘Do you know what kind of pip it is?’

She took it from his fingers and looked at it closely. Then she sniffed it, and screwed up her nose. ‘Yes, of course I do. It’s a tigerplum pip. And now my fingers will be stinky for a week.’

‘Exactly – a tigerplum pip.’ He was already turning to go. ‘And do you know what that means? It means we know who kidnapped Torby.’

‘You can’t prove it!’ Amelia said as she jogged after him. She was getting the unnerving feeling that he was going to turn left at the end of the lane and make for the palace to have words with Kalip Rendana.

‘Amelia, when all the evidence points to one person, that’s who you have to talk to first,’ he was saying.

‘But that’s what I mean! The evidence doesn’t all point to Rendana. Let’s look logically at what we know: he took Fontagu’s script, which he returned, by the way; we know he works for Janus, who works for Florian, who is a rotter. And we know Rendana has a little knife that he uses to scare people.’

‘Exactly!’ said Philmon.

‘But none of that proves that he pushed down a wall, almost killed a goat and set fire to an infirmary kitchen just so he could kidnap someone. That could have been anyone!’

Philmon stopped. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘You say that all of that doesn’t prove a thing, and I was starting to believe you. But then you mentioned his little knife. Follow me.’

He ran to the end of the lane, but instead of turning left towards the palace, he turned right. Amelia raced after him, following him along the street in front of the infirmary, and back to the locked gate that led into the courtyard from the other side.