‘It might sound like it, but I’m assured that it’s very different indeed,’ Danda said. ‘And they don’t like to give up their fire-crystal easily. Without promising anything, they want to know how many stones we need.’

‘Three.’

Danda communicated this with the Yarka. Then, after more discussion in the strange language: ‘They’re still not happy, but they are prepared to consider. They want to know what we’ve brought to trade.’

‘You know what to tell them,’ Verris said grimly.

‘No!’ Tab grabbed Verris by the arm, and the Yarka stirred again at the sudden movement. ‘No, you can’t let them have Torby!’

‘Enough, Tab!’ Verris said. ‘Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. Danda, tell them.’

As the message got through, the Yarka began to stir with excitement, and those on the deck began to skitter and sidle towards Torby, lying silent and wide-eyed on his side.

‘Verris! You can’t! There has to be another way!’

Verris’ eyes were sad, and Tab felt sure that if they hadn’t been submerged, tears would have been rolling from them. He took her arm and led her to one side, which seemed strangely unnecessary, considering that the Yarka couldn’t understand what he had to say.

‘Tab, we both know that there isn’t any other way. They won’t let us go unless we leave someone behind, in which case we’ll all die. Even if they allowed us to leave, we couldn’t return to Quentaris without these gems. If we did, Florian would have us thrown straight back over the side, and they’d send someone else down here with Torby. Besides, it says in those orders that Quentaris’ future relies on us getting these gems.’

‘But at what cost?’ Tab asked. ‘Are you sure there’s no other way?’

Verris’ gaze settled somewhere on the middle distance as he thought. ‘Unless…’

‘Unless what?’ Tab said. ‘Verris? Have you had another idea?’

Finally Verris shook his head. ‘No, Tab, I don’t think there’s another way. I know it’s a terrible price to pay, but we’re in no position to argue. Our lives are forfeit, no matter what happens. I’m sorry, Tab.’ He looked at Danda then and nodded once, while Tab felt her heart breaking.

In a moment the scout-pod was surrounded with swarms of the Yarka. The water was thick with them, swirling and crowding, their legs paddling madly, their antennae waving about and their eyes staring with glassy intensity.

‘The gems first,’ Verris said, and Danda translated.

The Yarka parted like a crowd would for a king, and two of the larger individuals turned and swam towards the nearest orb. They were briefly silhouetted against the light from the portal as they entered, and a short time later they reappeared, carrying between them a blue-green gem, brighter even than icefire, so bright that Tab had to turn her eyes away as it was carried forward.

‘Here,’ Verris said, opening the small wooden case. The Yarka lowered the gem into one of the little recesses, then turned and swam towards another of the orbs. As they went, Tab saw that the orb from which the gem had come was now dark, with no light at all visible from within its portal.

The two Yarka were back with another gem, leaving the second orb dark and empty. As they went for the third, the Yarka nearby began to bustle and fidget, as if their impatience would spill over.

‘Tell them to wait,’ Verris growled to Danda.

The third gem was arriving now, and Tab felt dread rising within her as it was lowered into the case. She saw Verris close and latch the lid, leaving a thin crack of glowing turquoise along the edge. The dread continued to rise when the Yarka moved like a clot towards her friend Torby, and she choked back her cry and turned away. Whatever they were going to do, she couldn’t bear to watch.

‘Wait.’ Even underwater, Verris’ voice was full of stern authority. ‘Tell them to hold back.’

Danda translated the command, and the Yarka hesitated.

‘Tell them to come right away from the boy. Quickly. There’s been a change of plan.’

The Yarka drifted as Danda interpreted, and swarmed forward a little closer as she reached the end of the translation.

‘Assure them that there’s no treachery here,’ Verris said. ‘Tell them that there’s to be a substitute. They can’t have the boy.’

‘Who, then?’ Danda asked, fear tinging her voice.

‘Not you, Danda. Tell them.’

Danda spoke in her bubbling, squeaking way, and the Yarka hovered uncertainly.

‘Verris, what are you doing?’ Tab asked quietly.

‘It’s all right, Tab. Danda, tell them that they can take me.’

Tab’s mouth fell open. ‘What?’

‘Tab, don’t say anything. Danda, tell them.’

‘Are you sure?’ Danda asked.

‘Tell them. If they need convincing, tell them there’s more meat on me than there is on him anyway.’

Danda turned back to the Yarka and told them what Verris had said. As one, and without hesitation, the creatures surged forward with bubbly squeals of delight, and then, flashing past as fast as minnows in a pond, they set upon Verris, knocking him to the deck. Their semi-transparent bodies swarmed and pulsed over him, and then they were lifting him, carrying him out over the unplumbed depths below towards the nearest empty orb.

‘Verris!’ Tab cried, and Danda stood with her, clinging to her arm.

The Yarka pulsed around the figure of Verris as he was passed end-on through the dark portal. Then, in huge numbers, they began to pour in, following him into the orb.

‘Your spell,’ Danda said quietly to Tab. ‘Say what you have to say and get us out of here before the rules are changed again.’

Tab cried all the way back to Quentaris. The pod rose slowly into the early morning sky towards the great hulk of the city above. Somehow – she wasn’t at all sure how, with the sobbing – she’d been able to read the diagrams and incantations in the book, and had managed to choke out the sounds needed to get the pod moving up through the water towards the underside of the nearest pockmark in the ocean’s surface. Then, in a strangely un-wet kind of way, the pod broached the surface and continued to rise towards the dark hulk of Quentaris.

‘Are you all right?’ Danda asked Tab, who was by now sitting quietly against the railing with Torby’s head on her lap.

Tab sniffed back her tears. ‘Verris was the nearest thing to a father I ever had,’ she said. ‘Like he said, we did a lot together. Once I even locked him in a fortified room while the city guard were coming.’ She smiled weakly. ‘I did help him get out, though. He thought that was so funny. I think he admired me for it.’

‘He was a good man,’ Danda said.

‘Good isn’t even close,’ Tab replied. ‘To do that for Torby…’

‘It was a noble thing to do.’

‘He’d be dead by now, wouldn’t he?’

‘I don’t know…’ Danda said tentatively.

‘I know he would be. You won’t make me feel worse by saying that he is.’

‘Then yes, I expect so.’

Tab couldn’t speak.

‘Stelka may not be easy to find, Amelia,’ Dorissa said. ‘If she is trying to mind-meld with you as you say, then she’s using magic that is quite new to her.’

‘And to me,’ Amelia said. ‘But I thought you might be able to teach me.’

Dorissa shook her head. ‘I can’t mind-meld, Amelia. I’m not sure that I can even show you how to do it. Besides, it’s not something you can just learn, like juggling.’

Amelia smiled, remembering how she’d used almost those exact words herself.

Dorissa went on. ‘But there is one fact in your favour.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Stelka has reached you, so your chances of reaching her are good.’

‘So can we try?’

Dorissa smiled. ‘Of course we can try, but as I say, I can’t promise anything…’

Amelia nodded. ‘I’m ready.’