‘And I don’t want you to feel discouraged if it doesn’t work straight away.’

‘I’m ready.’

‘Then close your eyes and do as I say.’

Stelka’s voice was horribly harsh in Amelia’s head, but she persisted, shifting the sounds around like boxes in a room until they made more sense and order.

›››Amelia? How you found me?

›››Dorissa

›››Dorissa? Dorissa alive?

›››Yes, she’s alive, in Skulum Gate››Where are you?

›››They came and take me different place. Bad magic is come soon

›››What kind of bad magic?

›››Bring fire-crystal from Yarka

›››They’re getting icefire?

›››No! Fire-crystal! Different! Very powerful! Darker magic. Stronger magic

›››Magic that you know how to do?

›››Yes! No more vortex with this magic

›››Well, that’s good… isn’t it?

›››Gives power to city can appear to kill and steal and disappear very fast

›››Can appear to kill and steal?

›››No, I said wrong. Can appear, then kill and steal, then disappear

›››So with this magic Quentaris can appear in a world, take what it wants, kill who it wants, and disappear without waiting for a vortex?

›››Yes! Yes!

›››Stelka, it’s very simple, isn’t it? You can’t do this. You can’t let Florian have this magic!

›››Torture. Terrible torture

Amelis had no response. She couldn’t imagine what kind of torture could be dealt out to Stelka. Enough to make her do this dreadful thing? It must have been truly horrifying. Physical torture? No, Florian wouldn’t stop at that. He’d use the magicians that he’d corrupted, working in darkly enchanted cells to torture Stelka in the worst ways their magic could conceive.

›››Stelka, do they have the fire-crystal yet?

›››Not yet. They say come soon. They send party to Yarka

›››A party?

›››Verris in charge

›››Verris is alive?

›››I was with surprise too

›››Who else is in this party?

›››Verris leads party with Navigator and

The connection was gone. The voice had vanished.

›››Stelka?

›››Is the Navigator Tab? Stelka!

The voice was still there after all.›››Caught me melding with her. Me let slip who it was. Was accident. Feel so bad, want to fix but can’t. Am bad person now. You should not meld me any more

›››Stelka, who else is in this party?

›››Navigator, interpreter and someone must leave behind. Someone weak

It was as if Amelia’s veins had suddenly filled with ice. ›››Torby? They’ve taken Torby with them? They have, haven’t they?

››I go now››I hate what I become. Don’t look for me

This time the connection really was gone, and Amelia felt Stelka’s presence drain away like water from a broken pot.

She opened her eyes. Dorissa’s room had gone blurry, and she wiped her tears away with her sleeve. ‘They took Tab and Torby,’ she said. ‘And they’ve got Stelka doing terrible, terrible magic.’

Dorissa reached out and took Amelia’s hand. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry you went to all this trouble to find me, only to leave with bad news.’

‘Is there any way to find her? I mean, to find where she is?’

Dorissa shook her head. ‘Unless Stelka wishes to be found, she won’t let it happen. She holds powerful magic, but she’s been to the evil side of magic now, and will never come back. How could she? How could she come back and face everyone now?’

Amelia bowed her head and let the tears flow freely. ‘So that’s it, then? Verris is gone, Tab is gone, Torby is gone, even Stelka is gone, or she might as well be.’

‘If they do their job well, Verris and Tab will be back,’ Dorissa said. ‘But they might be changed forever – it’s impossible to know.’

‘And Stelka?’

‘Stelka is strong, but stubborn. If she says she won’t return, then we should believe that to be true. I’m sorry.’

‘And Torby?’ Amelia asked in a low voice. ‘How about Torby?’

‘I’m sorry.’

Amelia strode from the archway without any disguise. The make-up was wiped unevenly from her face, the clothes discarded back in the endless lamplit street of Skulum Gate.

Reaching the end of the lane, she turned left and marched towards the palace, barely noticing how bright the light seemed after the dimness of Skulum Gate’s heavy winter sky.

‘Hey! You’re back!’ Philmon dropped down off the ledge he’d been waiting on and trotted alongside Amelia. ‘How did you go?’

‘They took Tab. And Torby. Verris is alive. But Stelka is…’

‘What? Dead?’

‘No, but she might as well be. She’s gone over with them.’

‘So where are Tab and Torby?’

‘On a mission. They were press-ganged. But Torby’s not coming back,’ she said, furious tears stinging her eyes.

‘So where are you going now?’

‘To have words.’

‘Whoa! Whoa!’ Philmon grabbed her. He gripped both her shoulders and turned her to face him. ‘Now it’s time for you to see sense. What can you hope to achieve by going up there?’

‘I’m angry, Philmon,’ she snarled. ‘Can’t you see?’

‘Yes, I can see that. So can the rest of this street.

You almost knocked over a stall back there. You need to calm down.’

‘How can I possibly calm down?’

‘Listen, the play starts in a couple of hours.’

‘I can’t go to a play now!’

He shook his head. ‘No, listen to what I’m trying to say. If you go up to the palace, even if you get to see Florian – which I doubt – he’ll either laugh at you, or worse, you’ll be sharing a cell with Stelka, or sharing the ocean with whatever lives down there. Besides, by now Florian would be up on Tarquin’s Hill in his fancy tent, eating until he’s sick. So instead, we go back to your place, you clean yourself up, we go to the play, and if you must confront Florian, you do it there, on your terms.’

‘What do you mean, on my terms?’

‘I mean you confront him in front of hundreds of his own citizens, on his birthday. What’s he going to do then?’

Amelia sighed, and looked back over her shoulder towards the playhouse. Then she glanced in the direction of the palace. Finally she nodded. ‘You’re right. You’re right. Nothing can be fixed by going to the palace.’

‘Good. So, let’s go and get ready for the play.’

With a loud rattle of chains and a heavy grinding groan, the rock opened. The scout-pod, still operating entirely under the magic that Tab had invoked, adjusted its course slightly and headed into the cave-like door that had appeared in the cliff that comprised part of Quentaris’ hull.

Tab barely noticed. She was still weeping for Verris as she half sat, half lay beside Torby.

‘Tab. We’re back,’ Danda said, placing her hand on her shoulder.

‘I don’t care,’ Tab replied, but she looked around anyway. The pod had risen through the tunnel, coming to a stop beside a kind of pier, inside a barn-like room. In the gap between the edge of the pod and the pier she could see the tunnel stretching down, and beyond that the blue of the ocean, far below. The ocean that Verris was still in.

Two men stood waiting, both large, muscled and armed. One looked like he might have had some troll blood in him, several generations back, judging by his wide jaw, low forehead, and stocky legs. The other was an albino, with pure-white hair, freckled skin and pink eyes. Tab didn’t recognise either of them, until they spoke.

‘You’re back,’ said the albino, in a coppery voice. ‘Did you get what you went for?’

‘In the chest,’ Tab spat. ‘Your filthy jewels are in the chest.’

‘And the book? We will need the book back. Can’t leave orders like that lying around the place,’ the albino said.