Finally, Tab climbed stairs that led to a slightly open door. Pressing an ear to it, she could only see a tiny part of the room but what she saw made her catch her breath. Tolrushians… and Quentarans! Ruffians by the look of them. Thugs for hire.

Although those inside spoke in low tones, Tab could hear them clearly. And there was one voice that she recognised, aside from Kull's, that chilled her with instant fury.

‘Yes, yes, we've agreed to all this in principle,’ said an irritable Kull Vladis. ‘You shall be installed as Monarch of Quentaris.’

‘And you shall be Overlord,’ came Florian's fawning voice. ‘We will rule the rift planes like demi-gods!’

‘And your uncle?’ queried Kull.

‘Pah! He shall do as he's told else I'll have him whipped bare and thrown to the blood wasps.’

Kull laughed mirthlessly. ‘Family loyalty is so overrated.’

Tab rammed her hand in her mouth to gag it. The little monster!

Kull said, ‘And your engines? You've disabled them, as a greed?’

‘I have a magician in my pay. He will steal the icefire when he gets my signal. Without it, the engines will run for only a few minutes. And with this breeze… ’

Tab finished the sentence in her own mind: with this breeze, Quentaris would become a sitting duck.

‘A toast, then. To our combined good fortune,’ Kull rumbled.

Tab heard chinking goblets. The next moment something sniffed her leg. The same something uttered a loud and horrible growl.

Slowly Tab looked down. Kull's wolfhound, Sherma, met her gaze, revealing yellowed, saliva-dripping teeth.

‘Oh!’ Tab squealed, promptly lost her balance and tumbled down the stone steps.

Before she could pick herself up, the door above flew open. Someone shouted ‘Sherma!’ and the next moment she was lifted bodily and hauled up the steps. The guard rammed his foot in her backside and shoved her into the room.

Florian's sharp intake of breath was the most gratifying sound Tab had heard. This was followed by Kull's burst of laughter as Tab fell flat on her face.

‘Get up!’ someone growled.

Tab got to her feet slowly. As she did so, she saw a dumb waiter in the wall in front of her. It was used to send trays of food up and down a shaft to the other floors. The tray itself must be on a lower floor – all she could see were ropes drawn taut.

Without hesitating she threw herself into the cavity.

‘Get her!’ yelled a guard. His fingertips grabbed for Tab's pigtails but missed. A knife thudded into the wall, just missing her ear as she scrambled into the chute.

Up or down? she thought frantically.

Then she was straining to haul herself up the ropes. She was tempted to slide down but if they cut the ropes, she might have fallen to her death. And at this depth, there might only be a cellar – an instant death trap. So up it was.

‘Stop her!’ Kull roared.

The guards tried to obey their king but none could fit into the chute. One poked his sword at her but it fell short. Through all the yells and oaths, Tab heard Florian's squeaking exclamation: ‘I can fit! The rest of you – up those stairs. She can't get far!’

Sure enough, Florian squeezed into the shaft. Tab could hear the little toad's wheezing as he strained to follow her.

Tab climbed faster. She kicked at a panel on the next floor, but could hear the guards charging into the room on the other side. Up she went to the next floor, then the next. At that point she could go no further.

She booted open the dumb waiter's panel and found herself in a meeting hall. An arched window and balcony took up most of the north wall. Her arms aching, she swung out of the shaft and pulled a dagger from her boot.

Clasping the dumb waiter ropes with one hand, she started slicing.

‘No!’ Florian screamed. His whining voice echoed up the shaft.

Tab hesitated. Could she really kill someone in cold blood? The rope trembled in her hand. Florian had almost reached her.

‘Don't cut the rope!’ he wailed. ‘I'll give you anything. You can rule by my side!’

But Tab had hesitated too long. The chamber door shattered like kindling. A guard rolled across the lush carpet.

Kull Vladis strode into the room, looking slightly out of breath. ‘Back,’ he told his men. ‘I'll handle the riftling. Sit,’ he told his wolfhound as he drew his sword.

Tab tried mind-melding with the wolfhound, but it was too agitated and she flinched from its dark angry mind. Automatically she cast about for anything that might aid her. But there was nothing in the room. Outside, yes, a strange mind, long enslaved, welcomed the touch of her mind… and she sensed a kind of release…

‘Time to teach the meddler not to meddle,’ said Kull. He lunged for Tab.

Tab ducked, parrying. The blades clanged, but she had been lucky. A dagger was no match for a sword. Already her arm was numb and that was just the first blow. Unable to tightly grip the dagger with her injured hand, she flipped it to her other hand and threw it at Kull.

The boy-king, taken completely by surprise, instinctively brought his right hand up and howled as the dagger sliced through his forearm. He dropped his sword. ‘Kill her!’ he screamed. ‘Sherma!’

Florian had meanwhile clambered from the dumb waiter. He picked up Kull's sword. ‘I'll get her!’ he crowed.

But Tab was already dashing across the room. With not a second to spare, she curled into a ball and hurled herself through the leadlight window.

The next moment she was plummeting to the ground.

Then came a loud ‘Oomph!’ as she landed on something. She looked down. She was sitting astride a dragon. Tab clutched wildly at its neck spines, frightened she would fall off.

››› I won't let you fall, Tab Vidler

Awestruck, Tab's eyes widened. She'd never encountered a talking beast before. She didn't know what to say, or how to say it.

››› My name is Melprin. Speak to me with your mind and I will hear. I thank you for freeing me

‘I fre… freed you?’ stuttered Tab. ‘How?’

›››I do not know. The moment your mind touched mine, the enslavement was broken. Thus, I am in your debt. What would you have me do, Tab Vidler?

Tab's mind raced. Florian was going to have the icefire stolen. That would spell Quentaris’ doom. The only thing to do, Tab realised, was to even the odds.

›››I understand

Melprin banked hard, giving Tab a sudden fright. She squealed and clutched the mane even tighter. She sensed rather than heard a deep throaty chuckle from her mount.

‘Not funny,’ she muttered, hoping the dragon couldn't hear everything she was thinking.

The dragon soared across Quentaris. Several lizards came near and Melprin's gushing breath vaporised them all. After that, the lizards kept a wary distance.

Then Melprin veered out from Quentaris and flapped swiftly towards Tolrush. Since the air was full of so many lizards and dragons, none paid Tab and her mount any heed, and they made it unscathed to the outskirts of the enemy city.

‘I must find their icefire gem,’ Tab shouted into the wind.

›››The icefire is kept in the Tower of Storms. I will take you there

Melprin flew like an arrow towards one of a cluster of towers in the castle complex that Kull called his palace. The entire building jutted from the forward portside of the city and was ringed by a low wall. Steps led down to a platform that bordered the void and was tinged a deep red.

Melprin overshot the tower, banked hard, and came back in a swirl of wings and fire to settle on the slippery rooftop.

›››I can blast this place to smithereens if you wish it

Tab would like nothing better but there was always the possibility that there were innocent people inside. She must warn them first. As before, the dragon knew her thoughts immediately.

›››You must hurry. They come

Tab looked back towards Quentaris and saw a battery of lizards clawing the air in their effort to gain height as swiftly as possible. On one rode a figure that she guessed was Kull.