‘I have a bad feeling about them. Aside from what Tab has told us, it's nothing I can quantify,’ Stelka confessed.

‘Mere snobbery!’ Florian sneered.

Stelka's eyes burned. ‘You're a fine one. He who can't help telling all and sundry about the colour of his blood.’

Florian lifted his chin defiantly, but he didn't answer back. For a moment the chamber was silent, aside from the crackling of the timber in the grand fireplace that did little to warm the room.

‘Watch yourself, Florian,’ Verris said with a glint in his eye. ‘You might find yourself smote, and you've not proved yourself worthy of sparing, apart from the colour of your blood, of course.’

Many members of the council chuckled behind their hands.

‘Let's all just calm down,’ Storm said. ‘It seems to me the only problem we have is these.’ She rolled a mood stone across the table. ‘We have no further obligations to the sky-traders. We taught them sports, as agreed. I say we pack up our toys and say goodbye. We dump these stones on the first world we find, and carry on. Tab said that we don't have anything that they want. They should have no problem with us leaving. Isn't that right, Tab?’

Tab bit her lip and nodded. ‘May I be excused?’ she asked in a small voice.

‘No!’ Florian snapped.

‘We don't need to dump the gems, surely!’ Drass protested. ‘These Loraskians might be pipsqueaks! Why are we listening to this girl?’

Tab sighed. Here we go. Back to the beginning again!

Verris took pity on her. ‘You can go. Rest. Have something to eat, but don't go far. We'll call for you if you're needed.’

Tab smiled gratefully as she slipped out of her chair. She was tired, and she would get something to eat just as soon as she had seen Melprin.

She ran across the square. There were still skytraders sitting in the street stalls playing joy tiles and sharing a drink and a meal with Quentarans who were oblivious to the danger they were in.

Tab dashed down the alleyways skidding around corners, ducking past carts and crates as shopkeepers stacked away their wares or craftspeople took new inventory.

She reached the tower. Round and round she climbed. Every dozen steps there was a narrow opening in the wall that looked out between the rigging over the city. Through one of these openings Tab saw a group of roofies sitting cross-legged. A slender man had a lute and was singing a sweet tune, while the others swayed in time.

Up and up she climbed. Her legs were heavy and her lungs started to burn. She pushed off the stone wall. Not far to go now.

When Tab reached the door at the top she rested, hands on knees, catching her breath. She put her hand on the doorhandle. Suddenly she felt Melprin's mind-speak, metallic and crackling, and somehow hot, like a knife blade inside her head.

›››Wait! The situation is somewhat delicate here

Tab held her hands to her temples, suppressing a yelp.

›››I'm coming around to the window

She slipped out through the opening onto the narrow shelf on the outside of the building, tucking her fingers into the cracks between the stones and clinging on strongly. She took a deep breath, held it and then dared to look out at the nightscape of Quentaris spread out before her. She could see the lights within the masts, making them glow like festival lanterns. Huge lamps swung around from the crow's nests, lighting the sails that whipped and snapped in the night air like great flags. It would have been quite beautiful if it wasn't so scary.

There is a whole spider web of cordage between me and the ground, she told herself. She would be able to grab a hold of something before she hit that hard, cold surface. Her head spun, but that might have been from the shock of hearing Melprin's voice so loudly in her mind after such a long period of humming noise.

Tab shuffled slowly around the tiny ledge, gripping with her fingers and curling her toes inside her boots. Finally her fingers found a deeper crevice, and Tab peeked inside the opening.

Stacked around the room were boxes, crates and hessian sacks. Melprin stood against the far wall, back arched and tail lashing, her eyes burning with rage.

Standing with her back to Tab was the sky-trader Chak – Kel's second in command. She held an oval object, slightly larger than a hooey ball, over her head.

It's an egg, Tab thought. Melprin's egg. That's why she has been so quiet up here!

Melprin's tail whipped again, hitting the floor with such force it cracked the flagstone.

‘Temper, temper,’ the sky-trader taunted, holding the egg closer to the window.

Tab could see what was happening. The sky-trader would either take the egg or throw it out the window. Whichever way, Melprin would lose it. But the minute the sky-trader headed for the door Melprin would be on her, so she couldn't afford to risk running.

How long had this stand-off been going on? Tab wondered.

Melprin let out a metallic, grating growl that sounded like a barrel full of broken glass turning over.

›››Hours

Tab could reach the egg – snatch it out of the skytrader's grasp. She shuffled further into the narrow window, stretched forward. She almost had it, just a hand-span more. Her shadow danced on the wall.

The sky-trader spun around. She saw Tab and let out a barking laugh. ‘The armada has arrived at last! You want the egg? Here, take it!’ She thrust the egg at Tab, pushing with all her force. Tab curled her arm around the egg. She tried to keep a grip on the wall with her other hand, but she was slipping. She scratched at the stone wall with her fingernails, but the momentum was too great. She was falling. Her legs flailed at the air and she let out a shriek.

Above her Tab heard a heavy crunch. Stone blocks split and flew as Melprin launched herself through the wall and into the sky. The dragon shot straight down like an arrow. The wind whistled through her scales as she picked up speed.

Tab held out her free hand and Melprin tucked in underneath her. Tab scrabbled at the dragon's scales, trying to make purchase. The egg slipped under her elbow.

‘No!’ she shouted, squeezing with her arm, but it was too late. The egg slithered out from under her arm and dropped away into the dark.

With two hands free Tab hauled herself onto Melprin's back, gripping with her knees. ‘Hurry!’ she screamed at Melprin.

The dragon whipped and spun this way and that way, searching for the egg. She let out an anguished howl.

›››Where?

But Tab couldn't see it either.

As they got closer to the ground Tab prepared herself for the worst, but as Melprin set her down, there was no broken egg on the ground underneath the tower.

‘I'm so sorry,’ Tab said to her friend, tears welling in her eyes. ‘I couldn't hold on. I tried, but…’

Melprin said nothing. She growled again, a deep thrumming sound that rattled in Tab's chest and set her hair on end. The dragon shot up into the sky pulling at the air with long strokes of her wings, heading towards the sky-traders’ city.

A moment later Chak burst out the door. Her head swung around. She saw Tab and cursed, then she turned on her heel and ran towards the harbour. Tab followed her. Her legs ached and her head throbbed. Her chest stung with guilt and regret, but she ran, pumping her arms.

They passed a dark alley and the sky-trader skidded to a stop, and then backtracked. Tab stopped not far behind her and they both stared into the gloom.

The sky-trader cursed again.

There in the alleyway a man in a hooded cape was leading a pony. It was a sad, old, sway-backed looking creature. Its ribs stuck through its coat like corrugations on an old road. He turned his head and in a shaft of moonlight Tab saw his face. His eyes widened when he saw the two people at the end of the lane.

‘Fontagu!’ Tab gasped.