The frog-lizard-thing took them away from the city centre and up the mountains that surrounded it.  They passed by endless crags of lumpy white stone, broken up by little rockpools full of animals Jeanette never got a good look at, until they arrived at a house surrounded by smooth white walls about twenty feet high.  The only part of the house Jeanette could see was the roof.  It looked as if it had a wide veranda like at Dovecote Gardens, but there was an extra bit on top that made the whole thing look like a weird, cream-coloured hat.

The frog-lizard-thing came to a stop and crouched down.  All at once, the jelly came unstuck from their bodies and receded.

“Come on, then,” said the Finery family, motioning towards the front gates.  They were metal, with bars arranged in gorgeously intricate patterns that probably made them all the more impossible to break.  The Finery family rang a bell on the wall, and another grey tree-person appeared on the other side.  The Finerys asked them a question in Opal Hill language (which probably wasn’t actually what it was called, but Jeanette had to work with what she had), and the other person said something back.  Jeanette might not have understood the words, but she was pretty sure she understood the tone.  Do you have an appointment?  No?  My clients are very busy and it would be most inconvenient to blah blah blah.

Jeanette stepped to the side to see if there was anything interesting around the corner.  The walls had been built high enough to keep out people from Opal Hill, so maybe they’d overlooked some way a smaller person could get in.  The wall seemed to be smooth all the way round- no holes, no cracks that could be widened into holes, no convenient crags you could use as footholds for climbing.  Instead of a fourth wall, it backed onto the side of the mountain.  Jeanette looked up at it- there was a kind of ledge up there.  Not low enough to jump down onto the roof from, but maybe low enough to climb down?  Could she be sure about that?  And could she be sure that there was any way down from the roof?

Behind her, the Finerys were still talking to the doorman (doorpeople).  Jeanette wondered if maybe it would be easier ton get in that way.  Her first thought was to tell the Iridescences that she knew where Kai Domino was, and make out that she was willing to betray him and hand him over to them.  She decided against this, though- Sally and Rube would probably get upset, and the Iridescences wouldn’t want to admit that they knew who Kai was in front of the Finerys.  So what else could she say to make them let her in?  Was there a way to drop hints about Kai in code?

Suddenly, she had it.  She marched back up to the gate, where the Finerys were still pleading with the doorpeople, and said, “Tell them I can prove that Colwyn and Kai Domino are lying about them.”

For a few seconds, the doorpeople and the Finerys both stared at her, dumbstruck.  Then the doorpeople nodded.

As they disappeared into the distance behind the gates, the Finery family glared at Jeanette.  “What do you think you’re doing?”

“It’ll get us in, right?” said Jeanette with a shrug.

The Finerys made an outraged spluttering sound and turned away from her.

Jeanette glanced back at her sisters.  They looked a little as if someone had hit them both round the head with a wooden plank, but they were a lot less horrified than they would have been if Jeanette had pretended to sell out Kai.  She’d made the right decision.

After a couple of minutes, the doorpeople reappeared.  “Alright,” they said, unlocking the gate, “Come on in.”

(To be continued)