Lor led them past more skeletons, curtains, and some wooden statues that reminded Sally of totem poles, until they came to a room with a couple of benches in the middle, like in a museum or an art gallery.  Sally and Rube sat on one, while Lor took the one opposite, folding her right leg in front of her so that one foot was on the bench and the other one was on the floor.  “So,” she said, “The situation.”

She went silent for a bit, long enough that, if Jeanette was here, she’d have probably told her to get on with it.  Sally really missed Jeanette.

Finally, she said, “How much has Colwyn told you about the paths?”

Rube shrugged.  “He hasn’t really told us anything…”

“But you know there’s limits to them, right?  I mean, people from your world can go wherever they like, but everyone else can just go to yours and to our own.  I couldn’t go to Wallfruit Cove, for instance.”

Rube made a confused humming noise.

“I knew that,” said Sally, “Kai told me.”

Lor started.  “Kai?”

“He’s a friend of…”

“I know who he is.  Is he OK?”

Sally was surprised… but, really, she shouldn’t have been.  Lor was in the Iridescence house, right?  And that was where Kai had escaped from.  “Yeah.  He was a bit bashed-up, but I helped him get sorted out.  I think he’s in Wallfruit Cove now.”  Or at least, that’s where he’d been heading the last time they’d seen him.  Hopefully he’d have gone back there when he saw they weren’t in the Tavin family’s dungeon anymore.

“That’s a relief.  I was worried…  Well.  It’s good that he’s recovering.”  She looked at the floor, then back up.  “They say- the people in Opal Hill say, anyway- that the Iridescences have something that allows them to travel between the worlds.  All the worlds.”

Rube nodded.  She was leaning forward with her hands folded in her lap, like she was in school.  “So you came here to…”

“Steal it, yes.”  Lor gave a little nod.  “Only I got talking to one of their captives, and he convinced me to send a letter to Colwyn Ballantine at Dovecote Gardens.”

“Kai?”

“Exactly.  It was all fine.  I sent the letter anonymously so I didn’t blow my cover.  But then I really made a mistake.  Lost my footing in one of the lower basements, and broke part of a wall.  Kai used that as an opportunity to escape, but they saw him and fired at him almost straight away.  The only reason they didn’t catch me is that it happened while Colwyn was visiting, and they thought he did it somehow.”  She gnawed her lip again.  “So…  It was my fault they took him prisoner.  But, if I break him out, they’ll know I’m in the house.  You see my problem.”

Rube spoke in a kind of loud whisper.  That was the only way Sally could think about it- not quiet enough to be a whisper, but too breathy not to be.  “Why do you want to steal it that badly?”

 “Mainly so that they can’t use it.  They’re the last people who should…”  Lor let out a little huff.  “Kai told you what they did to him, right?  Well, that’s the sort of thing they do whenever they get the chance.  Any little bit of power, no matter how small, they use to hurt and humiliate people.  Just because they can.” 

Sally wondered if Lor was basing this on personal experience rather than just stuff she’d heard.  Maybe the Iridescences were just as horrible to their fellow townsfolk as they were to everyone else.

“There’s… artefacts all over the house from different worlds on the paths.  Works of art, pieces of technology we don’t have here…  I don’t even want to think about how they got them.  But whoever owned them last is probably still having nightmares about it… or their surviving relatives are.”

Rube nodded.  “So, what would you want from us, in order to rescue Colwyn?”

Sally was sure that Lor was going to say that she had it all wrong and she didn’t want anything, she was just trying to explain how complicated it was, that’s all.  Instead, she clicked her tongue and said, “I… think I’d have more luck searching for whatever they’ve got if I had some help.”  She looked up at them, looking strangely meek and wide-eyed, like she was embarrassed to be asking.

Rube took a breath.  “Well, I don’t know how much help I can be, but if you help us to rescue Colwyn, I’ll do whatever I can.”

Sally stared at Rube.  She’d said ‘I’, not ‘we.’  Sally wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or insulted.

Lor held up a hand.  “It’ll be in the basements somewhere.  We might have go quite far down.”

“We’ll just see how it goes.”  Rube smiled at her.

Something occurred to Sally.  “Maybe when we see Colwyn, he’ll be able to give you some advice about it?  Maybe he could help you narrow down where it could be?”

Lor laughed.  “Yeah, if he’s not furious with me for getting him locked up.”  She nodded at Rube.  “Like your sister said, we’ll just see how it goes.”

(To be continued)