Lor spent a good ten minutes explaining the situation to Colwyn.  It seemed to Rube that everything she said carried a strong undertone of “I know it was my fault, and I’m sorry, OK?”  For his part, Colwyn listened calmly.  He seemed to be in one piece- on some level, Rube had been worried that they’d find him in some kind of torture chamber.  Instead, this was just a bare, dusty attic.  It would drive you insane with boredom, if anything.

When Lor finished talking and gave him a strange, half-meek, half-defiant look, Colwyn replied, “Well….  That explains a lot.”

Lor stayed tensed, in case Colwyn was just gearing up to start screaming at her.

“I’m glad that Kai was able to escape,” he added.  He took a long breath, and said, “Lor… Radiance, did you say?”

Lor’s expression shifted a bit.  “Ye-e-es…”

“I’m glad to meet you,” said Colwyn.  And it seemed like that was the end of that.

Sally looked from one person to another, realised that nobody else was going to say anything, and decided to do it herself.  “Lor knows a way of getting you out,” she told Colwyn.

“Right.”  Lor twitched, and seemed to gather herself a bit.  “It helps that the house is empty at the moment…”

“It won’t be for long, I’m afraid,” said Colwyn, frowning, “Dol and Bo are heading home.”

Lor nodded.  “Right.  Well, it’s still doable, but we’ll have to be careful.”

Rube didn’t remember which ones Dol and Bo were.  Eg was the one who yelled all the time, she knew that.  “How do you know?” she asked Colwyn.

“Falada.”  He smiled.  “I was looking in on Dovecote Gardens just before you got here.  Jeanette got home safely, but it’s very crowded there at the moment.”

Rube relaxed a bit… but not too much, because she didn’t yet know what Colwyn meant by “crowded.”

He moved closer to her, lowering his voice.  “I’m afraid your father’s run into trouble.  He’s…  Well, he’s been arrested.”

Rube actually felt herself jump.  There’d been so much to think about, she’d almost forgotten that she had to worry about Dad turning up as well.  At least none of them had been there when it happened… but what if someone else had?  Or what if he was still at home, and Mum…?

“By the police, or someone on the paths?” asked Sally, “Or, wait, do the people on the paths have their own police?”

“Some of them do,” said Colwyn.

(“Such as they are,” muttered Lor.)

“But yes, it was someone on the paths, as you put it.  A place called Underhill Towers.  There are a pair of representatives from there at Dovecote Gardens right now, demanding that someone come and pick him up.”

Well, that explained the “crowded” remark, but Rube was still concerned.  “What was he arrested for?”

“Nothing too awful.  He caused a scene in a shopping centre.”

Rube sighed, feeling some of the tension leave her bpdy.  “Well, he’s done that before…”

“We’ll sort it out as soon as we get home.  It hardly seems fair to leave Jeanette on her own, in the middle of things.”

Rube opened her mouth to speak, hoping that Lor or Sally would interrupt and explain it before she had to.  “Um…  Lor needs help looking for this… artefact.”  She couldn’t quite meet Colwyn’s eye.  “I told her, if she helped you escape, I’d stay and help her.”

For several seconds, Colwyn just stared at her, his expression more curious than anything.  “I see,” he said eventually, which didn’t tell her anything.  Then he turned to Lor, which was a bit of a relief.  “Lor, what exactly are you hoping she’ll do?”

“There are some places down there where I’ll need backup.”

“And what do you mean by that?”  There was a crispness on that last word that was the closest Rube had ever heard to Colwyn losing his temper.

“Frankly, I’m not completely sure.  I’ve never got past Kai’s part of the cellar.”  She looked at Rube.  “But I know I don’t want to go down there on my own.”

Rube quickly squashed a stray thought that said, If she doesn’t want to go there alone, do I want to go there at all?

For a while, Colwyn just stared at Lor, constantly looking as if he was going to say something.  But when he eventually did speak, it was to Rube.  “Ruby, if you’re going to do this, I need to be able to stay in touch with you.”

Rube started again.  “Um…”

“So I’m going to transfer Falada to you.”

*

An hour later, Lor led them further up through the walls until they came to a loose panel in the attic roof.  They came out crawling, so that if Dol and Bo arrived home at that moment, they wouldn’t see them from the ground.

Lor left them behind, and slid over to the front of the house, just over the doorway.  “No sign of them right now,” she told the others when she got back, “but there’s still a lot of servants on duty.  We’ll be better off going round the back.”

Rube followed Lor to the back, and down onto the part of the wall that went just under the roof, but her mind wasn’t really on it. She was still trying to work out what had happened back in the attic. The only thing that she knew for sure had happened was that Colwyn had put his hand on her forehead, as if he was checking her temperature. For all she knew, she’d imagined the rest of it.

Rube walked along the wall, after the others. She reached the part where it backed up against the rock face of the mountain, and watched Sally and Colwyn ease themselves down in the tight corner where the two things met. They made it to the ground, and Rube and Lor waved them off. You could actually see them all the way down there, against the trees. It was nearly morning.

It had felt like a warm, pleasant feeling, travelling through her. But Rube knew that might have all been in her head. She’d felt plenty of warm, pleasant feelings in her life, and none of them had meant there was anything supernatural going on.

She hoped Colwyn had done it properly.

If he hadn’t, it was too late now.

She and Lor went back the way they came.

(To be continued)