There was another staircase, then another, followed by a hallway so dark that Lor had to lead Rube along by the hand.  “We’ve come off their route now,” Lor explained.

“The route the Iridescences take, you mean?”  It made sense.  If they were coming down here regularly, they’d have probably put some lights in.  Unless they were really that secretive.

“Yeah, that one.  I was thinking about what your uncle said about Dol and Bo heading home- this way, even if the first thing they do is come down and check on the terrarium, we won’t bump into them.”

Rube was having trouble imagining the terrarium.  She knew it was where Kai had been kept, and she’d got the impression that there were others still in there, but was it some kind of dungeon?  Or an enclosure, like at the zoo?  If it was this far down, she was impressed with Kai for managing to get out of the building, let alone all the way to Colwyn’s place.

A long way down the corridor, Lor held out a hand to stop Rube, knelt down, and moved something heavy on the floor.  It left behind a dark-blue hole, well-lit enough to show up, but not enough to do much else.  “I made a rope ladder,” Lor explained, “You’ll have to feel your way around a bit, but I’ll go first.  Just follow what I do, alright?”

Rube, who didn’t like the sound of this one bit, nodded.

Her heart sank when Lor hoisted herself through the hole, and she saw how the ladder shook and swayed under her weight.  It sank further when she caught a glimpse or two of the room below, and saw how far away the ground was.  By the time Rube had lowered herself through the hole and heard the steps creak dangerously under her feet, it was about halfway to her stomach.

The ladder was mostly rope- well, Lor had told her that- but Rube couldn’t work out what the rungs were made out of.  They felt too smooth to be wood, and she doubted they were metal because that would have felt cold to the touch (and probably be too heavy anyway).  Plastic, then?  Did they make plastic in Lor’s world?  Did they buy in from Dovecote Gardens?  Rube could imagine Colwyn making a decent profit on selling people things that they didn’t have in their worlds.  In fact, Rube chose to imagine this instead of thinking about how far up she was.

Maybe the worlds of the paths all had similar resources, but maybe they didn’t.  And how big were the worlds, anyway?  Did everyone in them know about Dovecote Gardens?  Maybe not.  People in Rube’s world didn’t know about it.  Maybe it was one of those things the people in the towns nearest to the path knew, but they didn’t spread it around because it was their secret, or because people wouldn’t believe them without proof, or because…

The ladder jerked sideways, and Rube nearly lost her grip.  Her eyes had adjusted to the light by now.  She could see what was around her.

The room was big- warehouse sized- and Rube was still about thirty metres from the ground.  At the far end was a staircase that led up to a reinforced door.  Rube guessed that that was probably the Iridescences’ way in, and she wondered how much use Lor’s shortcut would be if the door opened right now, with the two of them dangling from the ceiling.  Underneath them, the ladder ended two or three metres from the ground- low enough to jump, Rube supposed- next to four green glass domes, arranged in a square.  Besides  a few boxes and cabinets near the walls, they were the only things in the room.

She finally looked at the rungs of the ladder, and saw that they were made out of something white.  Bones, she decided, after looking at either end of one.  She remembered the mammoth skeleton she and Sally had seen, and wondered if Lor had been making what she needed by breaking the Iridescence’s stuff.  More comforting than wondering whether she was climbing through a dark basement with a serial killer, she supposed.

No, she didn’t really think that.  These bones were old.  They clearly hadn’t had flesh on them in a long time.  They looked more like the kind of bone you’d give to a dog than anything else. 

And besides, thought Rube, Lor’s below me on the ladder.  If she tries anything funny…

She wasn’t going to try anything funny.  If Rube had genuinely thought she would, her mind would have been too full of horrible scenarios for her to think of anything else.  Her fingers would have been shaking too hard to keep a grip on the ladder.  Instead, she just felt small and mean for even thinking about it.

Rube didn’t always trust people this quickly, but she’d taken a chance on Lor, and she was going to stick to it.

Lor reached the bottom of the ladder and jumped down.  From close up, it looked more like two metres than three, and Rube was grateful.  She didn’t want to imagine what would happen if she broke an ankle all the way down here.  She hung from the lowest rung, let herself drop, and landed on her feet.

Lor waited for her to straighten up, then gave her a satisfied smile.  “The next part’s a lot easier.”

“Good to know,” said Rube, returning the smile.

Lor gestured to the glass domes.  “They’ve got four, but they’re only using one at the moment.  See the little patch where they’ve mended it?”

Rube saw.  One of the domes was a little patch of flexible material.  It looked like a temporary fix, like taping up a broken window while you waited for the new pane to be put in.  Rube wondered what the Opal Hill equivalent of duct tape was.

“That was my fault,” said Lor, “I was coming down the ladder, but I wasn’t careful enough about where I landed at the end.  Lucky I didn’t break my leg, really.”

“And that’s how Kai got away?”

“And how your uncle ended up shut in the attic.  Sorry again about that.”  Lor crouched down next to the dome, took something out of her trouser pocket- a file? or a penknife?- and began working away at the edges of the patch.  “I won’t bother trying to keep this thing in one piece.  No point covering our tracks when they’ll work out we’re in here as soon as they see Colwyn’s gone.”  She peeled back a corner… and something flew out.

It seemed to be heading straight for their faces.  Rube flinched, but it stopped a few inches short and began to yell.  “What are you doing here?  Back for the rest of us, are you?”

It was a moth, a little smaller than Kai, and it waved its front legs wildly as it flew at them.  As she flew at them.  That voice definitely belonged to a girl.

A few other insects- moths, bees, ladybirds- had followed her out, but they seemed to be hanging back a bit to see what happened.  At the moment, they were all gathered around the hole at the edge of the patch.

Lor held up her hands.  “Look, I didn’t mean…”

“Yeah, your sort never mean anything, do you?”  The words flowed out in a steady stream of venom.  “Never mind how ugly it gets, you just go ‘whoops’ and forget about it, don’t you?  Nothing matters but you.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Rube.

“What am I talking about?” spat the moth.  She pointed at Lor.  “Kai’s dead because of her!”

“Wait- Kai Domino?”

Before the moth could reply, another insect (a bee, Rube realised when she got a proper look at its wings) floated up and appeared next to her.  “Annie, calm down…”

Rube could have told her that never worked.  “Don’t tell me to calm down!” screamed the moth.

“We don’t know why she’s here.  Maybe she’s come to…”

“I!  Don’t!  Care!”  The moth- Annie- pointed a shaking leg at Lor.  “She kicked a hole through the glass because she didn’t listen, and now they know someone was messing about here and Kai ran straight into their firing line and now he’s dead!  Because she never listens!”

“Kai’s still alive!” Rube said quickly, taking advantage of Annie pausing for breath, “I’ve spoken to him!”

Everything went quiet.  The insects seemed to eye her warily.

“Kai’s still alive?” asked the bee (also a woman, Rube thought, and probably a bit older than Annie).

“Like we can trust her!” snapped Annie, “Who are you, anyway?”

“My name’s Rube Warbeck.  I’m Colwyn Ballantine’s niece.”

Annie snorted.  “Oh, Colwyn Ballantine, is it?  Obviously we believe you now.”

“Annie, sh!” hissed the bee.

“Or what, she’ll be offended?  Why do we talk about him like his shit doesn’t stink when he’s never lifted a finger to help us?”

Rube cut in.  “Listen, I don’t know about that, but I promise you, Kai’s alive.  I think he’s at Wallfruit Cove at the moment.”

Annie let out a contemptuous noise.  The bee put a hand on her shoulder (or where the shoulder would be if moths had those).  “That’s amazing.”  She waved a leg at the hole the insects had all come through.  “Come on down.  We all want to hear from you.”

(To be continued)