(After this chapter, there will be a month-long break from the Warbeck Sisters, so that I can figure out exactly how I want the rest of the story to go. Part eighteen will go up on Saturday the 27th of November. Until then, there’ll be other stuff.)

*

The cells were underground, slightly better-lit than the house itself, and carved out of rough, yellowish stone.  Rube wondered if there had been a system of caves under the house when High Priest Tavin had moved there, or if he’d had to carve them out to make them.  And if it was the second, then exactly how many people had he expected to lock up under his house?

It seemed to be empty at the moment, other than them.  The soldiers had shoved them into the cell, locked the iron gates behind them, and then left them behind without so much as a, “Now sit here and think about what you’ve done.”

As soon as the soldiers were out of earshot, Kai piped up.  Rube had almost forgotten he was there.  “I could fly out and tell Sleet what’s happened.  They might be able to help.”

Rube tried to look him in the eye, but couldn’t quite work out where his face was.  “I thought you said Sleet couldn’t move between the different worlds, though?”

“They can’t.  But they might have some ideas about how we can escape.”

It was funny that Kai had said “we,” when all he needed to do to escape was fly through the nearest window and take to the air.  Rube looked at her sisters.  “What do you think?”

Jeanette shrugged.  “Sounds like a plan.”

Sally held out a hand, and Kai fluttered up to perch on it.  “You’ll definitely be OK?” she asked, “I saw how hurt you were last night…”

“Well, I won’t have the Iridescences shooting arrows at me this time,” he replied, “I should be fine.  By the time I get to neutral ground, I’ll be able to call a piper.  Til then, I’ll just try not to strain myself.”

Sally’s forehead creased. 

“I’ll be fine,” Kai promised.

Sally made a little uneasy noise.  “Well… OK.  But make sure you look after yourself.”

He nodded, and fluttered up to the barred window near the ceiling.  “Be back before you know it,” he promised, and then he was gone.

That left Rube and her sisters alone in the cell, with nothing to do and no sound other than the breeze through the window and the rustling of their clothes when they shifted on the bench.  Rube stared at the hallway beyond the railings, and wondered if she could avoid yelling out in shock when somebody eventually came to speak to them.

After a while, Sally asked, “You know that phone call you got from Dad?”

Rube briefly glanced at Jeanette, but then realised how little luck they were going to have trying to keep secrets in a cell eight feet across.  So she just sighed and said, “Yes?”

“What was it about?”

“He was…”  Rube wasn’t going to use the word ‘threatening,’ even if it was the only one that fit.  “He said he was going to come here and take us back to his.”  As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Rube cursed herself.  Sally had wanted to go home since this whole trip started!  She’d probably think that was a great idea!

But instead, she said, “Why didn’t you just tell him we had to go and rescue Colwyn?”

Jeanette answered before Rube could think of a reply.  “He wouldn’t have believed us.  And he wouldn’t have listened even if he had.”  She shifted on the bench.  “Remember when we were little, and Mum used to tell us, ‘I wants don’t get’?  Well, I don’t think anyone ever said that to Dad.”

Rube didn’t have anything else to add.  Jeanette had summed it up a lot better than she could have.

There had been a time, about five years ago, when they’d all been in Curry’s, looking for a new TV.  Rube remembered it being a hot day, with giant fans whirring in every corner of the shop, and maybe that was why Dad had lost his temper so quickly.  Because it had been quick- one moment, Mum and Dad had been calmly comparing one model to another, and the next, Dad had been bellowing like a howler monkey and accusing Mum of wanting to spend all his money on junk.  Shop assistants had come by to tell him to calm down and stop scaring the other customers, but that hadn’t made any difference.  In the end, Mum had quietly snuck out with Rube and the others while Dad had been distracted by the manager trying to stop him throwing something expensive,

Not long after that, Dad had moved out.  Rube often wondered how Mum had managed to convince him that it was his idea.

There was a sound in the hallway, and they turned to see a person step into the hallway.  (Rube didn’t make a noise.  She was a little proud of herself for that.)  It was a woman in the same sort of black dress as the one who’d answered the door- Rube wondered if it was some kind of staff uniform.  The woman eyed the three of them as if they were a bunch of unpleasant bugs stuck to the window, and said, “The Lady Sameander has a job for you.”

“The Lady Sameander can kiss my arse,” snapped Jeanette, before Rube could say anything, “We’re having a conversation here.”

The woman’s eyes went wide, and she disappeared back down the corridor.

Rube looked at Jeanette and sighed.

“What?” asked Jeanette.

Honestly, Rube wasn’t sure what.  If they’d kept the woman talking, they might have found out some information about this place that could have helped them come up with an escape plan, but, at the sane time, Jeanette hadn’t been wrong to say what she had.  The Lady Sameander, whoever she was, could kiss their arses.

Still, she felt she had to say something.  “Next time someone comes by, let me do the talking, alright?”

(To be continued, a month from now)

The soldiers- if that’s what they were- took them up a set of neatly-paved paths tp the top of the nearest hill.  They seemed to be heading towards a building in the distance, a big farmhouse made out of brown bricks and wood.

Kai sat in Sally’s ear and whispered.  “So, I just realised I haven’t talked in front of them yet.  They probably think I’m a pet, if they’ve noticed me at all.”

“Right,” whispered Sally.  She was glad he was there.  Her chest was beginning to feel tight.

“Don’t mention me until we work out what the situation is, yeah?  You might need me as a secret weapon.”

“Do you think this lot are working for the Iridescences?”

She felt Kai shake his head.  “No.  You’d know them if you saw them.  This lot are from somewhere else.”

Which meant they had no idea what was going on.  Which meant anything could happen, no matter how terrible.

They reached the house.  Close-up, even the windows looked brown.  The rest of the group stopped while the soldier in the lead (the one who’d spoken earlier) walked up the driveway and knocked on the door.

A woman in a black dress answered.  She had the same golden hair and white skin as the soldiers.  “Yes?”

“We need to see High Priest Tavin,” the soldier told her.

She closed the door, and for a couple of minutes, nothing happened.  Sally looked around at the driveway.  It was surrounded by a short brick wall (brown bricks) with heathery bushes on top that blocked it from anyone standing outside.  Sally wondered what it was for.  Did they have cars here, or horses? 

And are we going to live long enough to find out? she tried not to think,

The door opened again.  “High Priest Tavin would see you in the board room.  Follow me.”  The woman in the black dress walked off down the hall, and the soldiers pushed Sally and her sisters to follow.

It was dark in there.  There were no windows, just little blue lights on the walls that looked a bit like weird candles.  There was a dusty, sandy smell as they walked through the hallway, but Sally couldn’t see anything.

They ended up in a big room that wasn’t much better lit than the hallway.  Sally thought it looked a bit like a library, but she couldn’t be sure.  A man (with curly blond hair and pale skin) sat at a desk, while another man (ditto) stood around in fancy riding clothes, trying to look important.

The head soldier bowed his head to the riding-clothes guy.  “High Priest.  We picked up these trespassers around the fringes.”

The High Priest didn’t respond to this.  He just gave Sally and her sisters a dirty look and said, “State your names.”

Rube cleared her throat.  “I’m Ruby Warbeck, and Sally and Jeanette are my sisters.  We’re in…”

“And what are you doing in Kindling Grove?”

We have a name! thought Sally, and almost burst out laughing with sheer nervousness. 

If she had, it might have distracted Rube from how nervous she was.  “Well, um…  Do you know Colwyn Ballantine?  He’s our uncle, and he’s been…”

The High Priest snorted.  “Oh, this is a mission in the name of Dovecote Gardens, is it?”

Rube didn’t seem to know what to make of that.  “Um…  I guess?  He’s been…”

“Dovecote Gardens.”  He made a noise with his teeth.  “I have the greatest respect for the owners of Dovecote Gardens.”

Sally relaxed a bit.

“They were noble.  And wise.  And completely lost to history.”

Rube made a funny, wounded noise.  “What do you mean?”

“Don’t try to tell me you’re from Dovecote Gardens.”  He took a couple of steps towards Rube so he could stand over her threateningly.  “You may have been there, but you’ll never understand it.”

“OK, but…”

The guy writing at the desk tutted, and turned to the High Priest.  “I hate it when chancers come through here claiming to be the owners.  I bet if the real owners could see some of the people claiming to be them now, they’d be horrified.”

The High Priest gave him a quick nod, and turned back to Rube.  “I just need to look into your eyes, and I can tell.  Dull,” he pronounced.  And he turned to the lead soldier.  “Take them to the cells.”

(To be continued)

After they’d been walking for half an hour, they came across a wide green meadow at the foot of some hills, and Rube told everyone that this would be a good place to stop for lunch.  Sally couldn’t believe it was only just lunchtime.  They hadn’t even spent a whole day here yet.  And after this one, there would be thirty-three or thirty-four just as long.

Sally and her sisters had crusty baguettes stuffed with sliced cheese (which tasted nice but tended to slice up your gums if you weren’t careful), while Kai got a container of fruit salad that Rube had found at the bottom of the bag.  He’d just finished a bit of pineapple when Rube started asking him questions.

“Kai, do you remember much about the day the Iridescence family kidnapped you?”  She’d finished her sandwich, and now her hands were clasped in her lap, fidgeting a bit.

Kai shrugged.  His wings twitched whenever he did that.  “Oh, bits and pieces…  I remember thinking my parents were right behind me, until they weren’t…”

“Right,” said Rube, sounding as if she was being strangled.

“Next thing you know, I’m in a city.  Just like that.  The bushes parted, and suddenly there was silver and neon everywhere.  And then there was something, at first I thought it was a tree…”  He made a movement as if he was trying to click his fingers.  “You know how the Opal City guys can combine, right?”

Sally almost rolled her eyes.  Of course they didn’t!

“We haven’t met any of them yet, remember?” said Jeanette.

“Well,” said Kai, “Their thing is that hey can join up into a weird pod with their siblings.  So, mothers in their world usually give birth to five or six children at once, like litters of puppies or kittens, and all the children who are born at the same time can form into a pod together.  It’s supposed to be for protection or something, but its been a long time since they’ve actually had anything to protect themselves from, so…”

Rube interrupted.  “So the tree you saw, was that actually the Iridescence family combined?”

“Oh,” said Kai, stopped in mid-flow, “No, actually but I think it was one of their friends.”  He went quiet for a few seconds.  “Anyway, it wasn’t long after that that I ended up in the Iridescence folks’… villa?  Chateau?  What would you call it?  It’s made out of fancy white stone…”

Rube fidgeted again.  “When do you think you lost track of…”

And that was when a group of strangers appeared from behind the nearest hill.

They were wearing red uniforms that made Sally think of the “Nutcracker” film she’d seen once at Christmas, but that was the most ordinary thing about them.  They looked as if they were made out of china and gold- that was how pale and blonde they were.  Their hair was piled up on their heads in delicate little ringlets, like chain links on a necklace.

As they approached Sally and her sisters, their leader drew a sword.  “You need to come with us,” he said.

(To be continued)

As soon as they’d explained what had happened, Kai was adamant- he wanted to come with them.

“But you’re safe here!” protested Sleet.

“Colwyn’s not!  The whole reason they took him prisoner is that they think he helped me escape!”

“He wanted you to escape!  He’d want you to stay here!”  Sleet looked at Jeanette and her sisters as if asking them to confirm it, but the horse’s head hadn’t said anything about what he wanted Kai to do, so they were out of luck.

Rube tried anyway.  “Kai, we’ll get him back.  Don’t worry.”

“But I know the area!”  Kai waved his furry front legs in frustration.  “I broke out-I can help you break back in!”

“But it’ll be horrible for you,” said Rube.  She was crouched down so that her face was level with Sally’s shoulder and she could (sort of) look Kai in the eye.  “You only just got away from them- you need some time to rest.”

“I’m rested!  Trust me!”

Jeanette found herself listening closely to Kai’s voice, trying to work out how old he was and what he might look like if he was still human-shaped.  There had been a little high-pitched crackle on the vowels there that made him sound like a musician.  A guy about Rube’s age with a wide-eyed, slightly craggy face.  “If he wants to help us, I think we should let him,” she said.

Sleet gave her a wounded look.  “But he’s still recovering!”

Jeanette looked over at Kai, who seemed to have made himself comfortable where he was.  “Well… he can recover on Sally’s shoulder, right?”

“Not if he’s going back to Opal Hill!”

Kai decided to cut in.  “You said yourself, the council are useless!  What if they won’t help?  What are Sally and the others supposed to do then?”

“Of course they’ll help!” snapped Sleet, “It’s Colwyn!”

“You don’t know that!  It’s never happened before!”

Sleet went quiet.  It was hard to tell whether or not a face had gone pale when it was already grey, but Jeanette thought theirs had.

Sally looked at Kai, and then at Sleet.  “If he does come, we’ll take care of him,” she said, a little meekly.

Rube gave Sleet an apologetic look.   “I guess… he’ll be safer in a group, right?”

Sleet made a noise- a kind of defeated growl that Jeanette had sometimes heard from her mum (usually when she was on the phone to Dad).  “I don’t like this.”  They paused for just long enough for Jeanette to think of a response, then added, “Look, Kai, if you change your mind… if any of you change your mind… just come back here.”  They pointed to the pool behind them.  “You’re always safe here.  That’s a promise.”

It was impossible to know for sure, but Kai definitely looked as if he was smiling.

(To be continued)