Sally woke Jeanette up.  It took Jeanette a few seconds to remember that she should be surprised by that.

“Colwyn said not to wake you til ten,” explained Sally, playfully bouncing up and down on her sister’s legs.  She’d woken her up the same way she always did on Christmas morning, by pouncing on her like a cat and shaking her until she opened her eyes properly.  “He said we both needed some sleep.”

“What time did you get in?” asked Jeanette, with a yawn.

“Three in the morning.”  Sally bounced one last time, then settled down.  “Rube’s still back at the house.  Colwyn gave Falada to her.”

“Wait, what?  Why’d he leave her back there?”

Sally took a few minutes to tell Jeanette what happened, occasionally doubling back to add in some extra details about the mammoth skeleton, but the gist of it was that they’d run into a burglar, and Rube had stayed behind to help with the burglary.  Given how out-of-character that was for Rube, Jeanette could only assume that this was one gorgeous burglar.

“But, wait,” said Jeanette, “What’s going to happen when Dol and Bo get back?  In fact, they probably are back by now, right?” 

She was briefly worried that Sally and Colwyn might not have known about that and that she’d just broken the news in a seriously insensitive way, but Sally just waved it aside.  “It’s OK.  We’re co-ordinating.  That’s why Rube’s got Falada- so we can keep in touch.”

Jeanette nodded.  “So…  She’s fine at the moment?”

“Yeah.  She’d have called in if she wasn’t.”

Jeanette wasn’t as sure about that as Sally seemed to be.  Shouldn’t they be calling Rube to check, instead of the other way round?  But before she could say anything, there was a knock at the door. 

“Come in!” chirped Sally, without bothering to consult her sister.  Not like it was her bedroom or anything.

Colwyn opened the door.  It had been a couple of years since Jeanette had seen him face-to-face, and she’d expected him to look how she remembered him- old and worn-out.  But instead, he almost looked younger than she remembered.  Maybe Jeanette had been going through that phase of assuming that anyone over twenty-five was ancient.  Or maybe being captured and locked up in an attic just really agreed with some people.

“Jeanette,” he said, smiling, “It’s good to finally see you.”

A third possibility occurred to Jeanette, and it had something to do with the way he was framed in the doorway.  Maybe it was just that they were in Dovecote Gardens now, and he was more confident when he was on his own turf.

Colwyn continued.  “I wanted to apologise for your being alone in the house last night, when everyone arrived.  It wasn’t fair that you had to deal with that.  I should never have put you in that position.”

Jeanette shrugged.  “It wasn’t your idea to trick the Iridescences into coming over.”

“Still…”

“And how were you supposed to know our dad would get arrested by dragons?”  She quickly glanced at Sally, in case she hadn’t heard about that, but she seemed unfazed.

“Beside the point.  I should have been here.”  He took a couple of steps forward.  “And speaking of your dad, at some point we’ll have to decide who goes to Underhill Towers and gets him.  But first,” he sighed, “I think it’s high time we called your mother.”

(To be continued)

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)

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)

Everyone had been squabbling and talking in circles for a bit, when, all of a sudden, the Kindling Grove knobhead marched into the middle of the circle and started yelling at the Iridescences.  Jeanette wasn’t complaining.  This way, nobody was trying to kick Falada to bits.

“A human being- a man just like me- was turned, against his will, into an insect.”  The Kindling Grove guy spat most of the words, as if they had a bad taste to them.  “Plucked from the world, mutilated, and locked away.  And by a family that dares to call itself noble.”  At this point, Jeanette was almost certain that he actually spat.  “The Iridescence family needs to answer for this, in your way or in my way.”

One of the Iridescence sisters- the one whose head looked like a big purple wheel of cheese- rolled her eyes.  “The moth told you that, did he?  And you believed him?”

Jeanette looked over at the side of the house, where the Kindling Grove guy had come from.  Was Kai still there, or had he flown off?  Should she go over and talk to him?  What would she do with Falada if she did?

The Finery family ignored this.  “Mr Tavin, is Kai Domino in Dovecote Gardens at the moment?  Could we speak to him?”

“No!” snapped Pin Iridescence, “Because he doesn’t exist!  How many times do we have to tell you that?”

Her cheese-faced sister waved a hand at Jeanette, who jumped a bit.  “Apparently he’s her brother, though!”

The guy from Kindling Grove shook his head.  “Kai Domino is as real as the moon in the sky.  And after seeing your behaviour, I consider her family to be a lot nobler than yours.”

Jeanette smiled weakly.  She didn’t know what Kai had told him to make him change his mind like that, but it must have been mind-blowing.

Inger took charge.  “Finery family, is there any chance that Dol and Bo might be a danger to Colwyn, when they reach the house?”

“Look, we still don’t know where Colwyn actually is…”

“He just told you!” snapped the dragon… and when a dragon snapped, you really paid attention.

The Finerys glanced at Falada, still held awkwardly under Jeanette’s arm.  “He’s not even speaking anymore…”

Just then, Eg Iridescence did something that was almost impressive.  He was still held tight in the dragon’s claws, and he was hoarse from screaming and thrashing about for the last quarter of an hour, but he thought quickly and said, “That wicker horse thing is just a trick!  I’ve seen it done before!”

Pin quickly took up the thread.  “We’ve all seen it before!”

“Yeah!” added their brother.

Jeanette looked down at Falada.  Colwyn still wasn’t saying anything.  She wasn’t going to be able to stop herself from imagining all the ways in which things could have gone wrong for much longer.

The Finery family shook their head, and looked up at the dragon.  “I’m sorry, but, under the circumstances, I don’t know if I can let you continue restraining an Opal Hill citizen.”

“He kicked the horse’s head!” the dragon rumbled.

“Well, we don’t actually know it was Colwyn…”

“Are you planning to find out?” asked Inger.

Eg Iridescence was still thinking quickly.  “I only kicked it because I knew it was a trick!  If you’d let me kick it, that would have proved it!”

“Yeah!” said his brother.  That seemed to be his main function.

The Finery family craned their head up at the dragon.  “I really can’t allow you to restrain him any longer.”

“I’m not asking you to allow me.”

Inger caught his eye, and made some frantic gestures along the lines of “be diplomatic.”  The dragon looked a bit put-upon, but nodded and cleared his throat.

“I have a proposal to make,” he announced, “If you’re not going to arrest Eg Iridescence, I will stay here and keep an eye on him and the house.”  He looked over at Jeanette.  “Colwyn’s niece can go to Underwood Hills with my colleague and try to talk some sense into her father.”

Everybody went quiet as they considered this.

(To be continued)

If Eg Iridescence had managed to kick a hole in Falada, Colwyn wouldn’t have suffered any permanent injuries but it would probably have hurt quite badly.  He was grateful that Mr Burge had been so quick to step in.  This probably meant that he now owed Mr Burge and the rest of the Underhill Towers council a favour, and that favour would probably involve taking Joe off their hands and paying for any damage he caused, but Colwyn would probably have agreed to do that anyway, if they’d put their foot down.

“Put my brother down!” screamed Pin Iridescence.

“That’s my brother- put him down!” added her sister Cae, who then kicked Mr Burge in the side.

He didn’t seem to notice- those scales were very tough.  “He was trying to kick the horse to pieces,” he told the Finery family, “Is that enough proof that he’s really Colwyn Ballantine, or do you still want to see the documents?”

The Finerys looked a bit uncertain, so Colwyn added, “I’m still prepared to show you them, if you do.  If you carry the horse’s head up to my study, I’ll tell you where to find all my identification.”

Cae Iridescence kicked Mr Burge again, in the hope that this time the result would be different.  Her brother Ty was quicker.  He leaned forward and crooked an arm around Jeanette’s neck.  “Put him down, or I’ll…”

Jeanette, oddly, looked more confused than frightened.  “Hang on,” she asked Pin and Cae, “Weren’t there six of you?”

Colwyn looked around.  Jeanette was right.  Eg Iridescence was in Mr Burge’s claws, and Pin, Cae and Ty were on the ground making a nuisance of themselves, but their brother Bo and their sister Dol were missing.  They hadn’t merged with any of the others- everyone there had retained their own height and blue or purple colour.  They must have snuck off while everyone else was arguing.

Ty Iridescence loosened his grip on Jeanette (who dashed back to the steps beside Colwyn), and shared a slimy, triumphant grin with his sisters.

Ms Tulvey from Underhill Towers looked at the front door, behind the steps on which most of them were sat, then at Colwyn.  “Is there any other way they could have got into the house?”

“Nowhere that’s not locked,” Colwyn assured her.

“Then they’re probably either hiding nearby, or on their way home.”

“Come to think of it, where’s that Kindling Grove guy?” asked Jeanette, looking around.

“I’m here.”  Onrey Tavin stepped into the middle of the crowd.  He sought out the Iridescences, and gave them a murderous look.  “I was talking to my friend Kai.”

Colwyn heard a cracking sound behind him.  Not behind him at Dovecote Gardens; behind him in the Iridescences’ attic.

“I’m sorry,” he told the others, “Please excuse me.”  He moved out of Falada, and turned to the door.  The noise was coming from there, and it sounded as though someone was struggling to unlock it.

When it opened, Colwyn expected to see Bo and Dol Iridescence, fresh from Dovecote Gardens.  Instead, he saw an Opal Hill woman he didn’t recognise, with Ruby and Sally close behind her.

(To be continued)

Onrey felt that he’d put up a good front with the delegates from Opal Hill and Underhill Towers.  Though the appearance of Handon Burge, the largest one, was alarming, Onrey’s father had taught him well, and he managed to speak to him as if there was nothing unusual whatsoever about taking tea with a creature ten times his size.  It seemed that Warbeck had tried to cause trouble in Underhill Towers, too, but Handon and the others had succeeded where Colwyn had failed and brought him to heel.

“In fact,” said Handon, “he seemed to think that you were our landlord.”

Pin Iridescence, separated from her siblings, let out a wild, screeching laugh.  “Heaven forbid!  He’d certainly like us to think he was our landlord.”  She smiled at Onrey and he dutifully smiled back, although, in truth, he wished she hadn’t interrupted.  He was keen to hear more of Handon’s story.

Unfortunately, at that point, one of Pin’s brothers started shouting about something or other, so Handon was put off once again.  Onrey’s attention drifted over to the top of the veranda, where he could see Kai fluttering about awkwardly.  It occurred to him that the moth had, so far, kept himself separate from the rest of the gathering.  It wasn’t such a surprise, Onrey supposed.  Somebody of his size could easily find himself lost in a crowd.

Luckily, Colwyn remembered that he was supposed to be speaking to Handon.  “Was this man quite tall?  Long brown hair and stubble?”

The girl Jeanette gasped, as if she truly hadn’t put the pieces together until just now.  “Dad?”

Onrey chuckled.  “Why am I not surprised?” he asked, more to see how she reacted than anything else.  She’d been so smugly convinced, this entire time, that she was on top of everything, that it would be interesting to see how she behaved when things didn’t go as she expected.

He never got to see.  Once again, he was distracted by Kai.  And this time, he saw what Kai was holding. 

There was more shouting from behind him, but Onrey barely heard it.  He moved to the side of the veranda to better see what the moth was doing.  His tiny black eyes were trained on one of the Iridescence brothers, and he was scraping a match across the roof tiles.

Onrey coughed, and Kai turned to look at him.

There was a moment in which neither was sure what to do next.  Onrey couldn’t step forward and demand to know what the moth thought he was doing.  There was enough shouting going on already.  It would all be lost in the bigger noise.

Is this because the Iridescences locked Ballantine in their attic?  Or is it something more?  Instead of asking, Onrey just put out a hand.  He wasn’t even sure why he did it, what he was expecting to happen, but it seemed to work.  The moth waited a few seconds, and then dropped the match into his hand.

Instead of closing his fingers around it, Onrey kept his hand held out.  Kai stared at him for a little while, and then fluttered down to sit on it.  Onrey nodded, and took him a little way around the side of the house so that they could talk in private.

Onrey wanted answers, but he didn’t know where to begin.  Had Kai planned to light the match and drop it on Bo Iridescence’s head?  Surely he could see that the match would have gone out as it fell, or, at the very best, singed the ends of his hair?  Surely he couldn’t have been planning, even in such a muddled way, to actually burn somebody to death?

A thought crossed Onrey’s mind- when the people of Opal Hill joined together, they turned into a strange, treelike being.  Onrey didn’t know if they were more flammable in that state, but (to the untrained eye, at least) they certainly looked as if they could be.  Had Kai been hoping that the Iridescence family would stay merged all evening?  Had he been envisioning wiping out all six of them in a seven-foot inferno?

It was difficult to reconcile these thoughts with the little creature who’d been so concerned about him as he recovered from what Warbeck had done.  Onrey had to remind himself that his job here was not to try and see into everybody’s souls; it was to attend to the task at hand, whatever it was.  “What was it you were trying to do?” he asked the moth, doing his best to keep his voice soft.

Kai shook his head.  “Doesn’t matter.”  He seemed to speak through gritted teeth.  “Wouldn’t have worked, anyway.”

Onrey was sure he felt the moth trembling on his hand.  He thought back through everything that had been said this evening, and wondered whether to voice a guess at Kai’s motive.  Revenge for the Iridescences’ mistreatment of Ballantine, perhaps?

Before he could say anything, however, Kai continued.  “They’re the reason that…”  He seemed to become short of breath.  “I wasn’t always a moth.  The Iridescences… they…”

Onrey barely repressed a gasp.  He should have known, of course, that a talking moth couldn’t have come from nowhere, but he just hadn’t had any occasion to think about it.  Has the poor moth once been a person like himself?  Had the Iridescences changed him and then locked him away like they had Ballantine?  If so, then no wonder Kai had reacted so badly to Onrey’s family imprisoning the Warbeck girls.

He found his voice.  “Do Ballantine and the rest know about that?”

“Colwyn does,” the moth said dully, “So do his nieces.  But the rest of them… no.”

“Then you need to tell them.”  Onrey turned in the direction of the hubbub at the front of the house.  “They’re deciding what’s to be done about the Iridescence family.  They need to hear what you have to say.”

Kai shook his head again.  “I can’t,” he whispered, “I can’t go near them.  Not after…  I just can’t.”

Onrey opened his mouth, sure that he was going to huff in frustration and tell Kai not to be such a coward, but instead, something different came out.  “Then I’ll go over there as your representative.  I’ll tell them what you said and insist on it being honoured.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”  Onrey held his head a little higher.  “You were the one who showed me how to contact Colwyn Ballantine, after all.  I wouldn’t want it said that Onrey Tavin refused to pay a debt.”

“I…  Well…  Thanks for that.  It really means a lot.”  Kai had stopped shaking.  All the tension seemed to have left his body.

“Think nothing of it.”  Onrey reached over to the wall beside them, and neatly placed Kai on it.  “Now, you wait there.  I’ll do whatever I can.”

(To be continued)

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)

It was getting on for midnight.  On the front steps of Dovecote Gardens, Jeanette sat with Falada/Colwyn beside her, propped up against the railing.  In front of them were the five Iridescence siblings (split apart so they could squabble easier), the Finery family, that tit from Kindling Grove, and a woman who said her name was Inger and that she was from somewhere called Underhill Towers.  Everyone was yelling at the top of their voices and refusing to let anyone else get a word in edgeways, but the person in front of Jeanette had managed to drown the rest of them out every time.

There was a fifty-foot dragon with shiny blue scales sitting in front of Dovecote Gardens.  And Colwyn was just talking to him like everything was normal.

“You say there was a problem in the shopping centre?” he asked, craning his wicker neck to look up at him.

The dragon rumbled, like you’d expect a dragon to.  Like they did in films.  “It was a man who said he was from Dovecote Gardens.”  Little bits of smoke and ash kept coming out of his mouth, and Jeanette thought about people who spat when they talked.  “In fact, he seemed to think that you were our landlord.”

“Well, I assure you, I certainly haven’t…”

A loud voice came from their right.  “Heaven forbid!” crowed one of the Iridescence sisters, the one with the curly hair who looked like she was constantly sucking on a lemon.  Jeanette thought she remembered the others calling her ‘Pin.’  “He’d certainly like us to think he was our landlord.”  She twisted her head in a funny way, and Jeanette realised she was trying to catch the Kindling Grove jackass’ eye.

One of her brothers must have been doing something weird, because Inger from Underhill Towers suddenly stepped out in front of him.  “Are you going somewhere?” she asked, in that polite voice that told you to forget what you’d been doing and behave yourself, if you knew what was good for you.  To his credit, the Iridescence brother did exactly that.

Probably wanting to draw everyone’s attention away from that, the oldest Iridescence brother- Eg- decided to stand over Jeanette and roar, “What were you doing in our house?!”

Jeanette opened her mouth to reply- she’d have enjoyed doing that- but then one of his sisters, the giggly one with the cheekbones, cut in.  “Oh, I seem to recall that someone was against letting them in from the start.  Now, who could it have been?  Hmm, let me think…”

Eg turned back to growl something at her, so Colwyn took advantage of the interruption to ask the dragon, “Was this man quite tall?  Long brown hair and stubble?”

Jeanette gave a start.  “Dad?”  What with everything else that had been going on, she’d completely forgotten about that phone call.

The Kindling Grove jackass rolled his eyes.  “Why am I not surprised?”

Jeanette didn’t completely understand that, but one of the Iridescence sisters gave a long, loud laugh.  She couldn’t have been more obvious about sucking up to him if she’d tried.

The Finery family, who were still in silver-tree-form, twitched a bit.  “Now, look, this is all very well, but can you prove that you’re actually Colwyn Ballantine?”

“I can,” said Colwyn, not missing a beat, “If I describe certain documents to you, you should be able to find them upstairs.  They’ll be my identification.”

And the Finery family would probably have had a reply to that, if Eg Iridescence hadn’t suddenly screamed, “They can’t merge!  They’re still in our house!”

“What?” gasped Pin.

Ohhh, shit, thought Jeanette.  She’d known this moment was probably coming, but that didn’t stop her stomach from dropping all the way to her knees.

Colwyn sniffed.  “I’m also in your house, and that doesn’t seem to bother you.”

Immediately, with amazing speed for his size, Eg Iridescence was on the stairs, lunging towards Jeanette and Colwyn.  Jeanette dodged sideways, only realising a moment too late that he wasn’t after her.  His foot was raised, aiming a football kick at the wicker horse’s head, when suddenly he left the ground.

The dragon held him in his claws, six feet in the air.

(To be continued)

“You’re from Dovecote Gardens,” said the blue girl.  It was the kind of sentence that sounded as if it should have a “…right?” on the end, but it didn’t.  Maybe it was just really obvious.  “And I’m guessing you got here on your own, or you wouldn’t be walking around back here.”

They were standing about four metres apart, Sally and Rube in the middle of the room and the blue girl at the back, all three of them tensed as if they were about to run away.  “Do you work for the Iridescences?” asked Rube.

The blue girl snorted.  “No.”  She said it in the exact same way that girls in Sally’s class did when you asked them if they were gong to sign up for the French workshop at half term.  “If I did, you’d all be handcuffed to the wall five times over by now.”

Rube nodded.  “Sorry.  I had to ask.”  She relaxed her arms a bit.  Probably not so much that the blue girl would be able to tell, but enough to be obvious to someone who knew her.  “My name’s Rube Warbeck.  My sister’s Sally.”

The blue girl made a “hmph” noise.  “Lor Radiance.  And just so you know, the Iridescences have no idea that I’m sneaking around in their house.”

Put like that, it did seem obvious.  But like Rube had said, they’d had to ask.

“So… why are you?” asked Rube, “Sneaking around, I mean.”

Lor made another irritated noise.  “Why do you think?  I’m trying to find out what they’re up to.”

“We’re looking for a man called Colwyn Ballantine.  Do you know where he is?”

“Sure.”  Lor pointed vaguely behind her.  “He’s up in the attic.”

Sally justrestrained herself from punching the air and yelling, I knew it!  Just.

“Brilliant!”  Rube’s face broke out into the kind of smile that made you think of rainclouds clearing.  “Can you help us get up there?”

“Well… that depends.”  Lor gnawed on her lower lip.  Sally wasn’t sure if she had a really big chin for a girl, or if it just looked like that because she kept pulling weird expressions with her mouth.  “What are you planning to do when you find him?”

“He’s our uncle,” said Rube, “We need to get him home.”

Lor let out a long, whistling breath.  “That might not be as easy as it sounds.”  She motioned over her shoulder again.  “Listen… let’s sit down for a moment,  I might be able to help you, but… well, things are complicated.”

(To be continued)

If he’d been asked ten minutes ago how he’d react if the Iridescences knocked on the door, Kai would have seen himself flying down and spitting in their eyes, secure in the knowledge that he had Colwyn and his nieces backing him up.  But when it actually happened, it was like running into a brick wall at a hundred miles an hour.  The only reasonable reaction- the only possible reaction- was to fly away and hide in the furthest, darkest corner of the house.

He just couldn’t stop shaking.

It couldn’t be right for them to be in Dovecote Gardens.  Nothing good could come from them being here.

Kai was in a house that contained the Iridescences.  He’d been in a house that contained the Iridescences for most of the last fifteen years, but this time it felt like the end of the whole damn world.  And so much for spitting in their eye- one look at them had been like gazing into the eye of a massive tornado.  Kai couldn’t stop them from whatever they were about to do any more than he could stop the wind from blowing.

But the Iridescences were right here in Dovecote Gardens.  Colwyn wasn’t actually here, and Jeanette didn’t know what she was dealing with.  He had to do something.

He was small, but not too small to light a match, if he could find one.  If he could move.  If he could just stop shaking.

(To be continued)