Everywhere they looked, things glittered.  The buildings shone and gleamed a million different colours.  The neon signs glowed a million more.  Even the ground sparkled with reflected light.  And the people bustling past them all looked like silvery trees.

“Do we stop someone and ask for directions?” whispered Rube.

Jeanette weighed it up in her head.  All the signs so far had been in an alphabet they didn’t recognise.  They hadn’t heard any of the passers-by speaking English, either.  And why would they?  The people they’d spoken to in Wallfruit Cove and Tavin Chapel had, but only because they’d seen them coming.  It didn’t mean everyone would.  They weren’t just talking about different countries here; they were talking about different worlds.

As the tree-people went past, some of them turned and gave them funny looks.  Just funny looks.  The kind of backward glances you’d give something weird that you didn’t see every day, not the half-amazed, half-horrified gawp you’d give something you’d never heard of before.  So, the people here didn’t see humans very often, but they did know what they were.  If Jeanette and the others looked, they’d probably find someone they could talk to.

Jeanette made up her mind.  She walked up to the nearest tree-person and tapped them on the back.

The tree-person whirled around, one of their branches raised as if they were about to slap Jeanette across the face.  Then, before she’d had a chance to think anything more than, Oh shit, they saw her and stopped in mid-spin.  Jeanette was pretty sure it was because they’d noticed she was a human.  She could practically hear them thinking, Well, everyone knows they don’t know how to behave in public.

Jeanette took a deep breath.  “I’m sorry, but… um…  Do you know where the council building is?”

No reply.  The tree-person just seemed to stare at her.

She had no idea what to do.  “We’re looking for the council building,” she repeated weakly.  She remembered going to Spain last year, and the woman in the queue for the arrivals desk who’d been confused about why you couldn’t pick up your luggage as soon as you got off the plane.  She’d leaned into the airport employees’ faces as they tried to hurry everyone along.  Excuse me, where do we get our bags?  Excuse me?  Ba-a-ags?  As if the problem was them not speaking English rather than her not knowing how airports worked.  Jeanette had made fun of her at the time- they all had- but now she was stuck doing the exact same thing.  When you only had a few words, you had no choice but to repeat them and hope for the best.

The tree-person made a low, rumbling sound, and, no matter how strange things got, Jeanette knew an exasperated sigh when she heard one.  They waved a branch at something just behind where she was standing.

Jeanette looked at the street they’d indicated.  It was a turn-off to their right, one that she and her sisters had just passed two minutes before.  “Oh!  Thanks!”

The tree-person made a grumbling sound, and cleared off.

Jeanette turned back to Rube and Sally.  “Right.  So…  Down there.”

The street they went down was a little less sparkly and crowded than the main road.  Not much less- maybe one building in three looked like it was made out of stone instead of glass and neon- but enough to make it clear that they were in the backstreets.  None of them said anything.  None of them mentioned that they had no way of knowing if the person who’d sent them down there had actually just sent them off to be mugged or murdered.  They just walked on, because they had nothing else to do.

After a few minutes, they saw a woman leave a building in front of them.  A woman, not a tree-person.  She wore a businesslike black dress and jacket, with matching earrings and high-heeled shoes.  She looked almost human, except for the fact that her hair and skin were exactly the same shade of mauve.

She walked down the steps in front of the building, and greeted a tree-person waiting for her on the street.  And as she touched their arm…

Jeanette’s first thought was, They sucked her in.  But it wasn’t exactly like that.  It was more that the woman seemed to become a part of the tree-person, filling a gap that Jeanette hadn’t noticed was there, and then disappeared into the background.  Jeanette remembered what Kai had said.  You know how the Opal City guys can combine, right?  Their thing is that they can join up into a weird pod with their siblings.  But she hadn’t expected to actually see it. 

As soon as it was done, the tree-person looked up and spotted them.  “Oh.  Excuse me!  Are you looking for the council building?”

(To be continued)

Onrey approached Dovecote Gardens from the side, and that was when he heard the crash.  A dull, splintering sound from the direction of the front porch.  Immediately, Onrey took cover behind a little grove of trees nearby.  He counted out three minutes in his head, then decided that his path was clear.  It might not be safe to continue towards the house, but it was, at the very least, a calculated risk.

As he sidled up to the house, Onrey couldn’t help admiring the fine carvings on the pillars and the foundations, the white marble resembling an ancient fresco in places.  As a rule, Onrey didn’t usually notice the finer points of architecture.  Most buildings left him cold.  But then, few buildings today were as impressive as this.

Immediately, he saw where the noise had come from.  The front doors were open, all but hanging on their hinges, with flakes of wood broken off and fallen to the floor.  Onrey could barely even imagine it, but the evidence was clear:  Someone had kicked the door in.  Onrey was revolted.  He might have had a code of honour, but it was clear that someone didn’t.

“Who goes there?” he called through the open doors.

He barely even noticed the scratching sound until it stopped.  It sounded as though it was coming from the upper floors of the house.

Onrey wasn’t sure what to do next.  Was he to run upstairs and protect the property of the very people he’d come here to fight?  Maybe.  No matter the quality of people who currently lived in it, Dovecote Gardens was important.  It was the only joining-point between the worlds.  Who knew what could happen if it fell?

He stepped across the threshold, sword drawn.  Across the hallway and up the stairs (not stopping to take notes on the décor for his siblings’ benefit), and on until he found the source of the scratching sound.

In the upstairs building, his questions were answered.  A dishevelled man stepped sideways out of one of the rooms, palms raised and grinning foolishly.  “It’s OK!” he told Onrey, “I’m a member of the family!”

And why would a member of the family need to kick in the front door? thought Onrey.  It was true that few of the other members of the family had behaved much better recently, but this was something else entirely.  Besides, the man’s appearance revolted him.  Onrey’s father had always said that when he was a boy, it was mostly only serfs who’d gone about with their faces half-shaven and their clothes creased into wrinkles.  But it seemed that standards were dropping everywhere.

He decided to get down to business.  “I am Onrey Tavin, heir to Tavin Chapel, and I am looking for Colwyn Ballantine.”

Onrey loved the startled reactions he usually got from people when he mentioned his family name. That dawning awe (or horror, depending on the circumstances) as they realised who it was the were dealing with.  Unfortunately, though, this man just looked nonplussed.  “Right…  Well, I’m looking for him, too.  I don’t think he’s here.”  The man put out a hand.  “Joe Warbeck.”

Onrey stared at the hand.  “What are you expecting me to do with that?”

Warbeck shrank back, his upper lip curling, but Onrey was unmoved.  The proper procedure for greeting an heir to a noble house was to bow.  Offering your hand instead betrayed a worrisome level of ego.

“And who are you supposed to be?” whined Warbeck, “I’m here looking for my children, mate.  If you’re not here to help, then get out of the way.”

At first, Onrey was almost frozen with shock.  How did you respond to someone who spoke to you like that?  Where could you even begin?  But then he looked over Warbeck’s shoulder, into the room he’d just left, and shock changed to fury.  It was clearly some sort of a bedroom- Ballantine’s judging from the décor- and it had been ransacked.  Clothes and bedding torn to pieces and left on the floor.  Drawers pulled out of cabinets.  The mattress dislodged from the bed.  A chair in pieces below a smashed patch of plaster, where it had hit the wall.

Onrey barely had to think about it.  He knocked Warbeck to the ground with his sword handle.

The man slumped against the wall, and Onrey leaned over him.  “Since your parents seem not to have provided you with even the most basic education, let me give you some advice.”  He pointed his sword at Warbeck as he spoke, emphasising his points as he made them.  “You do not damage the property of a noble house.  You do not address…”

Something struck Onrey’s legs, and he fell to the ground.  In an instant, Warbeck was upon him, grabbing him by the hair and ramming his head into the floorboards.  Onrey felt about for his sword, but it was no good- he could see it halfway across the hallway floor.  Had it landed there when he’d fallen, or had Warbeck kicked it away?  Onrey supposed it made no difference.  Either way, he couldn’t reverse time so that it hadn’t happened.

Warbeck reared back, and then smashed an elbow into Onrey’s temple.  By the third or fourth time, he could no longer even feel it.

(To be continued)

Rube ended up making a few false starts and doubling back on herself, but after an hour or two, they started to see strange silver and purple lights on the horizon, and Jeanette had a hunch that they’d found what they were looking for.

As they got closer, the lights came into focus- tall, glassy buildings in a kind of pointed rectangle shape (like corncobs, Jeanette thought), with smaller versions of themselves clustered around them, spreading out all over the side of the nearest mountain.  And then there was the music.  You’d have thought that you’d either hear one tune over everything else or a weird cacophony of instruments, but instead it all seemed to harmonise, as if the whole city was playing together.

As they approached, the sky became a little darker- nowhere near sunset, but definitely the afternoon turning into evening- and one by one, glowing shapes began to appear.  Neon lights, if the people of Opal Hill had neon.  A pink palm tree here, a green pineapple there.  Probably dozens more over the next few hours.  And in the distance, behind the buildings on the mountain, was a calm, green sea that definitely hadn’t been there a moment ago.

Opal Hill.  Soon they’d be there.

(To be continued)

For a long time, High Priest Tavin and his family didn’t want to believe it was true.  But as the day faded into night, they could no longer deny it.  Those girls weren’t coming back with the bird.  They had never intended to find it in the first place.

Their youngest daughter began to sob- she was the one who missed the rocfinch most- and Sameander took her into her arms to comfort her.  She looked at her husband, her lovely face creased in anguish.  “In our own house,” she whispered, “How can anybody behave like that?”

High Priest Tavin shook his head grimly.  It hardly bore thinking about.  It seemed as though loyalty and deference were foreign concepts at Dovecote Gardens these days.  And to think their family had once trusted them so!

It was his oldest son, Onrey, who finally roused the High Priest from these dark thoughts.  He waited for the women to quiet their sobs and sighs, and then raised his powerful young voice above the throng.  “I’ll go to Dovecote Gardens,” he announced, “I won’t leave until they’ve agreed to put things right.”

Sameander’s hand went to her heart.  “Would you really do that?” she gasped.

Onrey looked at her in surprise.  “It’s my duty, mother.”

High Priest Tavin felt himself quite touched by his son’s bravery.  Barely seventeen years old, and already willing to go out and defend his family name.  “A prayer circle,” he announced, and drew his wife and children around him, hand in hand, o that they could begin.

Each family member took their turn in explaining why they felt they were blessed at this moment.  Onrey’s brothers and sisters said what was expected- they were blessed because Onrey might be able to get their pet back, they were blessed because they might hear from him what Dovecote Gardens looked like after so long.  Sameander counted herself blessed for having such a brave, high-minded son.  Finally, it was High Priest Tavin’s turn to speak.  “I am blessed,” he told them, “because today, we are addressing a two-hundred-year-old wrong.  If our ancestors had thought to do this at the time- to go to Dovecote Gardens and demand justice- then many of the terrible things that have happened since might never have come to pass.  I am blessed to know that there are limits to the indignities that can be placed on Tavin Chapel.  The people of Dovecote Gardens should have considered that from the start.”

*

Onrey’s father had told him the story countless times.  Two hundred years ago, the owner of Dovecote Gardens had been a good man and a close friend to the High Priest at the time.  The two of them had planned for Tavin Chapel and the rest of Kindling Grove to take their place in the alliance of communities around them, and direct them to new and better things.  But sadly, all this was not to be.  The owner died suddenly, and his stepson- a cruel, wicked man- wrested control of the estate from his true children. Since then, the Tavin family had been cut off from Dovecote Gardens and the rest of the alliance, forced to live like exiles in disgrace.

Onrey said goodbye to his parents and set out on foot.  Dovecote Gardens would be expecting him (if they expected him to come at all) to arrive on horseback, waving a sword in the air.  He would take them by surprise instead.

He did have a sword, of course; the servants had worked hard to find him the right clothes and weapons for the journey.  Most of it had been in the family for centuries.  The leather jerkin on his chest had belonged to his ancestor of two hundred years ago, the very one who had been betrayed by the owners of Dovecote Gardens.  At a moment like this, it was impossible not to feel the weight of history upon you.

Onrey Tavin set out down the mountain, towards the paths and the white walls, on the way to reclaim his birthright.

(To be continued)

The Iridescence family had a windowless, whitewashed attic, shaped (as most rooms were in Opal Hill) in a kind of circular cone, with the ceiling tapering up towards a point in the middle.  Colwyn Ballantine had had nothing to do for the past three days but walk circuits of the room and think about how worried he was about his nieces.  Had Sleet of the Meadows persuaded them to stay in Wallfruit Cove with Kai, or had they set off to find him as they’d planned?  Colwyn hoped it was the former.  At least that way they’d be safe

When he felt the ache between his eyes that told him Falada had been activated, Colwyn’s legs went weak with relief.  This would be Ruby, calling to apologise because their plans had changed.  But when he opened his eyes to look through Falada’s, all he could see was the living room floor.

Colwyn heard a crash from somewhere else in the room, and understood what had happened.  Falada hadn’t been activated; he’d been knocked off the wall.  Most likely by the same person who was smashing up the rest of the room.  Were they throwing a tantrum because they hadn’t found what they were looking for?  Colwyn certainly hoped so.  He had a nasty feeling that he knew who it was.

(To be continued)

You’d have thought that the one perk of being forced to work in a garden in some kind of alternative universe would be that there would be new and interesting things to look at.  No such luck.  This place looked like every miserable allotment Jeanette had been  dragged to in primary school when the teachers had decided the kids needed to get some dirt under their fingernails.  Rows and rows of tangled bushes in such a dull shade of green that it was almost grey, and hundreds of sickly-looking carroty-parsnip things to pull up and put in the basket until your back ached like buggery.

She probably noticed the feather because it was the only thing in sight with any actual colour in it.  A vibrant red (or, at least, it looked vibrant against all the grey) fading to dark pink near the top.  On a whim, Jeanette picked it up and put it behind her ear.  After a few minutes, she more-or-less forgot it was there.

*

They were taken back into that weird red dining room to report to the family, and Lady Sameander noticed the feather right away.

She jabbed her finger in Jeanette’s direction.  “That feather.  Where did you get it?”

Jeanette shrugged.  Where do you think I got it, you daft old cow?  “The garden.”

She put out a hand.  “Give it to me.  Now.”

It had been a long day, and Jeanette was too tired to argue.  She took it out from behind her ear and handed it over.  “There you go.”

Lady Sameander stared at it for a few seconds, then leaned over to her husband and whispered frantically.  He said something back, but no matter how hard Jeanette tried to hear what it was, she couldn’t.  After a few back-and-forths, the High Priest turned back to Jeanette and her sisters.  “Did you see the bird this came from?”

Jeanette thought about it.  “No.”

“You must have.  It would have been looking for food in the berry bushes.  It wouldn’t have looked like any of the other birds around here- it would have been red with a golden crest on its head.”

Jeanette shrugged.

“It’s important.”

“Sorry,” said Jeanette, “I didn’t see it.”

Apparently deciding that Jeanette either really hadn’t seen the bird or was too stupid to realise that she had, the High Priest gave a long, irritated sigh.  “I want you to look through the grounds for the bird.  Red, with a golden crest.  We need it back.”

Jeanette nodded.  “Can my sisters come and help?”

“If they must.  But the important thing is to find it.”  He jabbed a finger at Jeanette’s face, just like his wife had a minute ago.  “Don’t stop until you’ve found it.  If you come back without it, There will be consequences.”

*

For the first twenty minutes or so, they tried their best to move stealthily.  Then, about halfway down the hill, they realised that nobody was following them.

“So… are they just going to let us wander off?” asked Sally, who was still taking care to stay near her sisters as they walked.

“I think so,” said Jeanette.  She’d barely let herself think about what they were doing until now, in case she jinxed it somehow.  But now, it all seemed to fit.  “I don’t think it occurred to them that we wouldn’t do as we were told.  I think they’re too used to getting their own way.”  She glanced over at Rube, who wasn’t twitching and checking behind her as much as she’d have expected.  “Remember how surprised that servant woman was when I told her to kiss my arse?”

“When you told Lady Sameander to kiss your arse,” murmured Rube.  She seemed to be getting the idea.

“Exactly.  We’d just been kidnapped and locked in a cell, and she was surprised that we didn’t want to do a job for her boss.”  Jeanette hadn’t thought about it before, but now she actually felt bad for the shocked servant woman.  It was probably one of those jobs where they docked your pay for not smiling enough when people yelled at you.

From here, they could see the field they’d had lunch in yesterday. Obviously they weren’t safe there, if the High Priest’s weird little army thought they could arrest them for trespassing just for having a picnic, but a little further and they’d be back on the path.

“I hope Kai’s able to find us,” said Rube, after a while.

“It’ll be fine,” said Sally, “He knows we’re heading to Opal Hill.”

“I just hope we can find it without the map.”

(To be continued)

(The triumphant return!)

*

It got dark, and then it got light again.  Rube made everyone change their clothes, just so they could say they had.

Eventually, somebody else came by.  Not the woman from earlier, but a man in a black uniform that looked like the male version of the dress she’d been wearing.  High Priest Tavin’s servants had a strict dress code, Rube guessed.

“The Lady Sameander has a job for you,” he said, a little testily, as if they hadn’t heard his co-worker properly and just needed her words repeating fourteen hours later.

Rube looked sideways at Jeanette, who shrugged and looked innocent.  It was safe to go ahead.  “What is it?”

The man reached through the bars and handed Rube a piece of paper.  “Lady Sameander wants this sewn onto everybody’s shirts in time for the reception tomorrow.”

Rube looked at the paper.  It was in an alphabet she didn’t recognise- it looked like it was made up of squares and triangles.  “How many people’s shirts?”

“The whole family.  All seven of them.”  He sounded impatient.

Rube looked back at the paper.  “Right.…  but this is about a hundred words long.”

“Is there a problem with that?”

Rube thought about it.  What else was there to do in this cell?  “I guess not.”

“You guess not?”  The man raised his eyebrows and put his hands on his hips.  “That’s not a very nice thing to say.  Sounds doubtful.”

Rube got the impression, from the over-dramatic outrage on his face, that he was expecting an apology.  Instead, she stared at him as blankly as she could, and waited to see what happened next.

After twenty seconds or so, the man gave up.  “I’ll bring you the materials,” he said, and left.

*

Between the three of them, they managed to get it done in a few hours.  By (they estimated) lunchtime, Jeanette was sucking on her sore, sliced-up fingers, and Sally was whingeing as if she’d been forced to work down a mine, but they had seven freshly-sewn shirts.

After a while, a couple of black-uniformed servants came by and took them out of the cells.  “You’ll be presenting these to the High Priest and the Lady Sameander,” they were told.  Up through the dark hallways they went, and eventually they found themselves in a dining room.  The lighting in here was surprisingly good, revealing a room that was painted- walls, floor and ceiling- the same shade of dark red.  Ketchup red.  Tomato-soup red.

The High Priest sat at a table that looked as if it was carved from a big block of black marble, next to a woman covered in diamonds- a tiara in her hair (golden ringlets, obviously), bracelets all the way up to her elbows, necklaces from under her chin to halfway down her chest.  Rube didn’t need anyone to tell them that this was Lady Sameander.

She inspected each shirt closely, squinting at the stitches and holding it up to the light.  Eventually, she sighed.  “Well, I’ll take it, but it wouldn’t have been my first choice.”

Rube wasn’t sure what she was expected to say to that.  “Right…”

“This is a sacrifice for me.”  Lady Sameander gave Rube a plaintive look.

Rube was getting quite good at staring blankly and not apologising. 

Lady Sameander’s brow creased, and she turned to the servants.  “Put them to work in the garden.”

(To be continued)

(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)