‘Why are you rattling on about Eunice?’ Mum lifts her head and stares at Sylvie. ‘Instead of talking about what’s really happening here? You’re the opposite of what a mother should be. What mother forces their eight-year-old to go to parallel universes? What mother lets their nineteen-year-old nearly die?’

‘Oh, for goddess’s sake! Don’t exaggerate, Merry,’ says Sylvie. ‘You did not nearly die.’

‘What happened?’ I ask. Finally, I might find out.

Mum takes a deep breath and speaks in a monotone. ‘I was nineteen. It was the last time I went to get her and I landed in this stinking, narrow lane in a city. In the middle of the night.’ For a moment, she stares at her mother in silence. ‘And you weren’t waiting for me like you said you’d be. You knew where I’d be landing. You knew it was dangerous. If you’d been waiting, we could have gone straight home. Instead, while I was waiting for you to turn up, I had to use my energy to keep people away from me.’ She pauses and turns to me. ‘Someone stole my rings and watch and wallet, and it took a lot of energy to stop something worse happening. And then this halfling turned up. He must have been drawn to me …’ She presses a hand to her mouth for a moment. ‘He wouldn’t leave me alone. And when you finally came, Mum, with only seconds to spare, I’d spent all my energy keeping myself safe. But we had to go or we’d be stuck there. So when I landed back in our universe, I was completely drained and barely alive and Vince had to take me to hospital.’

I feel a wordless sadness seeping from my mother as she speaks.

‘The day I got out of hospital, Sylvie told me she was going to a parallel universe and wanted me to come and retrieve her in two days’ time. That’s when I went to Aunty Lola and Aunty Thelma. They’d been wanting to strip her of her magic for about a year, because she kept using magic for making money. So we did it, and sent Sylvie away from the circus so she couldn’t do any more harm.’

‘I can’t believe you did that.’ Other Sylvie glares at Mum. ‘It’s a terrible thing to take away a magician’s powers. Inhuman.’

Take away a magician’s powers. Of course! That’s what we have to do.

S. T. R. I. P. H. E. R. P. O. W. E. R I write on Mum’s arm.

She shakes her head and writes 3.

I draw a question mark.