“What happened?” I said, cutting across the Matriarch. “Did he try to escape?”

“No,” said Strange. “He was just found dead in his cell.”

“How could this have happened?” said the Matriarch. She sounded honestly outraged. “Our security is the best in the world. It has to be.”

“Details are still coming through,” said Strange. He sounded subdued, almost distant. Not at all his usual exuberant self. I suppose a constant supply of bad news will do that. And I couldn’t help thinking that our material world must have been such a disappointment to him. I made myself concentrate on what Strange was saying. “At first the guards thought it might be suicide. Until they got inside the isolation tank, and discovered the extent of his wounds, which were . . . extensive. It seems he’d been cut open, from throat to crotch. But there’s no record of anyone entering the tank. No sign that anyone entered or left. The security cameras show nothing. Which I gather is supposed to be impossible.”

“Keep us updated on the investigation,” I said after a moment. “And double the number of guards at the doors of all the holding tanks.”

“That’s it?” said Martha. “Edwin, we need to go down there and see this for ourselves!”

“No we don’t,” I said. “We’d just be in the way. Let security get on with their job. They’re very good at it.”

“But . . .”

“They already know how impossible it is. They don’t need us looking over their shoulders. We have to concentrate on what’s really important, not let ourselves be distracted. That could be why Sebastian was killed now, to distract us on the eve of launching our attack. After all; why kill Sebastian? What could he possibly have told us?”

“The identity of the long-term traitor in the family,” said Martha. “Only one of us could have evaded our security. Someone who knew it, inside and out. But you’re right, Edwin. We can’t let ourselves be distracted from what really matters.”

One of us. Yes. I wanted it to be one of us, bad as that was. Because it could have been Molly. I didn’t want to think that, but I couldn’t stop myself. Molly could have got to Sebastian, using her magics. She wanted him dead, because of what he did to her. Or . . . could the thing inside her have influenced her thoughts, and had her kill him for the Loathly Ones’ own purposes?

“Strange,” I said. “Where’s Molly, right now?”

“I’m afraid I’ve no idea, Eddie,” said Strange after a pause. “I don’t seem able to locate her anywhere. Which is odd . . .”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “It’s not important. I’ll talk to her later.”