‘Oh the poor little darling!’ cried pregnant Jane, pushing back her hair that helpers had tied for her into hundreds of plaits, each one decorated with coloured stones.

‘She’s all burning up, the precious one!’ cried Flowerlight, reaching out to touch little Suzie with fingers heavy with rings.

‘May I have a look?’ Gaia asked Flame.

As Flame looked up into the face of this strange tall woman with her black black skin and her pure white teeth, her mouth was hanging open with amazement. But she handed her Suzie meekly over, and Gaia laid the baby girl gently on the ground. All round us people were craning to see what she’d do, but the guards pushed them back, so that we stood in a small half-circle next to the veekle and the Circle of Stones: the Earth people, the high people, me and my kids, Clare, Tom, Flame and Suzie, and Starlight.

Starlight came to stand beside me. She slipped her arm through mine, and I leaned my head to rest it for a moment on her shoulder. We’d been friends since before we could walk. Hardly a waking went by back on the Grounds when me and Starlight didn’t cuddle up together, just the two of us.

‘Why are you crying, Mum?’ Fox asked me, peering up into my face.

‘I thought she was dead,’ I told him, wiping the tears from my cheeks and forcing myself not to start sobbing. ‘I was told they found her body in the Pool, with its lungs full of water and a stab wound right through it. But here she is, look! Here’s my Starlight, alive and well!’

Starlight kissed my hair. ‘There’s a reason for that story, which I’ll tell you later. But you can see for yourself that I’m fine,’ she laughed, ‘and a lot more grownup than when you last saw me. It’s good to see you again, Angie. I heard stories about you as well. I heard you’d gone off with a shadowspeaker.’

Twenty-eight

That was me and Starlight, I thought. She’d gone off with the beautiful Headmanson of New Earth. I’d gone off with prickly old Mary with her square face and her small grey eyes.