Ace found herself following Halogi-Kari through the carved marble passageways of his palace like she’d been put in some sort of voodoo trance. She could think for herself, but felt detached from her own body. Any thought of running out or attacking the scabby little bilge-bag died before it could power her limbs to action, flitting out of conscious reach. It was like trying to focus on the blind spot that heralded one of her migraines coming on; she just couldn’t do it.

Halogi-Kari had been telling her how he needed thousands of ‘units’ – flesh and blood people, the homeless and the dispossessed.

‘Why did you come back to the Earth all these years later to take those poor kids?’ Ace asked. In her mind the words were charged with anger, but they came out quite conversationally.

Halogi-Kari was equally equable in his reply. ‘The territory was already scouted from the time I collected you. I knew how many I could take from the cities of Earth before sending them onwards through the chain of Wraith Stations, each of them so far from my stronghold here on Peerie Canto that the Shadow Proclamation would never suspect my involvement.’

‘Wraith …?’ Ace felt a scratch of dread along her spine. ‘The stations were made by the Wraiths? How did you get them, then?’

‘I helped to design them. The Wraiths employed me to time-storm their forces into their victims’ territories.’ Halogi-Kari stopped his murderous waddle, turned and fixed Ace with those unblinking black eyes. ‘Such a reputation I had! No wonder Fenric came to me.’ He laughed, a sickening sound that soon died away in his flabby throat. ‘When the Astingir brought down the Wraiths with their Quantum Anvil, the Shadow Proclamation learned of my involvement and sentenced me to one hundred years’ imprisonment.’ His smile became crafty. ‘But while they authorised the Astingir to impound and destroy all Wraith warcraft, the transit stations escaped seizure. I had hidden them too well.’ He nodded his head, and the veins seemed to curl inside his thick hide. ‘Ohhhh, I could have put your world to the sword, you know. Yes. I could have time-stormed its military forces, enslaved its people and achieved my aims all in one go! How sweet that would have been.’

‘But you didn’t. Cos I’m betting one more brush with the Shadow Proclamation and you’re …’ She wanted to swear, but the drug she’d been fed must stop any and all aggression. ‘You can’t stand up to them, can you?’

‘You think so?’ He tittered again. ‘The Proclamation think my wings are clipped. They send their officers on random inspections to be sure my businesses are legitimate. To them … I am making amends as a patron of charity.’