Father turned back towards Albert and the others, the reassuring smile having barely appeared on his face when Castor came up to him, clothes still dusty from his recent tumble. ‘Now do you believe me, Father? Do you see what is happening?’

‘Yes, Castor. I never denied it.’

‘Then what are you going to do about it? About Vail?’

‘There is not much I can do. We have no proof Vail sent those people here, and I doubt we would find any, even if we had the time to look for it. And I cannot hold him personally accountable for the actions of his followers.’

‘So you propose to do nothing?’

‘Not nothing. I’d like you have a word with Vail, if you can. See if you can get him to rein in his supporters a little. And do mention that the next time there is an incident like this, we will take out the time to look.’

Ucho came up to them, the veins bulging out on his forehead. ‘Well, that’s just too much!’

‘I have asked Castor to have a word with Vail.’

‘Yes, although I don’t know what good it will do,’ said Castor.

‘I don’t know what bloody good you do!’ barked Ucho. ‘More hindrance than help you are.’ He turned to Father. ‘Forget all this pussyfooting around. I’ll take care of things. I’m going to round all those troublemakers up and—’

‘And what will you do?’ asked Castor. ‘Do you even know whom to arrest?’

‘I remember some faces!’

‘So? Do you even know if they’re the ones that actually did anything?’

He turned back to Father, his face serious. ‘Listen to me. What just happened is the symptom, not the problem. Vail is the problem. These are just unhappy people, sick of their lives and miserable at the state of affairs. And every day Vail feeds them with more of his poison dressed as honey, slowly making them angrier and angrier, until one day they will rise up and burn everything around them, including us and themselves.’

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence. Then Ucho snorted. ‘You missed your calling, Castor! You should write pantomimes for Public Day at the Arena! Although you might want to work on the happy-endings part a bit more.’

‘Listen to me, you fool!’ said Castor. ‘These are ordinary men and women—people who have lost loved ones and family members to addiction, people short on food and space, discontented. And ordinarily they would remain that way. But Vail changes that. He gives them an idea, a vision of something larger than themselves, and the belief that they can have it. And most of all, he gives them each other.’