“I’ve turned it into a bento box,” he explained. “It’s sort of Japanese. You’ll like it. Lots of strange things in it today! Check out the different compartments. Black noodles and tempeh with spicy ginger sauce in this one, and steamed spinach with pumpkin seeds and chili in that one.” Dill pointed to the different sections of the lunch box. Maximilian had never seen anything like it. “Leftover chocolate cake here, and black grapes over there. Should keep you going for your first day at the university.”

“Thank you, Dill,” said Maximilian.

“Are you ready?” asked Odile, coming in, dressed for another day’s work.

“I thought it was your day off?” said Maximilian.

“It’s all these awful bindings,” she said. “We’re at capacity at the hospital and so I’ve got another day of home visits. I can give you a lift to the university if you like? Wolf’s already got up and gone.”

Dill Hammer handed Odile her own bento box.

“Thanks, love,” Odile said to him.

Love! That was positive, surely?

Maximilian waited for them to kiss on the cheek or something, but instead they just looked awkwardly at each other and then—for reasons unknown—at him.

In the car, the radio news was full of disaster.

“Oh my,” said Odile. “Another tsunami! There’s some kind of massive storm moving across the Atlantic, apparently.”

“I know, Mum,” said Maximilian. “I have ears too.”

“I wonder if someone’s done a big spell that’s gone wrong.”

“It would have to have been a really massive one,” said Maximilian.

“I hope they don’t start closing things down,” said Odile. “Honestly, I don’t know what the world’s coming to lately.”

Effie, Wolf and Raven were waiting for Maximilian by the university entrance. But there was no sign of Lexy. What on earth had happened to her? It seemed that Effie and Wolf had gone for breakfast together in some arcade in the Old Town and Wolf had filled her in on his adventures. Then they’d been planning strategies. Midwinter was the following day, and they would need to do something about the Diberi before then. But what? Then they’d met Raven off her bus and walked to the university together.

“We have to go back to the chapel,” Raven was saying to Wolf when Maximilian joined them. “You can learn to meditate there, and then we can read in this book about how to do a cleric’s prayer. They’ve got free candles and stuff.”

“We’ll go after classes finish this morning,” said Effie. “And we need to have a meeting as soon as possible and make some kind of plan. The chapel’s an ideal place—we won’t be overheard by the Diberi.”

“Does anyone know where Lexy is?” asked Wolf.