“That Russian poet? She came to Dad’s stall earlier.”

“She doesn’t sound very nice.”

“No.”

“Wasn’t Terrence Deer-Hart supposed to have repented after what happened with Skylurian?”

“Mmm,” said Effie. “And now he’s planning to kidnap me. Great.”

“You could maybe try to sound a little bit more scared?” said Maximilian, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sick of being scared,” said Effie. “Anyway, he can’t kidnap me while I’ve got this.” She touched the sword on her necklace, but didn’t say the magic word that would make it materialize. “We’re stronger than he is. There’s nothing to worry about. He’s small fry. And anyway, it sounds like he’s going to be kept busy writing that terrible book about whoever he was talking to.”

Maximilian frowned, but didn’t say anything. He’d got out his Spectacles of Knowledge and was putting them on in place of his normal glasses. He’d been trying to wear them more often, but it was exhausting being bombarded with TMI all the time. The spectacles seemed to think that Maximilian wanted to know literally everything about everything: He couldn’t even look at a boring wall without being told about its construction materials, precise dimensions and the names of the people who built it. Sometimes Maximilian wondered if the spectacles were doing it out of spite, or jealousy, ever since it turned out that scholar was his art rather than his kharakter.

“Right,” said Maximilian, seemingly to the air. “A map of the university, please? No—not its entire history! And not so many pages . . . Come on—just a user-friendly map, please. No not the thing they give out to children on open days. Just . . . Look, forget it. Can you give us directions for the quickest way to the chapel?”

It wasn’t always foolproof asking the spectacles for directions, because they didn’t always send you via the most direct or normal route. They seemed to like everything to be as educational as possible and so would often plan an elaborate “historical tour” when you simply wanted to go from A to B. Once, they went through a period of turning everything into a ghost walk, which was quite creepy even for Maximilian. This was why computers had been so useful, in the days when they still worked. They didn’t think for themselves, or get in a huff about anything.

“Okay, follow me,” said Maximilian to Effie.