“You already know some of us, I believe?” said Pelham Longfellow. “But I’ll go around the table anyway. I’m Pelham Longfellow, obviously. This is Beathag Hide, Festus Grimm, Laurel Wilde, Dora Wright, Frankincense Heart, Professor Calico Quinn, Leander Quinn and Claude Twelvetrees. We are all members of the Gothmen.”

The children looked at one another and exchanged frowns and shrugs. No one had heard of the Gothmen. The word was almost familiar to Effie in some way. Had she heard it somewhere before? She touched the caduceus in her hair, but could not get an exact translation. Gothmen. Gothmen. Hmmm.

“Gothman is Rosian for ‘friend.’ ” said Pelham Longfellow, seeing Effie touching the caduceus. “ ‘Gothmen’ is a kind of patois word—a combination of English and Rosian. We are not all men, obviously.” He frowned. “We’re a group with connections in the Otherworld, but we mainly function here in the Realworld. We—”

The tall, beautiful American woman who had been introduced as Frankincense Heart interrupted.

“We’re spies,” she said. “Following the Diberi.”

Raven shot a surprised look at her mother. She took in—for the first time—her mother’s new way of dressing. The long charcoal silk gloves, the tiny diamond dagger pin in her lapel. So this was what she’d been doing every evening?

“We are more than mere spies,” said Mrs. Beathag Hide. “We also take action.”

“Well, someone has to,” said one of the two younger adults around the table, Claude Twelvetrees. He looked like a student in his patched tweed waistcoat and crumpled white cotton shirt. His messy dark hair fell into his eyes and he pushed it to one side with an ink-stained hand. Effie noticed that Leander was gazing at him intently, with a strange, confused look in his eyes. “No one else cares about the Diberi anymore. Especially not the Guild.”

“The Masters still care,” said Pelham. “And everyone in Dragon’s Green is very aware of the threat posed by the Diberi. Perhaps none more so than the Trueloves.” He glanced at Effie for a millisecond and then looked away. “It is, after all, the Great Library that they most want to attack.”

“Who exactly are the Masters?” asked Maximilian.

“Our only friends,” said Claude with a wry half smile.

“We are affiliated mainly with the Masters,” explained Festus. “They believe in the peaceful integration of all worlds.”

“But who exactly are they?” asked Effie.

“The Masters are a group of pre-wizards,” said Dora Wright. “Effie, your Grandfather Griffin was one of them. We wondered if you already knew that. Masters have achieved the highest level of magic it is possible to attain in the Realworld. Wizards have to live in the Otherworld, as you probably know. Masters are one step away from becoming wizards and leaving this world forever. But most of them want to leave it a better place.”