“The other group that is connected to all this, but doesn’t really get involved, is the council of wizards and elders. They are based in Dragon’s Green, far away from anything. They run the Otherworld and aren’t that interested in what happens here in the Realworld unless it affects the Otherworld in some way. They occasionally do deals with the Guild to take back monsters or entities that have gone astray here. And the Guild has agreed to take back all galloglasses in return.”

Lexy yawned. It was already beginning to get dark outside, and this room was gloomy despite all the candles that had been lit. She could see snow falling faintly outside. Surely it should be exciting hearing about spy networks and secret groups? But Lexy just wanted to get home and work on her remedies. She didn’t much care who was against whom and why. She’d hardly got any sleep last night after that horrible business with JP. And she wanted to put some arnica balm on her bruises from this morning.

“Anyway, it turns out that for now the only people really interested in fighting the Diberi are, well, us,” said Festus. “The Guild no longer seems to care. There is even a rumor going around that Masterman Finch is thinking about making a pact with the Diberi. If they did any sort of deal, we’d all be in real trouble. At the moment the Guild still has an agreement with us. But we don’t know how long that’s going to last now.”

“We shouldn’t bore the children too much with all the politics,” said Frankincense. “They must want to know why they are here.”

Effie nodded. “We’ll help you in any way we can,” she said. “What do you need us to do?”

Pelham frowned. “This is one good reason for not having children involved,” he said. “They are too willing to put themselves in danger.”

“I agree,” said Laurel Wilde. “I joined the Gothmen to protect my daughter, not to be her recruiter. I brought her here because you asked me to, but I’m not happy about it.”

“I’ll be all right, Mum,” said Raven. “I want to do my bit. I don’t want to let the Diberi get away with anything else. They’re against everything I believe in. Equality for all beings, light, love . . .”

“It’s true. And of course the Diberi also want to destroy the Underworld,” said Professor Quinn, “which they see as a place of great darkness, because they don’t understand it. They are extremely serious about what they are doing. I have my son here too, but I think we need all the help we can get. And the more people under eighteen we have, the better, as Beathag said.”