“There’s still time,” Tessa said. “There’s still time too if you don’t want to be the one to deliver this baby. Magnus could fetch someone.”

“What, and miss my chance at the big time?” Jem said. “I’d like to think that all my years as a Silent Brother weren’t totally pointless.”

Livvy was shrinking, shrinking, shrinking down almost to nothingness. All the darkness outside the glass walls of the conservatory was pressing in as if they were all submerged beneath Dimmet Tarn, but she could still escape. She could be a living girl again.

Jem got up and went over to Tessa. He knelt down in front of her and laid his head against her belly. “Hello there, Wilhelmina Yiqiang Ke Carstairs. Little Mina. You are welcome, little Mina, my heart. We are waiting for you in joy and hope and love.”

Tessa rested her hand on Jem’s head. “I think she heard you,” she said. “I think she’s hurrying now.”

“Livvy!” said the other voice. The one that Livvy didn’t want to hear right now, the one that tugged at her as if it were a leash. “Livvy, what are you doing? Something’s wrong, Livvy.”

And oh, the voice was right. Livvy came back to herself. What had she been thinking of doing? She had been going to—and as she realized what she had been about to do, all the walls of the conservatory exploded outward into the night in a great cloud of glass shards.

Jem and Tessa both cried out, crouching down. And then Magnus was there in green silk pajamas beautifully embroidered with Pokémon. “What in the world?” he said, bending over to help Jem and Tessa up.

“I don’t know,” Jem said wildly. “Demons? A sonic boom?”

Magnus looked around the conservatory. A strange expression came over his face when he saw Livvy.

“I’m sorry!” she said. “I didn’t mean to, Magnus!”

Looking hard at her, Magnus said to Jem and Tessa, “Not a demon, I think. There’s nothing dangerous here now. Come on. Let’s get you back to the house. I have your herbs, Tessa. Kit’s brewing you a nice cup of tea.”

“Oh good,” Tessa said faintly. “The intervals between contractions are getting shorter. I thought there would be more time. Are you sure we shouldn’t be more concerned about whatever broke all the windows?”

“Everyone always thinks they’ll have more time,” Magnus said. He was still looking right at Livvy as he said it. “And no. I don’t think you have to be concerned at all. I would never let anything happen to you. Think of it as part of the christening! You know that when they christen a ship, they break a bottle of champagne against the forward bow. Your baby just gets the deluxe version. Imagine her voyage! Her life, I predict, will be full of wonders.”