‘It’s a big one, a really big one. Haven’t seen one as big as this in ages!’

‘There’s someone out there,’ I cried, ‘there’s someone still out there.’

They were carrying me in through the gate, they wouldn’t put me down.

‘Please!’ I cried. ‘We have to go back! We have to find him!’

‘No, no,’ said the Captain, ‘isn’t safe, far from it. Got to come in now. Not a day to be outside, not at all.’

‘But he’s still out there,’ I yelled, and then I thought of what they’d listen to. ‘A full-blood,’ I said, ‘a real proper Iremonger! Tummis Iremonger he’s called. He’s out there! Look, this is his! His birth object I think.’

‘Give me that!’ said the Captain. ‘Oh dear. Oh lord.’ But then he said, ‘Close the gates!’

‘You can’t do that!’

‘Must! Must do it! Or the walls will be breached. Got to. For the house!’

‘An Iremonger!’ I screamed. ‘Tummis Iremonger!’

‘Shut it, little miss,’ cried the Captain. ‘It’s too late. Nothing to be done.’

‘Tummis Iremonger’s out there! Listen, please!’

‘No, you brat,’ he said, ‘no, he isn’t, not any more. Anything that’s out there is dead, done with, ended. I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, but that’s it. Nothing can make it through that. Not when it’s up, not when it’s really up like this.’

‘Tummis!’ I wailed. ‘Tummis Iremonger!’

‘I wouldn’t go out there now for my own mother, not even for Umbitt Iremonger himself, not for the ruddy Queen if you want to know. Now get in, will you, and be reasonable. Who knows who else will get it in a storm like this. More than just one, I’d bet on that. There’ll be more dead before the day is out. We better hope the house stays up, it may not, some of it shall come down. I guarantee it. You just have to hope you’re not in that part, don’t you? Look out!’

At that moment some rubble came flying over the wall, landing in the courtyard. Glass shattered in front of us, and there lying where we had been just a moment before was a twisted and rusted iron bed.

‘In! In! And slam the door behind us! Slam it and bolt it!’

We were in then, all the heap Iremongers and all the anchors and me all still wearing our leathers and helmets, downstairs, beneath ground, filth all around us, dripping off us, on the Heap House service corridors.

‘We’ll have a mop down here,’ announced the Captain, ‘a mop this instant.’