IT’S DARK INSIDE THE BOOK DISPENSARY. The fire is cold in the hearth, and the only light comes from the tall bow window.

“Hello?” I call.

There’s no answer.

“We shouldn’t really be in here,” says Vi, hesitating in the doorway.

“Ha!” I reply. “Says the girl who breaks into people’s houses all the time. Besides, it kind of feels like Erwin has invited us in. This is his home too. I don’t think Jenny would mind.”

As if to confirm this, Erwin jumps into one of the armchairs, and curls up. But I cannot help noticing that he keeps one of his eyes open, watching us.

Violet walks over to the mermonkey, and I join her. The creature leers down at us over its black typewriter, its hairy shoulders hunched, its ancient battered top hat extended for the offering. There’s a slight whiff of burnt hair and spent fuses about it.

“Thinking of asking it what we should do next?” I ask. “People do that, you know. Ask it for guidance. But you have to be careful.”

“What do you mean?” says Vi.

“Well, you never know if the book it dispenses will tell you something about your future, or something about your past. Or something else entirely. I met a man once who swears he belched in front of the mermonkey and got dispensed a copy of Gone with the Wind, so it definitely has a sense of humour, too.”

Violet shrugs. “It doesn’t feel like the moment for a new book,” she says. “I’m still working my way through the last one.”

“You’re probably right,” I say. “Anyway, did you find anything interesting in Eels’ study?”

“Yes, my dad’s manuscript! His unpublished book about the malamander. It was just lying there on the desk. Eels must have stolen it from my parents’ luggage, as we thought. But there’s a page missing. Eels has stuck notes all over the pages either side of where it should be, trying to work out what was missing. But it doesn’t look like he managed it.”

“That missing page must be pretty important,” I say, remembering the conversation we overheard in the study.

“Eels said it was the page where my dad described the malamander’s one weakness,” says Vi. “The gap in its armour he will need to know if he’s going to be sure of killing it and keeping the egg.”

“Then your dad did the right thing taking that page out!” I say. “I can’t believe he put in something like that.”

“He probably couldn’t help himself,” says Vi. “From all I’ve heard, I think my dad loved the old stories a bit too much. I expect he couldn’t bear to leave anything out. In the end, though, he must have known it was a mistake and hidden the page somewhere. Maybe he sensed danger from Eels. Thank goodness he did.”