“No? Well then, allow me to remind you. The hero Achilles was dipped in the magical River Styx as a baby, and his body made invulnerable all over. All over, that is, except at the place where his mother held him for the dipping. In Achilles’ case, his heel was his weakness. And it was an arrow in the heel that brought about his death many years later. But let’s see where the malamander’s Achilles spot is…”

Eels stops taunting us and reads the rest of the page, his lips moving quickly and silently with the words. Then he gasps. His gasp becomes a snort of derisive laughter.

“Is this some kind of joke?” the man says eventually, his brows lowering and his eyes going dark. “Is this all I have to do to kill the monster?”

“You’re the monster!” cries Violet. “I hope the malamander bites your head off.”

“Well, that was a distinct possibility,” says Eels, tapping the paper lightly. “But now that I know this… Well, who’d have thought it? Who’d have thought that such a fearsome, armoured fiend as the malamander – a monster that destroyed a whole battleship and its crew – would have such a soft heart?”

“What do you mean?” I say, despite myself. “Soft heart?”

“I suppose there’s no harm in telling you,” says Eels, refolding the sheet of paper and sliding it into his jacket. “According to dear Peter, the monster opens its heart when it lays its egg. Quite literally – the armoured plates over its heart fold back so that its beatings can be heard in the ocean. That’s how it calls its mate. On the coldest, darkest night of the year, the malamander lays its poor lonesome heart bare to summon its long-lost mate home to the nest. And doesn’t it just make you want to puke? How pathetic! But also how very unsurprising that a snowflake like Peter Parma would be the one to discover such a ridiculous fact.”

“My dad is a great man!” cries Violet. “He’s greater than you’ll ever be.”

“Is?” says Eels. “I think you mean was. Please don’t tell me you actually think your parents are still alive. Ah, but I see from your face that you do. Oh dear. Well, it hardly matters now. But I tell you what – once I have the malamander egg, and can make my every wish come true, I promise you, Violet Parma, that I’ll wipe you out of existence and end your misery for good!”

And with a snarl, he swings away to the door. But then stops, and swings back.

“Oh, I’ll be needing this,” he says, and stoops to pick up the dropped harpoon, which I’d still been holding when he came in.