“Shut your trap, girly!” Salix snarled, and the child instinctively knew this was no game, but danger. Little Shiv did as she was told.

“And as for you …” Salix leaned toward Mrs. Malikum until she could smell the sour beer on his breath. “Call this a security measure. As long as we have your daughter, you won’t be running around telling the world about mad conspiracy plots that don’t even exist.” He paused, drilling her with a glint in his eyes. “That is, if you want to see her alive again!”

Shiv reached out an arm and grabbed hold of her mother’s top. “Mommy!” she half sobbed, half whispered.

“Let her go!” It was a stationary tug of war as Mrs. Malikum tried to pull her child from the soldier’s strong-armed grip.

Salix’s arms folded over the girl like solid rock. A sneer spread over his lips as he leaned slowly backward to tear mother and daughter apart.

“You are a disgrace!” Mrs. Malikum hissed through tight lips. “Using my child in this shameful way.” Her daughter’s hand now only clung on to empty air as Salix stepped away. “How can you?” she implored.

“Not up to me.” Salix shrugged his shoulders, feeling guilty despite himself.

Mrs. Malikum visibly slumped.

Salix delivered his speech. “That’s better! Trust us, she’ll be well fed and watered in Councillor Grasp’s holding cell. All you have to do if asked is say that your daughter is infectious, under quarantine. Agree?”

She had no choice but to nod her head like a lowly servant. The pain in her heart was too much to bear. Only Diana knew what had become of their son. Now this.

“That’s settled, then.” Job done. With his bearlike arms wrapped round the child, Salix stalked off, not even waiting for his colleague.

Alnus felt uneasy. It was one thing chasing treenage troublemakers with dangerous information in their heads. But incarcerating an innocent child? He backed away, leaving the mother sobbing and the father curled up in a cot-basket, impotent with fury and rage.

Good! It was exactly as Petronio had planned. He melted back into the leafscape as the mother wailed and collapsed on the floor of her hovel. Squit happens. The woman would get over it.

Anyhow, the plumber’s apprentice had given them no end of trouble. Time to repay the favor, give him a taste of his own making. And the little girl was the perfect wriggling worm, the bait he hoped would draw the little canker out of whatever hidey-hole he’d bolted down. When Ark returned home, the boy’s honor would make him try to rescue his little sister. Chivalry was overrated, but for once, it might help the outcome.

Maybe Grasp Senior would finally see the sense of it and approve of his son’s actions. Never mind. The game was his now. It was time to sit and wait.