“But . . . Mitch,” says Rose, “you drew every single one of your tattoos for a reason, an important reason. That one there”—she points at a black feather crossed with a rosebud—“you put that on your wrist after Crowky and I had a fight in the waterfall. He stole your spell book, but I got it back!”

“You’re probably right.” Mitch presses her finger against the little box with the fish in it. “And I’m sure this is a map that shows where I hid the Box, but that’s what I keep trying to tell you: I can’t remember. My memory’s gone. Well, lots of it. I’m surprised I even remember you three.”

And just like that, our joy at finding Mitch and knowing we are so close to getting the Box fades away.

Mitch doesn’t seem to notice the effect her words have on us. She pulls up her other sleeve and turns her arms from side to side, examining her tattoos. Cheerfully she starts to point them out, one by one. “What’s that? A rat or a mouse? I don’t know! And what’s with all these starfish? There are loads of them. I’ve got some fish here and bubbles, tons of them, and something that looks like a weasel—actually, Win, that might be a picture of you—HA HA! I must have known what they meant once, but now they’re just a load of random pictures.” She ends her speech with a smile and a shrug.

“How did you lose your memory?” asks Rose. She’s shrunk low on the sofa. I’m not sure she wants to hear this story.

“It’s so strange. One day I was lying in my hammock chatting to a mermaid and the next thing I knew—bang!—I was floating in the Bottomless Ocean, only I didn’t know how I had got there.” Mitch laughs in amazement, but Rose and I know exactly how she got there. As we grew up and began to forget about Roar, things started to disappear. The moment Mitch vanished must have been the moment when Rose’s belief in her finally faded away.

“But you were fine, right?” I say, knowing how bad Rose must be feeling right now. “No lasting damage?”

Mitch snorts. “Well, my tail was still there, and my hair was looking as awesome as ever, but I’d lost my memory. I knew that I was an uber-powerful merwitch, and I could remember some people, like you three, and Crowky, but that was about it.”

“So what did you do?” asks Rose.