Marsh still didn’t seem to understand what was going on. I didn’t blame him: one minute he was comatose in a puddle of his own spit and the next he had a furious Adeptus yelling at him. Then my gaze drifted downwards and I noticed that among the other stains on his grubby T-shirt there was definitely blood. My sympathy vanished in an instant.

‘What have I done?’ He blinked rapidly as if trying to remember.

‘You stole the Ipsissimus’s sceptre and Volume 9 of the Cypher Manuscript. Finally,’ Winter hissed, ‘you murdered Adeptus Exemptus Diall.’

Marsh just gaped at him. ‘I don’t think…’ He moaned. ‘I have a really sore head. Could we do this some other time?’

Winter laughed coldly in his face. ‘Not likely. Your time is up.’

Chapter Twenty

By the time we finally left with the hapless Marsh in tow, his house was swarming with witches. I had to resist the temptation to point out gleefully to Winter that I’d been right about the smell; the poor Arcane Branch pair who’d been tasked with sorting through Marsh’s rubbish had already found the remnants of a kebab and some half-eaten chips smothered in now-rancid curry sauce.

I was sitting with our charge in the back of the Order van as he was driven back to headquarters. There was a peculiar odour in the air; I’d have said it was Marsh but the only things he smelled of were stale chilli sauce, alcohol and sour sweat. Nobody said a word during the journey. It wasn’t until we ended up in a small room in the Arcane Branch building that it seemed appropriate to speak.

We took our seats opposite a pale and sweating Marsh who was now dressed in a paper jumpsuit. ‘Do you know,’ I said to Winter, ‘this is the first time I’ve been here? I’ve been working for you for weeks and I’ve never stepped into this building.’

Winter look at me strangely. ‘It’s only been a few days. It’s hardly been weeks.’

‘It feels like weeks.’

He rolled his eyes.

Oscar Marsh paid us very little attention. I cleared my throat and leant forward. ‘Oscar,’ I said. ‘Have you been here before?’

The question didn’t seem to register initially. ‘Wh – what?’

‘Have you been to Arcane Branch before?’

‘Uh,’ he scratched his head as if trying to remember. ‘Yeah, a few times.’

‘Why don’t you tell us about them?’ I prodded. If Marsh had priors, I wanted to know about them. Given the luck we’d had so far in procuring any files, I didn’t rate our chances of finding out the information from the Order itself.

‘Uh,’ he said again. It appeared to be a favourite word of his. ‘There was that time I fell into the lake.’

I shot Winter a confused look. He nodded. ‘Do you mean the duck pond round the back of Geomancy?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Marsh said. ‘No ducks, though. Just lots of green stuff.’

I sat back in my chair. ‘That seems a bit unfair, getting questioned by Arcane Branch simply for a little stumble.’