Many were ordinary trunks, or fancy-looking leather-lined cases, but there were also metal moneyboxes and elaborately carved all-wood carrying cases. A few looked as though they were made of glass, or transparent crystal, blurry contents barely visible. They were all locked, in some cases more than once. One case bore a complicated-looking set of dials that could be set to a combination of numbers, while another was wound about with an intricate chain of cut flowers.

In the centre of all of this lay a creature roughly as long as Alice was tall, huddled in a heap. It was a bit like a dog and also quite a bit like a spider, with a mastiff’s build and a wild combination of scales and thick, wiry tufts of hair across its hide. Six long legs, heels tipped with vicious, bony spurs, lay tangled underneath it. Its head was flattened and disturbingly human-like, but with long, knife-like fangs and a lolling purple tongue.

It was also asleep, and apparently as unwakeable as Ashes, because something had happened to the glass casket just beside its head that probably had made quite a bit of noise. This had been one of the larger chests, complete with a glass padlock with visible brass inner workings. The glass lock must have been more formidable than it appeared, since whoever had broken into the chest had bypassed it by simply smashing through the top. Whatever had been inside the chest was gone. Spots and speckles of blood were all around the broken casket on the shelf and edging some of the jagged shards, making a trail to the doorway where Alice stood and out onto the carpet.

Alice spent a few moments considering this. The trail of dirt and blood led quite clearly to the door back into the main hall, and after a while she padded over to this, skirting the mess, and pulled it open. Aside from the music, everything was still silent.

In the hall lay Emma, slumped against the base of one of the marble statues. A tray was overturned on the floor beside her, with a smashed bowl of sticky oatmeal. Alice hopped over the muddy carpet and hurried to the girl’s side, and found that she was just as deeply asleep as Ashes.

It clicked, finally, and Alice remembered where she’d heard the music before. Her breath caught in her throat. Breaking into a run, she followed the trail back into the kitchens and confirmed that it led to the back door. From there, she was certain, it would go out, around the garden, and into the library.