He beckoned to the others and they hurried through the haze of smoke, down the hallway and out into the courtyard. The night was lit up by the flames of the burning manor house. The fire had taken hold in the east wing and was spreading rapidly through the whole building, windows shattering under the intense heat, and smoke billowing up in a dark cloud and smothering the stars in the sky. Sir Henry’s coach was beside the gatehouse, the horses, agitated by the blaze, whinnying and straining in the traces.

‘Come on!’ said Jack, helping Akiko down the steps and towards the coach, the others following close behind.

As they opened the carriage door, though, a shadow leapt from the gatehouse on to the roof of the coach. The kunoichi held the broadsword high over her head, its steel glowing red in the wavering light of the flames. Before Jack or Akiko could react, she brought the great blade down. With one arm supporting Akiko, Jack was unable to raise his sword to deflect the fatal strike –

Then a gunshot rang out. The ninja was suddenly thrown backwards and, rather than finding Jack and Akiko, her broadsword embedded itself in the wooden bodywork of the coach. Tumbling to the ground, the kunoichi was dead before she even hit the gravel.

‘Another rat exterminated!’ bellowed Sir Henry, standing furious upon the entrance steps to the house. His beady eyes glared as fierce as the flames of Hell as Jack and his friends bundled themselves into his coach.

‘More rats escaping!’ yelled Sir Henry, frantically reloading his pistol. ‘Militia! Militia! Seize them!’

Men armed with Sir Henry’s pikes and muskets started surging out of Lupus Hall. Jack and Signor Horatio hurriedly lifted Rose into the coach, before helping Jess and Akiko inside too. Signor Horatio dived in after them. Yori leapt into the driver’s seat and took up the reins. Jack jumped up on to the coach’s runner as Yori urged on the horses. They bolted through the gatehouse and down the gravel paths towards the stone bridge, only too eager to escape the blazing manor house.

‘STOP THEM!’ ordered Sir Henry, apoplectic with rage.

The militia took up formation and began firing muskets at the fleeing coach. Bullets peppered its wooden frame and Jack clung close to the carriage as the others huddled in the footwell. Yori flicked the reins harder, urging the horses on again. Another volley of gunfire echoed through the grounds, bullets whizzed past, but fewer hit their target. Then they were through the estate’s stone gateway and on the main road. Leaving the inferno of Lupus Hall behind, the coach and its fugitive passengers disappeared into the enveloping night.

43: The Library

‘Twosies!’ exclaimed Jess, applauding Yori as he picked up a pair of knucklebones from the floor before catching a third in mid-air. ‘Can you manage threesies?’