‘I’ve worked out the best way to get there,’ said Greta. She pulled out her own map and Nicola saw she’d drawn a series of neat little arrows across it. ‘We head east through the Forest of Thwarted Dreams, cross the Raging River at the Touch-and-Go Bridge, then travel west towards Treachery Bay and directly north across the Perilous Sea to the foothills of the Cloud-Capped Mountain.’

‘Uh, okay . . .’ said Nicola uncertainly. She knew that Greta was much better at geography than anyone else in the group, but some of those places sounded pretty unpleasant. She took a deep breath. ‘I was planning for us to head west through the Valley of High Hopes, cross the Raging River at the Safe Hands Bridge, then go east through the Sweet Dream Swamplands and south across the Honey Sea to the foothills of the Cloud-Capped Mountain.’

‘That would take much longer!’ scoffed Greta.

‘Yes, but Nicola’s way would actually get you there,’ said Joy. ‘Nobody ever makes it through the Forest of Thwarted Dreams. They always have to turn around and come back. That’s why it’s called Thwarted Dreams.’

‘Well, I don’t even know what that stupid word “thwarted” means,’ muttered Greta. ‘It sounds like wart!’

‘To thwart someone means to stop them from doing something,’ explained Nicola, trying hard not to sound like she was showing off. (Although on the inside she was giving herself a high five and thinking, YES! My way is better!)

‘Okay, so we go Nicola’s way,’ said Shimlara impatiently.

Joy was still studying Nicola’s map. ‘Yes, it will probably take you about two days. Tonight you can stay at the Why Not Drop Inn. It’s just a few kilometres past the Safe Hands Bridge. You’ll be very comfortable there.’

She seemed as if she badly wanted to say something else but the Security Thugs were hovering.

Suddenly there was a commotion from inside the mansion. The doors opened and a flustered servant appeared, wringing her hands.

‘There’s a crisis!’ she called. ‘Enrico says his cornflakes aren’t crunchy enough! He says they’re disgustingly . . . SOGGY!’

The two Thugs immediately ran up the steps towards the mansion doors speaking urgently into their radios. ‘Code Soggy. Code Soggy. I repeat, we have a Code Soggy. This is not a drill.’

As soon as they were gone Joy dropped her formal tone and spoke urgently. ‘Enrico’s spies will be everywhere,’ she told them. ‘They’ll be sending back information to Enrico. So watch what you say.’

Silent Fred grabbed Joy’s arm and pointed at something on his forehead.