‘But the Shobblings don’t get paid for anything,’ Shimlara reminded her. They had left their ShobGobbles snacking on more indigo berries and were heading back to the bearded, toothless man who now had his head buried in a newspaper.

‘Excuse me,’ said Nicola.

The man looked up and his eyes flew from Nicola to the newspaper and back again.

‘I knew I recognised you!’ he said triumphantly. He turned the newspaper around. On the front page was a large photo of Nicola sitting astride Quicksilver. The headline read:

EARTHLING SAYS ‘ENRICO TOOK KATIE HOBBS
HOSTAGE’

Comment from the Commander’s Press Office: ABSOLUTE GARBAGE
Story by: Jenny Jenkins

Nicola read the first paragraph of the article.

A spokesperson for Enrico strenuously denied the Earthling’s allegation that the visiting hairity, Katie Hobbs, had been taken hostage. ‘Why would we take Katie hostage?’ he said. ‘She is Enrico’s special guest. The Earthling must have rocks in her head.’ This reporter is interested to note, however, that Katie herself was not available for comment. Could our much-loved Commander be bending the truth?

Oh dear, thought Nicola. Enrico wasn’t going to be happy about this bad publicity. What had she been thinking? She should have kept her mouth shut.

‘You really should have kept your mouth shut, Nicola,’ said Greta, leaning over Nicola’s shoulder to read the story.

‘So is it true?’ asked the man. As he leaned forward to hear Nicola’s answer, he tipped back his straw hat, revealing his forehead and a tiny tattoo of the letter ‘t’. Nicola relaxed – he was a Topaz supporter.

‘Yes,’ answered Nicola.

‘But why would the Commander do that?’

‘He’s trying to force us to kill Topaz Silverbell,’ said Nicola. ‘But don’t worry, we would never hurt Topaz!’

‘Well, that’s a relief!’ said the man. He put the newspaper to one side. ‘I’m assuming you’d all like to arm yourselves with Shock-Sticks before you cross the river?’

‘Yes,’ said Nicola. ‘But we’re not sure how we pay you.’

‘No need for money!’ said the man cheerily. ‘Haven’t you heard? The Shobblings are the nicest people in the galaxy.’

He handed each of them a long thin stick made out of a hard gold material. It was about the length of a baseball bat. There were two buttons at one end of the stick labelled SHOCK and RETREAT.

‘Let me show you how it works,’ said the man.

He held out the Shock-Stick in front of him like a sword and pressed the SHOCK button. The stick sprang out to at least triple its length. There was a bright white light at the end.

‘I recommend yelling “GOTCHA!” at the same time,’ said the man. ‘Just my little tip. I think it adds to the shock value. Make sure the light shines directly into the Biter’s eyes. Then just press the RETREAT button.’ The stick sprang back to its previous size. ‘Easy, eh?’