Shimlara tossed her hair over one shoulder, put a hand on her hip and posed for the photo.

‘Gorgeous! Fabulous! You’re wonderful!’ cried the photographer and blew her a kiss. Shimlara blew one back.

Either Shimlara was an excellent actress, or being famous had gone straight to her head.

‘Here’s the balloon hire place,’ said Greta, who had been looking for the address on the brochure.

‘Maybe I should go in on my own,’ said Shimlara.

‘Good idea, Your Highness,’ muttered Greta.

They all waited outside while Shimlara swept into the shop. A moment later she was back again, holding five tickets fanned out in her hand.

‘No problemo,’ she said. ‘We leave in twenty minutes. We meet the balloon and the pilot down at the edge of the Sweet Dream Swamplands. Our pilot’s name is Philippe.’

‘Did they mind taking non-hairities?’ asked Nicola.

‘They thought it was unusual,’ said Shimlara. ‘But I just acted like an eccentric celebrity. Actually, I could get used to this.’

Luckily the Swamplands were within walking distance. On the way there, Shimlara was stopped every five minutes to sign another signograph or pose for a photograph. Her saunter became a swagger.

The others lagged behind.

‘Look at the back of Shimlara’s head,’ whispered Tyler. ‘The curls are coming back.’

‘It must be the humidity. At least that’s what my mum says whenever her straightened hair begins to curl. Let’s hope she doesn’t have curly hair by the time we get to the balloon,’ said Nicola, ‘or the pilot won’t let us on.’

‘That would take her down a peg or two,’ grumbled Greta.

‘Speaking of the pilot,’ said Sean. ‘Don’t you think it would be a good idea if we got rid of him?’

‘What do you mean?’ said Nicola. ‘You don’t mean kill him?’

‘Yeah, and I’ve changed my name to Enrico,’ said Sean. ‘No! I mean it might be a good idea if we somehow took off without him. Otherwise we’re going to have to convince him to wait around while we talk to Topaz. It might be useful to have the hot-air balloon to fly back to Enrico’s mansion.’

‘So we’d be stealing it,’ said Nicola.

‘No, we’d be borrowing it,’ said Sean. ‘Just for a little while. For an excellent cause.’

‘So how would we get rid of the pilot?’

‘I don’t know. We’d have to wait and see if there was an opportunity. Do you think you could fly it, Tyler?’

There was no question Tyler was the only one who would have a hope of flying a hot-air balloon.