I watch breathlessly as the group walk over to one of the high towers where a cargo airship is tethered. It’s enormous this close. Ydra shakes hands with the other men, and then he and Marina are climbing up the steps to the launching platform. At the top Marina pauses and glances around, as if to say goodbye to her city.

I can’t help myself. I step out into the open and give a shout.

Marina spots me. A look of surprise then delight washes over her face. She waves and blows me a kiss. Tears spring into my eyes as she steps inside the cabin. I’m glad there’s nobody else around to see me.

I watch as Ydra also enters the airship cabin and then a Fonecian loosens the guide ropes. The airship rises gently up into the sky. I continue to stand there as the ship drifts gracefully away to the west, carrying my sister towards an unknown land.

20

Days slip by, gliding into each other like treacle, and I still haven’t killed the Director. But it’s getting closer, I can feel it. All I’m waiting for is the opportunity. However, there’s one thing I have to do first.

No longer caring whether I’m caught or not, one morning I sneak along the side of the house in Trabant Street, down the narrow alleyway I once saw Emee come out of, and find the side door. It must be the servants’ entrance, I realise, just like the side door leading into the kitchen at the Director’s house. And now I’ve been inside that impressive house, well, this one will be a doddle.

Inside, there’s a dark passageway. On my right are kitchen noises and the smell of roasting meat. I swallow down the automatic burst of saliva and move silently to the left. There is a staircase with a polished banister and I hurry up the steps, not knowing what I’ll say if somebody appears – I’ve got no story in my head, nothing, just the overriding desire to see Emee one last time. Up and up I climb till the staircase ends at a narrow landing with a single door, and for the first time I wonder why they’ve put her way up here in the attic. Why isn’t she in the main part of the house?

Catching my breath and running a hand over my unruly hair, I rap softly on the door.