When Linua finally logged into the bulletin board later that evening, it was with a mixture of nervous and happy anticipation. She was nervous, because she didn’t know what Eret might have posted, assuming he had time to do so at all, but happy because now she had a legitimate reason for being on the computer.

He’d posted when she had been having dinner with Grandmother.

Hey guys! I got arrested today!

Arrested? But then his message continued.

Only joking. But I did get interrogated by the police! They cleared me of suspicion though, and released me. But get this—my house AND Linua’s house got broken into at roughly the same time last night.

He recounted how the family dog had started barking in the night, which was unusual. Normally she only barked at people coming to the door. The police had inspected the house and found jemmy marks by one of the windows. They speculated that someone might have tried to gain entry, but abandoned the attempt when the dog had vociferously announced her presence.

Eret had signed off by saying that he wouldn’t be on much that evening as the family were all very stressed and they were all going out to dinner—a celebratory ‘Eret didn’t get arrested’ kind of dinner.

Linua felt bad reading that. It was all her fault.

The bulletin board had exploded with questions from Pickle and Solly, most of which had gone unanswered.

Eret had sent Linua a private message.

Hi, I hope you are okay, he had written. I was really scared when I heard what happened. The police said you weren’t hurt very badly, but I can’t believe someone attacked you. I feel so bad, we should never have gone to Bead’s Boats. I’m sorry for putting you in danger like that. I have to go out to dinner with my family, but I wish we could talk. How are you? I miss you.

Linua read it while a warm, fuzzy feeling unfolded inside her, mixed with affectionate exasperation.

You forget, she wrote back, I was the one who originally realised the artefact was missing and told you all. It’s my fault as much as anyone’s. I’m sorry you got arrested because of me. The police were very sneaky. They said they wanted to speak to you to see if you had seen anything suspicious that night, not that they suspected you. I’m fine. My ribs are a bit bruised, but otherwise I’m okay.

She hesitated, wondering whether she should mention the new complication that Zhong Ren had raised. No, better warn Eret of that in person.

She signed off with: I miss you too.

Then she flipped back to the main board so she could explain to everyone what had happened. Pickle had been wondering if the picture of the artefact he had put on the archaeology forum had alerted the intruder to their investigation.

Maybe, Linua wrote. But why just break into my house and Eret’s? Why not into yours? You didn’t have a break in did you?

Pickle had not.

So why me and Eret then? Linua asked.

it must have been something you both did, Pickle wrote.

With a heavy-hearted inevitability, Linua understood what he meant.

We both went to Bead’s Boats. Had they done anything else? No, they had just gone for ice cream and chocolate, then met up with the others.

yeah, said Pickle. the culprit must be bead

He posted again a minute later.

there’s something else you need to know

What?

i haven’t been able to find any trace of leofryn

The fourth member of the party. They knew about the other three. Kala had died twenty years ago. Bead had started a boat business. Horn had gone on to study the Kingdom of Kāru period, the only one to continue an archaeological career. So far Leofryn, the smart, snappy dresser with the coifed hair, had been elusive.

Nothing at all?

no . no address , no telephone number , no newspaper articles , no tax records , nothing . i even checked his dad out , but there’s hardly any mention of Leofryn at all , all the info is about his dad’s 2 younger children with a 2nd wife . there was only 1 mention of an older son and it said he was estranged . Leofryn did go to his graduation 19 years ago cos i found a class graduation photo but after that nothing

Is he dead? Linua asked.

maybe, said Pickle. maybe he was killed by the same person who killed Kala but they never found his body

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

This wasn’t just theft. It was turning into a murder investigation. Maybe it was better to leave it to the police. But who had killed Kala, and possibly Leofryn as well?

Linua really didn’t want it to be Bead.

This Nimrasday it was Grandmother’s turn to have Linua.

Helged had been working on Grandmother. Linua had come down the stairs wearing the second pair of jeans and the pink top with the swirl of silver glitter, and Helged had loudly admired how pretty her outfit was, and asked did Madame not think so too?

Grandmother had given a grunt, and then the car had arrived to take them to the Temple.

The Guardian shrines of the Shang were peaceful and serene places of worship, usually in the form of a series of connected gardens, pathways and courtyards, all designed according to the principles of flowing Qi.

The Temple was nothing like that. Instead it inspired hushed reverence and awe. It was built in the shape of a massive dome, the roof held up by four curved supports. In the centre was the statue of Lord Nimras, towering high above the congregation, with the priest who conducted the ceremony standing at the statue’s feet. The statue was so tall that the priest only came half-way up Lord Nimras’s stone shin. Grandmother had said that the statue in Herkow Temple was not a large one, compared to Amigrace Temple in Shinboa, where the priest only came up to the top of Lord Nimras’s toes.

At the Herkow Temple, every footstep and every whisper you made would echo around the vast space under the dome, so that you wanted to walk as quietly as possible, and it seemed the height of temerity to speak. They took their place on the benches which surrounded the central statue, and Linua wished she could surreptitiously pull out her King Fu Kids novel—which she still hadn’t had time to finish—and read it instead of listening to the sermon.

It didn’t help that today the priest had decided to talk about duty to your family, and how you should love and honour your parents. For some reason he decided to tell the story of Deen Tuwa, the Betrayer, in order to illustrate this point. Deen Tuwa had been a daughter once too, he said, but she had lost her way. She had rejected familial love, and instead been filled with greed and ambition.

Linua wondered if Deen Tuwa had ever felt like Linua had—surrounded on all sides by people who thought they knew better than you, and who had the power to rearrange your life in pursuit of their own ambitions.

The twist at the end of the priest’s sermon was a reversal of his point. Parents, he declared, should love and cherish their children, no matter what path in life they take, no matter how well or ill they behaved. Deen Tuwa, he said, was as much worthy of love and forgiveness as the perfect child who met all their parents’ expectations.

As they filed out of the Temple at the end of the service, Linua couldn’t help thinking wistfully of Eret and Anith, who didn’t have to attend at all.

Later on, Linua heard Helged talking to Grandmother in the dining room, as she cleared the table of their lunch. They were clearly talking about Linua.

“It’s such a pity she doesn’t have any friends,” Helged said.

Grandmother was not impressed.

“It’s very important for her to concentrate on her studies just now, I can’t have her distracted.”

“Of course, Madame.” Helged paused, and there was a clatter of dishes as she loaded them onto the trolley. “Although I always thought you said that networking was so important in academia. How is she going to be able to do that if she doesn’t know how to make friends? She needs to get used to that sort of thing now while she’s still young. Otherwise she’ll be crippled with shyness every time she meets someone. You always used to tell me that those sort of people got side-lined in the academic world.”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” Grandmother snapped.

“Of course, Madame,”

There was a minute or two of silence.

“I would be quite happy for her to have friends,” Grandmother said finally, as if unwillingly conceding a point. “But so far she hasn’t shown any talent in making the right kind.”

“Well how can she?” Helged asked reasonably. “She doesn’t meet any kids her own age. Besides, I don’t think there’s any harm in the Astronomy Club. They’re all lovely polite children.”

Helged hadn’t actually met them, only spoken to Anith on the phone. But it was true that Anith, at least, was polite.

“And that Anith dresses very nicely,” Helged went on. “She’s got lovely taste. It’s not surprising Linua wanted something like that.”

“That doesn’t excuse her behaviour,” Grandmother snapped.

“I think she’s very sorry. Maybe if she apologises you could offer to take her clothes shopping on Twosday to buy something like her friend Anith wears.”

There was another silence.

“I’ll think about it,” Grandmother said.

Linua weighed the humiliation and annoyance of apologising for something she didn’t think had been all that wrong, against winning the war of the clothes, and found that, galling as it might be, it would be an acceptable trade off.

“And maybe you could take that Anith girl with you,” Helged said cheerfully, “since she’s got such good taste.”

“That’s quite enough!” Grandmother sounded thoroughly cross now.

“Of course, Madame.”

Linua hurriedly backtracked down the passage as Helged came out so that the latter wouldn’t realise she had been eavesdropping. Grandmother announced that she was still exhausted after all the kerfuffle yesterday, and that she would take a nap, while Helged busied herself with washing the lunch dishes in the kitchen.

That left Linua with a short time frame before the Nimrasday tutor arrived for the afternoon session. Time enough, she thought, to make a phone call.

The house telephone sat on a small table in the hallway. The trouble was if she made a call, anyone in the house would be able to overhear her. For the first time she wondered why the phone was kept in such a stupid and uncomfortable place. Did Grandmother and Helged never want to sit down comfortably and have private conversations?

Grandmother had had a husband long ago, but he had left when Linua’s mother had been in her teens, and Grandmother had never remarried. Helged was in her late thirties and plump, so did that mean she was a little old for romance? She liked romantic novels, though. She ordered them through some book sharing scheme, and every week a selection of novels would arrive in the post, all sporting pink, purple or red covers with images of brooding, muscular men clasping young, slender women passionately to their chests.

Linua quietly dragged the phone closer to the library door. She dialled Eret’s house and then, while the phone was ringing, she stretched the phone cord just enough that she could sit inside the library door with the door nearly closed, and still speak into the receiver.

For some reason she felt nervous, and when Eret’s voice answered she felt a flutter in her chest.

“Hi, it’s me,” she said shyly.

“Linua? Supe! I can’t believe you called!”

“I can’t talk long,” she warned.

“Okay. No, that’s okay. Hang on.”

She heard a door closing as he shut himself off from the rest of his family.

“Are you okay?”

Once she’d reassured him that she was fine, and her ribs only ached a little bit, he had some news for her.

“The police came around again today. Just to ask questions! It was fine. But they said they’ve been to Bead’s Boats twice now, and it’s all boarded up. He’s not been there since yesterday morning. Apparently he cancelled all his booked boat tours, and one of his boats is missing.”

“You mean…” Linua said.

“It looks like he’s done a runner.”