Over the next few days the duties of school absorbed the girl from Poldorama and she began lessons with a grateful sense of purpose. Routines were becoming familiar and after the incident of the intruder and its consequences, Pirouette seemed less confrontational with everyone. Even Meresinth had reduced her habit of making instant biting remarks whenever the other girl bemoaned some trivial inconvenience.

Vetta got to know the girl with spectacles a little better also. She was Anthera Malabona from a hilly village in Meditia, a land dominated by a great central lake where most folk plied their trade upon its waters. Anthera however came from a family made rich by mineral wealth, mining being the backbone of their fortune.

"Frangea is renowned for its mineral wealth too," she said, blinking hugely behind her formidable eyeglasses. "Mount Syzywyg is riddled with old mine shafts. That's why the amble walks are so clearly marked. Wouldn't want to tumble down a pit and never be seen again," she chuckled.

"That would be very unpleasant," Vetta agreed. They were chatting merrily in the Squeaky Tomato, which had become a favourite lunch spot among the Wonder girls, but they were not the only ones from Miss Plazenby's there as the familiar blue and yellow striped blazer was much in evidence with second and third year girls enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the place.

"Look, boys!" Anthera breathed as a group of smart looking lads entered the main eating area. "Don't look," the girl then said, confusing Vetta no end as she craned her neck to see who had entered. "They're Chancefleet boys," Anthera explained, chewing on a chip.

"From the school on the other side of Mount Syzywyg?"

The boys commandeered a table and made their orders. They were close enough for the two girls to hear what they were saying and Vetta thrilled at the mention of the Blue Hair Clan so that she lingered long after her slurpy drink was finished and she gurgled her straw noisily while trying to listen.

"Weren't they here a few years back?" a younger boy said, "causing trouble."

"That's the way of these renegades from polite society," an older boy responded with suavity in his voice. He glanced over at Vetta's table and the gurgling noise began again as she pretended to be otherwise occupied. "They're always up to something as they do their rounds of Frangea. Probably long gone by now. Authorities keep moving them on of course but it's a pointless task as they never settle."

"Why not?"

"Don't know. Restless folk are restless and that's the way of them. Some say they kidnap children, dye their hair blue and bring them up in the ways of the clan. Would you like to have blue hair?" There was a general cackle of good humour at this.

Vetta meanwhile had abandoned her empty drink cup and was debating with herself whether she would go over to these boys and question them on the Blue Hair Clan. She even went so far as to stand and take several steps towards their table as they tucked into lunch. She got so close one or two noticed her hesitant approach, but Anthera grabbed her hand and pulled her away.

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"Come on Vetta, can't keep biology waiting," she said in an urgent whisper loud enough to be heard by the boys who all sniggered. They walked briskly back to school to begin afternoon lessons but Vetta was bursting with questions.

"Did you hear what that boy said? The Blue Hair Clan are gone."

"So? What's that to do with us?" Anthera reasonably replied. "It's forbidden to speak to boys," she added censoriously as they entered the classroom so that Vetta had to keep silent.

Her mind was busy though and that evening as a golden twilight settled upon the beautiful hills around Mount Syzywyg, the Poldorama girl had resolved on pursuing matters further. She had had no opportunity for several days to investigate the purloined statue and wondered if the clan had taken it away by now, perhaps among other things, including children, though there were no reports of missing youngsters on any news streams. Nor were there much on the travellers either, as if Frangea society was tired of their existence. Or, Vetta thought hopefully, it was all rumour and gossip. After all, it was visitors who spoke thus in such a prejudicial way. Perhaps the girl she had seen was simply mischievous. She seemed very young, as young as Vetta herself, and that sense of wanting to befriend her strengthened as it always did when she met someone new. Thus a desire to prove the blue-haired girl had only borrowed the statue in fun urged Vetta to check if it still lay there, abandoned among the pine needles, waiting to be found and recovered safely.

"A walk!" she suddenly blurted out in the dormitory as the girls relaxed from their lessons and awaited the evening meal. "Um, a solitary walk," she clarified her intention on seeing Meresinth reach for a hat as if intending to join the pleasant Poldorama girl on her intended twilight amble. "Need to sort something out in my very tired head," she felt obliged to add. Vetta simply could not lie, it was not a part of her nature, so she adapted her explanations as best she could without resorting to falsehood.

With blushing cheeks she departed the main building in haste, crossed fields and gardens to the main boundary wall of the school where a gate keeper nodded. Security at Miss Plazenby's was minimal as there was generally few problems of the sort posed by the Blue Hair Clan. Following the intrusion of several days ago little had changed, again reinforcing Vetta's belief the incident was of no significance beyond that of a prank.

She soon found the right path, remembering the great dark spruce near where she had seen the statue. At this time of the evening it looked like the scariest of giant monsters towering over her but nonetheless she approached its shadowy bulk, wishing for Anthera's marvellous spectacles which no doubt enabled her to see in the dark. Perhaps the Meditia girl had already spotted the glint of metal among the pine needles and retrieved the statue some time ago for when Vetta scoured the area there was nothing to be seen. Disappointment seized her and she knelt down amid the dirt, defeated.

"You won't find it," came a soft voice from behind a tree trunk and Vetta stood quickly.

"Who's there?"

"Someone who knows about that thing. It was my fingers that filched it and my fingers that returned it. Did you not notice it was back on its stand in that corridor, way up there in the grand building you live in?" came a chuckle. With that the speaker stepped out from behind the tree some distance from where Vetta trembled. In the misty light from the school grounds she could see long strands of blue hair tumbling over one shoulder. Otherwise the girl was near invisible in a dark costume that reflected no light.

"You came back?" Vetta said, stepping forward, wanting to see the girl better. As she approached, the other receded, making a backward progress up a slope away from the marked path. Fascinated by her presence Vetta did not notice where she was going and ran rapidly forward when she saw the girl had stopped in a clearing as if waiting for her.

Just as she reached her it was as if the world caved in and Vetta Mindal disappeared into a black pit so suddenly she seemed to vanish without trace.

"Oops," the blue-haired girl was heard to say as she stood there, alone in the pinewood forest on the slopes of Mount Syzywyg.