'Pardon,' he said, 'I'm a bit rattled tonight. You see, I happen at this moment to be dead.' -- John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps

"The mistake people always make in trying to sneak out of a place," Lian said in the voice of one who spoke both with authority and from experience, "is to try to be clever. They gather a large supply of food then leave it until midnight before they leave. Anyone who catches them knows at once what they're doing and it's no use trying to make excuses. No, the way to sneak out is to go in broad daylight. Don't bring anything with you except money. Act as if you're going to the shops and will be back in an hour or two. No one will pay any attention and you can get a good distance away before they become suspicious."

Abi nodded. "So we just pretend we're going on a shopping trip. But we can't go together or someone will start to ask questions."

"No one stops you from going sight-seeing," Lian said. "I'll explain everything to Lady Yuan and tell everyone else I'm going on an errand. We'll meet outside the post office."

"What about Zi Yao?" Mirio asked.

"I'll leave instructions for his care. Hopefully I'll be back within the week, and he should be all right in the palace physicians' care until then."

Abi looked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry. I've uprooted your life here, haven't I?"

Lian nodded. "Don't be too upset. I've had leave places very quickly many times before. At least this time I'm not being chased away and have a chance of being allowed to return. Besides, matheríarduan kalugan[1], a phrase I should have paid more attention to a long time ago."

"Irímé's going to join us somewhere," Abi said. "I suppose we'll meet up with him in Tananerl."

Both Lian and Mirio looked blank.

Lian asked, "Who?"

At the same time Mirio said, "How do you know? How does he know anything about this?"

There was a moment's uncomfortable silence in which Abi appeared to be trying to think of a convincing lie. At last she gave it up. "This is going to sound insane."

"More insane than necromancy-created monsters attacking a town? More insane than a random doctor just happening to be your long-lost brother?"

"...Fair point. Well, to summarise, I accidentally got a distant cousin possessed. Then I got him unpossessed, and now we're telepathically linked. I asked him to find out what's happening on Muirus 9436. Irímé's working for him, so he said he's going to send him to help."

Lian held up his hand. "Two questions. Which distant cousin? And who is Irímé?"

"Ilaran, Prince of Tananerl. Do you know him?"

Lian shook his head. "Heard of him but never met him. Didn't he kill his own father?"

"...Maybe, but that's not important," Abi said, while in the background Mirio exclaimed, "What?"

Lian nodded slowly, looking as if he was beginning to question everyone's sanity. "You're telepathically linked to the Prince of Tananerl who is giving you updates on what happens on planet what's-its-name. All right. Now who is Irímé and why would he be any use on this mission? Is he a necromancer too?"

"He's my fiancé. He's coming because fire kills the monsters, and he's a dragon immortal."

There was another pause while Lian tried to wrap his mind around all of this new information. "I see," he said at last, in a voice that implied he didn't really see. "Well, we'd better start planning our route."

"The best place to get a spaceship to Muirus 9436 is in Eldrin," Abi said, remembering her previous trips there.

"You can't go to Eldrin," Mirio objected. "Everyone will be looking for you."

"We'll go to the spaceport in Dhaldar instead," Lian said.

Abi stared at him. "Dhaldar? Why Dhaldar? It's so far north it's practically on the other side of the planet."

"Precisely. No one will expect you to go there. Where's that map?"

Mirio unrolled the map of Gengxin and put it on the table. The three of them studied it for a while. Lian pointed at a city.

"There. Sisheng is the closest port to Tananerl. We get a ship there, meet your Irímé in--" He examined the towns on Tananerl's coast and the railways that connected them to the rest of Saoridhlém, "--Rákövesd. Then we take the train to Dhaldar. Bad news: it'll take two days and our family will be looking for us. This would be so much simpler if we didn't have to meet up with Irímé. We could just get on a spaceship here in Tiansheng and be on Muirus 9436 by this evening."

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Abi thought for a while. "I'll ask Ilaran to send Irímé to Muirus 9436 on his own. We'll meet up with him in Gradoné."

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Irímé looked around at his room with some regret. He'd spent ages finding places to put all his belongings, and now he didn't even get to live in it for a full week. He hadn't even had time to sort all of his clothes into his wardrobe.

He'd learnt his lesson from last time. For this trip he packed only one change of clothes, two pairs of underwear, and one pair of boots. His suitcase was much easier to carry than all the heavy luggage he'd brought when he first arrived. There was a bathroom attached to his bedroom.

Irímé left his suitcase open on the bed while he went to get his hairbrush. He didn't notice a small green snake dart across the room and burrow beneath his clothes. When he put the hairbrush in the suitcase he closed it without bothering to go through his clothes again.

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An hour after Irímé left, a very agitated Koyuki barged into Siarvin's room. "Have you seen Shizuki?"

Siarvin looked out the window. "Isn't he playing on the swing?"

The answer to that was only too clear. The swing was empty.

"He must have gone to the stables," Siarvin suggested.

Koyuki shook his head. "I checked. I also checked in the library, and the schoolroom, and Ilaran's office, and the kitchens, and everywhere else he might possibly be. No sign of him anywhere."

A horrible dread began to take root in Siarvin's mind. "You don't think--"

They looked at each other. Both knew what the other was thinking without having to say it.

"He wouldn't be so stupid," Koyuki said. "And Irímé wouldn't have allowed him to come with him."

"We'll search the city," Siarvin said, "and then..."

He trailed off. With an icy chill he realised that if they didn't find Shizuki, there was only one likely option and it was the worst one imaginable.

Koyuki's thoughts ran along the same lines. "At least he's with Irímé. Nothing can hurt him when he's with a dragon."

Siarvin wished he could share his optimism.

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Irímé watched with interest as the stars flew past the windows. They went far too quickly to be recognisable as any constellations he'd seen before. Placed in front of his seat was a star chart showing the ship's current location. He watched the little dot representing the ship move past the edge of the Gimgarn-Therrom Galaxy. Another little dot labelled Muirus 9436 appeared at the top of the chart. It drew nearer and nearer to the ship.

His suitcase rattled. Irímé continued staring at the chart for a minute before he realised what he'd just seen. He turned and gave it a suspicious look. There was no turbulence to disturb it. What could make it--

It rattled again, this time with enough force to make it overbalance. He grabbed it before it fell and unfastened the clasps. It opened. At once he groaned.

"Shizuki! What do you think you're doing here?"

The snake hissed unrepentantly. He curled up on top of Irímé's coat and looked very pleased with himself. Irímé took a deep breath and told himself not to panic.

"Shizuki, listen. Your father will be very worried about you, and you shouldn't be here at all. I don't know what I'll find on this planet. It might be dangerous. You have to go right back home as soon as we arrive."

Shizuki thought for a minute, then shook his head emphatically. Irímé groaned.

"I don't care what you say, I'm going to send you back on this spaceship and I'll tell the captain not to let you out of his sight until you're safely home with Siarvin."

Over the intercom a voice announced, "We will arrive in Gradoné in ten minutes. Please fasten your seatbelt."

Irímé fastened his, then realised Shizuki didn't have one. "Look, I'm going to have to close the suitcase. You won't mind, will you?"

Shizuki shook his head. Irímé closed the suitcase and waited impatiently for the spaceship to land.

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Travel between Vanerth and Muirus 9436 was fairly common. Muirus 9436 was home to a breed of sheep who produced very fine, much-sought-after wool that was exported back to Saoridhlém, and from there to the rest of Vanerth. It was easy to find a spaceship heading there and even easier to buy two tickets.

Abi watched Tiansheng disappear beneath them and tried not to think about what was waiting for her. There was a possibility she would be able to un-possess some of the people. But it was almost certain that most of them would be like the unfortunate servant: dead and reanimated by a parasite. In that case she couldn't think of any solution but to kill them. It was not a thought she liked.

To take her mind off that she asked Lian, "How did you end up in Gengxin?"

"I was running away. You know the Kuarajmë Empire[2]?"

Abi nodded. "There's a war going on there."

Lian winced. "Yes, well... You know the kingdom of Tëflisë? I used to live there. I owned a bookshop and lived a very quiet life. But five hundred years ago I lived in Kuarajmë and I still understand the language. So when Kuarajmë invaded and I was drafted into the Tëflisë army along with everyone else in the capital, I offered to go and spy on the enemy.

"My commanding officer agreed. So I pretended to have a very public argument with him, he pretended to arrest me, and then I stormed out of the camp and went to the Kuarajmë emperor pretending to feel very badly treated and wanting revenge on all of Tëflisë. I gave him information that my commanding officer had told me to give, and the emperor acted on it and led his armies to attack the capital. But the general defending the capital mistakenly believed the attack would be on the west gate. The emperor attacked the poorly-defended east gate and conquered the capital.

"He held it for over a month, during which time I pretended to be loyal to him while quietly gathering information against his army. Then

one of his commanders rebelled and the emperor left to deal with him. As soon as he was gone the Tëflisian army liberated the capital. And then I was in a nasty position, because my commanding officer had been killed and couldn't vouch for me.

"I gave them all the information I'd collected on the Kuarajmians, but as far as they were concerned my fight with the officer had been real and I really had betrayed them. The general's mistake didn't help matters. Eventually they decided to kill me -- they didn't know I'm immortal. They sent an assassin to my prison cell. He took me by surprise and stabbed me in the heart. Then I took him by surprise and cut his throat. I put on his clothes, left the prison, and got as far away from there as I could. I got on a boat to Gengxin, decided I liked it enough to stay, and became an apprentice to a doctor in Tiansheng. I successfully treated another patient who had seizures, so the doctor recommended me to the imperial physicians and that's how I became Zi Yao's doctor.

"So you see," he finished, "I'm not a stranger to having to leave a place in a hurry."

Abi stared at him in stunned silence.