‘It's your treasure!’ Tab gasped.

‘Why did you tell them about it, Tab?’ he moaned.

‘Because I don't know of any other big piles of jewels lying around. Do you?’ she snapped.

‘Of course I do!’ he barked. ‘In the Archon's treasury! That's why it's called a treasury!’

‘Do you know how to get in?’

Verris slumped. ‘No. I have been trying for some time now.’

Tab folded her arms.

Verris held his head in his hands. ‘It is my life's work. It's taken me years to gather it all together, and you expect me to just give it to these bugs?’ He looked up, frowning. ‘Well, they can fight me for it. I'll die before I hand it over.’

‘Look at all these people!’ Tab shouted. She pointed to the mounds of Quentarans. ‘Maybe we will all die! You can keep your stupid treasure! But if we're all dead, who are you going to buy things from?’

She stared at Verris, and then she remembered how she felt when she first discovered the treasure, how the possessiveness overwhelmed her. Tab tried to imagine what it must be like to have shed blood and lost friends to gather all that treasure together, and to have dreamt for years and years about how you were going to spend it.

‘Can you think of another way?’ she asked him.

Verris sighed. He stood up on unsteady feet. ‘Come on, then. Let's get this over with,’ he grumbled.

Soon they were outside the tunnel's entrance. Verris frowned at Tab. ‘Turn your back!’ he instructed.

‘Why?’ Tab asked. She was curious as to how he was going to unlock the wall – whether it was by magic, or some mechanical device.

‘Why?’ he repeated. ‘Because if you were not’ prenticed as a magician, Tab Vidler, you'd be ‘prenticed as a thief. That's why! And make your way up the ranks twice as sharply, I'd imagine.’ He did a winding motion with his fingers. ‘Round you go!’

Tab sighed and turned her back, arms folded. She listened intently, but heard nothing until Verris said, ‘All right. It's done.’ When she faced the mast again the tunnel mouth was plain to see.

Verris took a torch from the first wall sconce and lit it from one in the street, then he led the group down the passageway, lighting more along the way. Tab followed him and behind her marched a crew of Loraskians, each holding an empty casket.

About halfway along Verris stopped. He pointed his torch towards the hole in the dungeon wall. He ran his hand around the puncture. ‘Where is the dragon now?’

‘When the Loraskians attacked, it went across the Barrenlands and over the Drop-off. It was after the equen. There was a boy…’

Chak's voice came through the hollow. ‘Help us! We've been captured!’ Other sky-traders called out too, banging on the bars of their cells. ‘We're starving in here!’

‘And the sky-traders’ city is gone too,’ Tab told him.

Verris rubbed his chin. ‘You're going to have to patch this up later.’

‘Me?!’ Tab protested. ‘It was the hatchling!’

Verris blinked. ‘If you can find the hatchling and get it to patch up this hole that will also be satisfactory.’

The Loraskian stepped closer to Tab.›››The cold stars. We have more…

›››Yes, yes. We're going

They continued down the corridor leaving the pleading voices of the sky-traders behind.

Soon they reached the secret chamber. Verris unlocked the door and they entered. Verris moved around the room lighting the wall sconces.

Tab moved to the nearest chest and opened the lid. Just as she had imagined the jewels and coins glinted in the light, only they were not nearly as fascinating as she might have imagined. Perhaps it was because she now knew that the riches weren't hers to spend as she wished. Or maybe it was because last time she was in the secret chamber with the dragon. She had been feeling the way the baby dragon felt about the hoard.

She supposed that was the downside of her gift, and one she would have to learn to control – recognising the emotions that were truly hers against those she was receiving from her hosts. Otherwise she might get lost altogether!

The Loraskians set to work finding jewels the right size and shape to fit into their caskets. Verris was pleased to see them discarding some of the bigger ones, and ignoring the moons and royals altogether.

As they had been with the bodies, the Loraskians were methodical about their task but, with all the sorting and rearranging, it still took several hours for them to fill all of their caskets.

They marched up the corridor again in single file. This time the Loraskians led and Verris and Tab followed. The soldiers stooped as they passed through the archway. They turned and followed their ant-like path towards the battlements.

Tab's Loraskian stayed behind, walking with Tab and Verris to the Square. Tab translated for Verris.

‘He says that the effect of the screech will wear off in time. Everyone will have a headache, but they will be all right.’ They walked between the mounds of people.

‘Gruesome, isn't it?’ Verris remarked.

‘And if I'd woken to find my jewels gone I would have known who to ask first,’ he replied.

‘What would I have done? Grabbed the treasure and run to the back of the city? It's afloat! There's nowhere for me to go.’

The Loraskian shuffled on his feet. He was keen to return to his city. The other soldiers were forming into units, preparing to march to the battlements.

›››Wait!››We do not wish to keep these people as slaves. Is it in your power to return them to their sky-city?

The Loraskian gave her his mental shrug. ›››We have the cold stars. We are not concerned any longer with the small, greasy, lying ones

Tab stifled a smile at the description and then sent to the Loraskian:›››They have more spaces on their sky-city than sky-traders

The Loraskian paused for a moment, and then he returned to her ›››I understand

Taking the jailer's keys, Tab led the Loraskian past the Archon's Palace and down the steps to the dungeons. One by one she opened the cells. When the sky-traders saw Tab flanked by Loraskian soldiers they were very subdued.

Verris and Tab watched the last of the soldiers march along the alley and around the corner, returning to their city.

Tab collapsed on the lawn. ‘I could sleep for a week!’

‘You can sleep later,’ Verris said. ‘First we have to find you a trowel.’

‘You are joking, aren't you?’ Tab asked, stretching out like a starfish.

Verris was not.

Chaperone

Being the first paralysed, the City Watch and marines were the first to awake, and once Verris had explained their predicament to everyone, they began to disassemble the still-frozen piles of people, laying the bodies across the lawn. Others fetched buckets of water and ladles so that the freshly woken could drink and splash their faces.

Commander Storm started a bonfire in the square so that the Quentarans could burn their clothing if they chose to. Most did – even though their clothes were salvageable. It was more a ritual to rid themselves of what had happened than a necessity.

Many Quentarans stood around the bonfire watching the flames, sharing their stories of the Loraskian attack, and speculating as to what had happened after the mounds had been made. Very few had been paralysed with their eyes open and fewer still on an angle that allowed them to see what was happening.

Rumours spread quickly about Tab's involvement and many cast suspicious glances Tab's way, but she ignored them. She had promised to keep Verris's chamber a secret, and without that detail there was not much of a story to tell.

Instead she waited near the frozen bodies of her two friends, stretching her sore muscles and scraping the lime from under her fingernails. In the end Verris had helped her patch the wall in the dungeon, but it was still hard work!