Something powerful is drawing Ward back to Devil's Island. Something he thought he had forgotten. He must evade vicious lighthouse keeper George Jaggles in order to rescue it, but Jaggles will soon be the least of his worries. Because an assassin is...
"Prolly. The bloke that came up with the Cosmic Wheel thing seemed to know more'n he ought to've."
"What was his name?"
"Deville."
Again Ward looked at Slops. Again Slops shrugged.
"I heard a story once," Ward said carefully, "that someone used a pair of dice to travel between worlds."
"Dice? Where'd you hear that?"
"Just a rumour floating around."
"Sounds like a load of (unprintable word) to me."
Ward tried to mask his disappointment. He'd been certain Maude would know something about the dice. "Is the Arcane Vault a rumour too?"
The child peered slyly up at him. For the first time he saw the great age behind her eyes. There was sorrow there too, and loneliness, around which had been constructed an ornery shell like the carapace of a crab. It occurred to him that she was afraid to die.
"Maybe," she said. "Is that what you came here to arks me? Where the Vault is? Well sorry to disappoint you, but I have no (unprintable word) idea."
This time Ward couldn't hide his disappointment. They had come all this way for nothing.
"You'd be bonkers to try anyway," she said.
"Why?" Slops said.
"Cos it's guarded by somethink. The Corpusant."
"What's that?"
The girl shrugged. "Corpusant means fire demon. But who knows what it is? All we got is the name. Could be a load of cobblers, just like your dice."
Ward mused over this for a while as the room fell silent.
The child yawned. "Time for me afternoon nap. Thanks for dropping by – hope it was as fun for you as it was for me," she said drily. The baccus and the blackleaf pouch had disappeared. She nestled deeper into the pillows.
"Well – thanks," Ward said.
She nodded drowsily.
He looked back at her once at the top of the stairs, but she had already dropped off to sleep, as only the very young and very old can.
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Well I hope this chapter was as fun for you as it was for me.
