After leaving the Imperial Sports Club, Evadne took Kingsley’s arm and steered them through the crowds with the determination of a naval destroyer. She swept them through the Central Circle and along the Algerian Avenue, emerging through the Wood Lane entrance. Queues of people waiting to get into the Exhibition, in orderly British fashion, stretched up the road. The stands of the stadium loomed not far to the south and cheers cascaded over the lip. Flags flew gaily, reminding everyone that this part of the site was truly international.

They passed the stadium and Evadne took them to a lamp post where a young girl was standing, absorbed in a toffee apple. ‘Look up at the stadium,’ Evadne told Kingsley. She mimicked him, shading her eyes, but spoke to the girl on the other side of the lamp post. ‘All’s well, Meg?’

Meg wore a white sundress and a straw hat. Her black hair hung in a neat braid. She didn’t look at Evadne, but answered in a murmur around her toffee apple. ‘Just that man, ma’am.’ She inclined her head the merest fraction of an inch, but left no doubt who she was indicating.

A small man stood a stone’s throw away. He too, was looking up at the stadium and the flags flying against the scudding clouds.

‘He’s been there all morning,’ Meg murmured.

‘Demimonder?’

Meg tilted her head in assent, another fractional gesture.

Kingsley coughed, and used this to cover a furtive study of the man in question. He was nondescript. As medium a height as medium could be. Clean, unremarkable coat and hat. A face that held not a single noteworthy feature. Kingsley looked away and immediately had trouble remembering what the man looked like.

‘He hasn’t done anything?’ Evadne asked, looking sidelong at this phenomenon.

‘Just waiting, he is.’

Evadne shook her head. ‘I don’t like this.’

‘Do you want me to accost him?’ Kingsley offered. Never having accosted anyone before, he wasn’t entirely sure how accosting was done, but he was sure he could give it a decent shot.

‘No. Meg, do you think you could make a scene right next to him?’

Meg gave a twitch of a smile. Kingsley decided she could grow up to be a very fine cards player. ‘Easy, ma’am.’

Evadne spun a half sovereign in her hand, then slipped it to the young girl. Meg didn’t acknowledge this. She simply closed her fist on the coin and skipped away.

Kingsley watched her go, and saw the wistfulness with which Evadne followed the child’s bobbing straw hat. ‘Who was that?’

‘Meg’s someone I look out for.’

‘Another project?’

‘Meg is ten years old, and has been an orphan for five of them. She lives at Mrs Oldham’s Home for Girls, which I sponsor. She, and a few others, do odd jobs for me.’ Evadne touched her cheek, briefly, then pushed back her hair. ‘She’s a good girl. Now, be ready.’

Kingsley was abashed. ‘What for?’

‘Watch.’

Just in front of the extraordinarily unexceptional man, Meg tripped. She tumbled and when she came up holding her knee, right in front of him, she shrieked as if she’d been shot several times with an elephant gun.

Within seconds, the girl and the startled man were enveloped by a knot of onlookers, well-meaners and self-appointed experts. This attracted more attention and the entire flow of Wood Lane turned in the direction of the hullabaloo.

‘Right,’ Evadne said. ‘Now hurry.’

Evadne dragged Kingsley to the other side of the road. She leaned against the fence and put a hand to her brow. ‘Look at me as if you’re concerned, as if I’m having a spell or something.’

‘How’s this?’ Kingsley drew close. He screwed up his brow and peered into her face, doing his best not to become befuddled by gardenia.

‘Laughable, but it will have to do.’

Evadne reached into her pocket and, still leaning against the fence, fiddled away behind her back. ‘Now, look up and down the road, as if you’re after help.’

He did, putting his heart into the thespian efforts, but was taken by surprise when he was tugged backward. He whipped around, but couldn’t stop himself falling into Evadne’s arms.

She kicked the door closed from the other side. The fence was whole again and she held him at arm’s length. ‘Comfortable?’

‘Sublimely.’

‘Don’t be.’

Evadne released her grip, but Kingsley was ready this time and managed to catch himself before he went sprawling.

Around them and over their heads, the struts and girders supporting the stands sliced the dim light into criss-cross pieces. Evadne confidently picked her way through the metal jungle, moving east until she found a small windowless shed made of corrugated iron. It sported a strident warning sign, promising certain death due to the untold voltages unleashed within. Naturally, Evadne ignored this and after a moment’s work had the door open. A bolted steel door set into the concrete floor led to a short, dark tunnel that took them to a heavy grate, after which a short crawl brought them to a rubble-filled dead end.

Evadne produced another of the pen-like electric lights and studied the rubble. ‘No-one has made it this far. Good.’

‘How can you tell?’

‘Myrmidon.’ She pointed. Up in the shadows was a ratty shape that made Kingsley jump. ‘It wouldn’t be calmly sitting there if this entrance to my refuge had been discovered.’

‘A watch-rat, so to speak.’

‘Kingsley, at this rate, you’ll soon be auditioning as a comedian.’

She handed Kingsley the tiny electric light and rummaged in the fist-sized lumps of concrete and brick until one of them gave a most unrubble-like ‘click’.

The rubble plug swung back. Evadne crawled through, waited for Kingsley, then pushed the camouflaged door closed behind them.

The only illumination came from the electric light Kingsley had in his hand. He held it up, but the shadows defeated its modest output. The sound the closing door had made told him that the space was large and so it proved when lights sprang up and he found himself in the antechamber that preceded Evadne’s underground refuge. A series of doors – with excellent locks – and they were inside.

‘Now,’ Evadne said. ‘Rest. You’ll be safe here. I should be back directly.’

‘Back? Where are you going?’

‘I have some errands to run.’

‘I’ll come with you.’

‘I’d rather not. This errand is of a personal nature, and I’m still not sure how much to trust you.’

Ah, trust. ‘I suppose that’s up to you, but I do my best to be trustworthy.’

She smiled at him and he felt as if he’d been poked in the stomach by a torpedo. ‘I’m sure you do. Your upright character is one of your more endearing features, but it does tend to suggest you don’t quite fit into the Demimonde.’

‘I don’t fit in?’

‘The natural denizens of the Demimonde have a certain moral slipperiness about them. They’re at ease with accommodating values that might, at first, appear contradictory. They can hold several different points of view in their head at the same time without any discomfort at all.’

‘I know all about having different points of view, but I’m not so sure about the discomfort,’ he admitted.

‘This suggests you’d stand out in the Demimonde. You’d either be easy pickings for those looking for you or you’d be seduced by its blandishments.’

‘I say.’

‘I’ve seen many well-intentioned overworlders charmed by the Demimonde, becoming so tainted that there was no way back.’

‘I could always put wax in my ears.’

‘Like Odysseus? What about your eyes? And up your nose? You’d be a pretty sight.’

‘And what about you? Are you tainted by the Demimonde?’

She gave a nonchalant flip of her hand. ‘I glide through that world unaffected, serene in my sense of self.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘Either that, or I’ve hardened myself to its temptations.’

‘With the thought of Clarence to guide you, no doubt.’

‘Who?’

‘Clarence. Your beau.’

Her hand went to her throat. ‘Clarence. Of course. He’s impervious to the goings-on in the Demimonde. Adamant of will, is he.’

‘A model to us all. You know, I’d like to meet Clarence. I’m sure I could learn a thing or two from such a sterling chap.’

‘He’s a fine teacher, patient and wise, but I understand he’s a little busy at the moment.’

Kingsley shook his head. ‘Don’t leave me here alone. I’d prefer to risk the Demimonde, really.’

‘You wouldn’t be alone. My myrmidons are here.’

‘As much as I like rats, I’d rather be with you.’

‘You’re too kind.’

‘With you by my side, I’m sure I’ll be able to resist the call of the Demimonde.’

‘Quite possibly.’ She bit her lip, looked away, then faced him. ‘I know I said that I’d help you find your foster father, but I have something I must do first. Perhaps you’d like to help me with it?’

Kingsley felt the same way he did at the crucial point in a magical routine. Choices. Many could lead to disaster, a few could lead to a winning outcome. He desperately needed to get back on the trail to find his foster father. The longer he left it, the colder it would become. But having the help of someone familiar with the outlandish world he’d fallen into would be necessary. He sighed. ‘I’d be glad to be of any assistance. What is it?’

‘I need to kill a band of immortal magicians.’