Billy was right: Old Jings was the oldest honey dragon who lived in the Cavern of Honeystone. He must have been around the last time the Mirk appeared, and must know something of its history.

Archie quickly chose a Viking puppet as a present – he thought its large, ugly, wooden axe would appeal to the Puddingham-Piglets – and Miss Clabbity wrapped it in tissue paper, carefully placing it into a box for him. As she tied a ribbon around the box, a clockwork dragon waddled across the counter. Fliss laughed delightedly.

‘How does it work?’ she asked. Fliss loved machinery and had ambitions to be an engineer when she was older. The dragon even looked a little like Blossom.

‘The mechanism is very intricate,’ chuckled Miss Clabbity. ‘It takes great skill to put a toy like that together.’

‘Could you show me what’s inside?’ said Fliss. Archie and Billy could see the two of them might end up talking for ages.

‘We’ve got things to do,’ Billy said, impatient to go. It was mid-afternoon, and if they were going to see the dragons they would have to get a move on. ‘Places to go. Boats to be getting into?’

Fliss was not taking the hint. ‘I’ll only be a minute,’ she said dismissively. ‘Why don’t you wait outside?’ She was still cross with Archie for snapping at her earlier, so now she was going to do things at her own pace.

Maybe we both needed a bit of time to cool down, thought Archie.

They left her with Miss Clabbity, discussing cogs and gears, and quietly stepped out into the alley.

‘What am I going to do about Fliss?’ Archie said, as he and Billy shared another Gingerbread Dragon. Billy was still trying to get the taste of the Safer Wafer out of his mouth.

‘Fliss is your friend,’ said Billy, chewing heartily. ‘She’s on your side, you silly mugwomble – Macabre Creepy Scale rating of two point seven – but Fliss thinks logically. She’s going to see sense in what Preen says, because there is some sense to it. That’s why he’s getting to everyone.’

‘Once you dig a little deeper, though, you can see he’s trying to manipulate people – the shiny-faced, tooth-twitching … !’ Archie shook the puppet box in frustration, rattling the Viking around inside.

‘Calm down! He does seem to be unnaturally persuasive. But you can’t do without Fliss right now, so you need to make friends again as soon as possible.’

Archie knew he was right. Fortunately, when Fliss reappeared from the shop, she seemed to have forgotten all about their disagreement. In fact, she was in a very good mood.

‘Miss Clabbity is going to teach me all about her clockwork machines,’ she said, as they strolled back to the Hall. ‘And soon I’ll be able to make one of my own! She’s so clever – she can build almost anything. Plus, she let me keep the clockwork dragon and she gave me this!’ Fliss held out a star-shaped wooden object in the palm of her hand.

‘What is it?’ asked Billy, studying the object’s surface. Completely black, it was inlaid in silver with a zigzag pattern. He went to take it, but Fliss clutched the star protectively.

‘I don’t know. Miss Clabbity said it’s a puzzle challenge for me to work out, to test my ingenuity.’ She sniffed in Archie’s direction. ‘It’ll keep me busy, as there’s not much else to do at the moment.’

‘Yes, there is,’ retorted Archie. ‘We’re off to Pookiecrag Castle to see Old Jings.’ Then he remembered Billy’s advice. ‘Look,’ he said, more gently. ‘I’m sorry I snapped. It feels like everyone is against me at the moment. I know I need to do more, it’s just that I’m feeling the pressure a bit.’

Fliss smiled. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘If I was against you, you’d be running for the hills, Archie McBudge!’ And Archie caught a cold look in her eyes that made him think she might just be right.