‘It’s not very inviting,’ said Archie, feeling suddenly nervous. The ghosts of his ancestors might be hiding there, watching him, judging him. All the people in those portraits that hung on the walls of Honeystone Hall – they were here.

‘Go on, it’s raining again,’ said Fliss, with a persuasive nudge. ‘At least in there we’ll be dry.’

She handed him a torch from her pocket. Archie wedged the door open with a stone, then lit their way down the steps. Billy kept so close behind him that Archie could hear his friend’s nervous breathing. It wasn’t very grand inside the vault. Cobwebs hung from every corner, almost as if Tablet had tried to make the place homely for its residents. Under the low ceiling, generations of McBudges lay in coffins, stacked one on top of the other like tins on a supermarket shelf.

‘It’s quite crowded,’ whispered Fliss, peering over their shoulders as they carefully trod their way deeper into the vault. Shadows danced around them. ‘But I don’t suppose they need room to move about. You could have a right old family reunion if you had a seance here, Archie.’

‘Was that what you were planning?’ said Billy, trying to keep his voice calm, his hand gripping Archie’s shoulder a little too tightly for comfort. ‘Only, I think I might go and get some fresh air.’

‘There’s no need,’ said Archie, stopping. ‘We’ve found her.’

They were standing next to a coffin carved from stone. Engraved on its side were the words

Archibelle McBudge

Departed this world in peace, 1560 A D

‘Is the Treeheart inside?’ squeaked Billy. ‘Are you going to look?’

Archie hesitated. Belle had defeated the Mirk and saved the Wyrdie Tree, finding the Jewel of Renewal. She had done her job then and had earned her rest. Archie wasn’t about to disturb her.

‘No,’ he said reluctantly. Then something under the cobwebs caught his eye. ‘I don’t think I need to.’ A knot of spiders scrambled out of the way as he brushed the stone clean and shone Fliss’s torch across its surface. There was an inscription on the coffin:

Seek the fire in the bite of a dragon

If by darkness you be pursued.

Look where my mournful gaze alights

One heart broken, one renewed.

‘Very helpful,’ said Fliss sarcastically. ‘What on – or under – the earth does that mean?’

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Archie. ‘Why would you want to seek a dragon’s bite? That would hurt a lot. I can’t make sense of the rest.’

‘One heart broken, one renewed,’ read Billy. ‘Maybe she’s talking about the Treeheart, the Jewel of Renewal. Perhaps it’s a spell?’

‘We need to think about this,’ said Archie, ‘but not here. Let’s get back to the Hall.’

He turned and stubbed his toe against something solid and heavy that was lying in the gloom nearby. It was a smallish wooden coffin. There were three of them, side by side, sat as if waiting for their occupants.

‘They look new,’ Billy said. ‘Who are they for?’

Archie leaned over the first, curious to see the name that had been roughly scratched into the unvarnished lid. It said

WILLIAM MacCRABBIE

The next one read:

FELICITY FAIRBAIRN

Archie felt his blood run cold, as he looked at the third.

ARCHIBALD McBUDGE

The coffins were for them.

‘If this is what the g-g-grave-digger calls customer service, then I want to make a very s-s-s-strongly worded complaint!’ stuttered Billy.

They ran back towards the entrance, stumbled up the stairs, expecting to see grey-washed daylight. But they were met by dark, rusty iron.

‘The door to the vault is closed!’ said Archie. ‘We’ve been shut in!’

‘Trapped!’ squealed Billy. ‘Buried alive, like the phantom Druid of Rubblehenge, Macabre Creepy Scale rating of seven point four!’

‘I left the door wedged open!’ said Archie, putting his weight against the cold metal. The door didn’t budge. ‘Fliss, you were last in – did you see anything?’

Fliss looked up at them from the shadows of the steps below. She was quite calm. There was that look in her eyes again. Was she even smiling?

‘I didn’t want to leave the door open,’ she said coolly. ‘It might have attracted attention.’

‘Don’t you see how dangerous that is?’ shouted Archie, as Billy joined him, vainly shoving against the entrance. ‘What if the door won’t open? It’s obvious someone meant us to come here – maybe Preen! You saw the coffins, he could have been planning something horrible!’

‘I’m sure someone will let us out. Eventually.’

‘Fliss! Help us!’

There was a pause. Fliss seemed confused for a moment. Then she stomped up the steps.

‘All right, don’t get your toffees in a twist,’ she said. ‘If we all push together, perhaps it will move.’

They leaned against the door, their wet shoes slipping against the stone floor. With an unpleasant, metallic shriek, the door reluctantly gave way. Watery light flooded in.

‘I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleased to see rain,’ sighed Billy.

Archie was silent. He was angry, and worried. Fliss had deliberately shut them in the vault. Was one of his own friends, one of the people he trusted most, actually his enemy?