Max and Sasha stood in the doorway in silence.

Mr. Darrow’s bedroom was filled with flies. Not just one or two, but hundreds of them. They buzzed around the room in every direction, hovering a few centimeters above the floor.

And that wasn’t even the worst of it.

“The castle!” Max cried.

It was in ruins. A single thread of smoke curled through the air above it. The blue-haired people were nowhere to be seen.

“They’re—they’re gone! What happened? Where could they possibly—”

Sasha pointed across the room. “There!”

Sure enough, on the other side of the room was a crowd of blue people scuttling across the sand like superfast bugs.

Sasha shook his head. “Why are they over there?”

Max frowned. “They’re heading toward that bin in the corner! See? The one on its side, with all the flies coming out of it and—”

Max stopped. He had just seen what was inside the bin.

He hadn’t bothered looking at the bin earlier. All his attention had been focused on the castle.

Now he could see that it wasn’t just a bin.

Inside the bin was a city of tiny buildings and factories and houses made out of rubbish. There were matchbox skyscrapers and drinks-can cathedrals and tinfoil highways with maggots trundling along them like cars. Thousands of tiny people with bright-green hair were living inside it.

Sasha waved a hand to get his attention. “Max?”

“Yes?”

“There are green people in the bin.”

“I’m looking at them, Sasha.”

There was a long pause. Sasha waved again.

“…Max?”

“Yes?”

“You might want to look at the bed while you’re at it.”

Max turned round. Underneath the bed—almost completely hidden from sight—was another city. It was huge, bigger than the castle and the bin city combined. It was filled with thousands of tiny red huts that spread the length of the bed frame, from headboard to footboard.

Standing inside it were hundreds of thousands of tiny people with bright-red hair, staring at them.

“Max?”

“Yes?”

“There are red people too.”

“Yes.”

“Loads of them.”

“Yes.”

“There could be millions of people in this room.”

“Probably.”

Pause.

“So…how exactly are we going to get them to our dorm?”

Max looked around the enormous room. He didn’t know the answer to Sasha’s question, but he knew one thing for certain.

Mr. Darrow hadn’t just given him a kingdom to look after. He’d given him an entire civilization.

“We’re going to need a bigger spade,” said Max.