Hellyann is gripping my wrist at my side, and it’s probably good that she is because when Tammy appears on the platform, I might well shout out, or run forward or do something stupid. In the end, I just watch in agonising silence as I see Tammy mount the platform from the back, flanked by two Assistant Advisors.

My sister. My twin. My other half. Her hair is greasy and her cheeks are streaked with dirt and tears. Her expression is as blank as those of the humans around me and she stares out at the crowd, her lips moving slightly, as if she is talking to herself, or praying, or … I don’t know what.

She is still wearing what she left the house in and it is all so familiar that I find myself blinking back tears. She is clutching her bag close to her chest, nervously, with both hands. A low table has been brought on to the stage and Tammy stands next to it. I don’t know what to do – if she sees me in the crowd will she even recognise me? If she does, will she cry out? If she cries out, what will happen to us?

It all reminds me of a scene I saw in a film once when a king, a long time ago, was beheaded in front of a cheering crowd. Even though I am pretty certain that Tammy is not going to be killed, it still sends a chill through me.

I try to keep my head down a bit, but I cannot stop sneaking looks at Tammy, trembling with fear on a platform in front of this weird crowd, who have taken up their chant yet again.

Hoo … hoo … hoo … hoo … hoo … hoo …

I have a sickening feeling that something horrible is about to happen to Tammy when Dark Streak comes to the front again and starts to talk.

Hellyann inclines her head to listen better and says to me, ‘She is saying something about a kift. When humans meet they kiv each other kifts?’

Kift?

I think for a moment.

‘Oh!’ I say. ‘A gift? A present!’

‘Yes. Humans exchange them?’

‘Well, yeah,’ I murmur back. ‘Sometimes. Special occasions, you know …’

‘This is very strange to us. We are going to see this happen.’

I’m baffled. What on earth is she on about, or Dark Streak for that matter?

‘See it happen?’ I say. ‘See what?’

Near us, some people have heard Hellyann and me talking and even though we are talking softly, they must have heard that it was another language. They have started to turn and look and point, and one of them rubs his hairy chin. Hellyann nudges me to keep quiet, for there is further movement at the back of the platform.

Dark Streak has something in her hand which glints in the sun when she holds it aloft. She spreads her bony fingers and I see she is holding Iggy’s glasses by one of the arms, and I swallow hard.

The two guards appear again and between them this time is Iggy, twisting his flat cap in his hands, his deep copper hair seeming to glow in the sunlight against the dried-out trees and the grey-white hair of his captors.

But it’s his face that astonishes me. I was kind of expecting him to be half drugged like Tammy. Instead his green eyes are furious and his mouth is set into the angriest scowl I have ever seen in my life. It doesn’t go unnoticed in the crowd either. A low ripple passes through the Anthallans around me and they look more intently.

One of his guards puts a hand on Iggy’s upper arm; he shakes it off angrily, and he stares out at the crowd, pure rage seeming to seep from every pore. He looks over at Tammy, who returns his gaze, but blankly, and Iggy shakes his head with sorrow and anger.

Then, at a signal from Dark Streak, Tammy reaches into her black school bag and fumbles around for a few seconds. For a moment, I’m thinking, Go, Tammy! Pull out a gun or something, but instead she removes, one by one, the three poorly wrapped presents that she had been taking to Scottish Sheila the night she went missing.

‘Whaat?!’

I think I say it aloud because people turn and look at me again, and I see Hellyann glancing around. She grabs my hand

‘Come,’ she whispers and almost drags me to a different part of the crowd, nearer to the platform this time.

Still, I can feel the crowd’s eyes following me. Anthallans, you will know by now, are pretty inexpressive, but I see one of them look up at Tammy, then at me and then back to Tammy.

I often forget how closely Tammy and I resemble each other, but there is no forgetting now. More people are noticing and pointing.

Meanwhile, on the stage, Tammy has given one of the presents to Iggy, who takes it in both hands and starts to unwrap it. Neither Tammy nor Iggy has noticed me yet: Tammy because of her detached mental state, I guess; Iggy because … well, I don’t know. Perhaps he’s just too upset to concentrate on anything other than what is happening to him at that moment.

Inside the wrapper is a box. Iggy’s shaking his head with puzzlement, because it is a box with a bottle inside: a bottle of vodka.

The crowd seem fascinated, and those who are near me switch their attention from me to the stage as Dark Streak puts down Iggy’s glasses, grabs the bottle from the table and holds it up. I wish I knew what she was saying because it is making the crowd excited.

Dark Streak mimes drinking from the bottle and then allows her tongue to loll out of her mouth and her legs to buckle. I get it: she is pretending to be drunk!

Oh no. I immediately guess what is going to happen.

I turn to Hellyann. ‘Are they going to make them drink it?’

Hellyann nods.

I am horrified. ‘Kids don’t drink alcohol!’ I say, quietly but urgently. ‘It’ll make them sick. It could even kill them!’ In my head, but not out loud, I add, ‘Especially that super-strong stuff that Dad got from the Polish guy …’

‘No!’ I shout and my hand is over my mouth even before the syllable is finished, but it’s too late.

Dark Streak stops and puts the bottle of vodka down on the stage floor. Slowly she comes to the very edge of the platform and looks out, her large, wet eyes scanning the crowd.

It seems as though everybody has turned to look at me. Glancing to the guards at her side, Dark Streak extends a long finger, pointing to me, and in an instant they have leapt down from the stage and are right next to me, grasping my upper arms in their bony hands and breathing their foul breath into my face.

‘Hellyann!’ I cry, but she has melted back into the crowd as I am half-dragged, half-carried on to the stage, where I look out at hundreds of pairs of eyes, all wondering what will happen next.

I try to catch Tammy’s eye, but her expression is blank and empty.

Iggy, though – he is not drugged, or memory-wiped, or whatever it is they have done to Tammy. His eyes are sparkling with …

Could it be mischief?

I cannot be certain, and in my terror about what is to happen next I am not sure I am thinking straight, but it’s a look I have seen on his face before – most recently when we were fishing the night Hellyann appeared. But it’s more than that: it’s the look he had when he showed me his Death Ray that morning on the bus to school.

Something is about to happen and Iggy is to be the cause of it.

He is standing next to me now and, keeping his face turned to the crowd, he murmurs, ‘You took your time, Tait.’

‘What are you up to?’ I whisper.

‘Nothing,’ he says.

But he winks as he says it.