s it turned out, Benissimo’s mystery cage housed a twelve-foot fire-breathing cyclops from somewhere in southern Greece. Despite only having one eye, the creature had honed in on Ned and his dad immediately, charging at them with a furious roar, and had nearly incinerated the pair of them. His dad, as ever, had borne the worst of it, succeeding at the very last minute in holding its charge.
Needless to say, Ned’s Amplification-Engine had not fired.
A deflated Ned now sat in his room with Lucy. Scraggs was working round the clock to feed the Viceroy’s wounded and everyone else had to make do with the BBB’s standard-issue dinners. Ned stared at the carrots and peas in front of him. They’d had the life microwaved out of them and he had no idea what kind of meat the lump next to them was, or even if it was meat. Thanks to the Tinker, his mouse and sidekick now lived in the lab, but at least he still had Gorrn. Good old dependable Gorrn, the shadow in Ned’s shadow, always there no matter what.
“You all right, Gorrn?”
A greying ooze rose up to the side of his table, till the two glowing slits for eyes blinked up at him like stars.
“Unt,” said Gorrn and his head shook like a bowl of reluctant jelly.
“He’s been like that all afternoon.”
Lucy smiled. “Oh, Ned, he’s just a bit tense. We all are.”
“He’s tense?”
Gorrn oozed back to a puddle on the floor.
“Dad nearly died, Lucy. We both did. Maybe that’s what we deserve for letting the Darkening King rise in the first place. None of us would be in this mess if it weren’t for our rings.”
“Ned, don’t be ridiculous. You were tricked, and anyway, I helped you get there, remember? No one knew what Barbarossa was planning, not even me, and I’m a Farseer as well as a Medic.”
“It doesn’t matter – I still provided the spark that freed him.”
“Yes, you did, and then you and your dad hurt the beast. No one else could have done that, not me, or Kitty before me, not even the great Benissimo.”
Ned brightened, if only a little.
“Your powers can cause harm, Ned. So can mine,” continued Lucy. “But the Engine was passed down to you to help people, to save innocent …”
Her voice trailed off mid-sentence, and a light sparked in her eyes.
“Lucy, what is it?”
“You’ve got a big heart, Ned Armstrong,” she said, getting up suddenly. “And sometimes big hearts have a way of hanging on to stuff that they shouldn’t, but I’m going to find a way to fix you – just you wait and see.”
And with that, Lucy walked at a pace for the door to his room.
“Hang on a minute, where are you going?”
“I’m searching.”
“For what?”
“For a way!”
A confused Ned looked back down to his plate of microwaved something, then to the floor and the shadowy puddle that was Gorrn.
“I’m not sure I always understand that girl. Oh well, it’s just you and me then, eh, Gorrn.”
“Arr.”
***
Several miles away, and under the cover of a pitch-black night, a Demon and three clowns scaled the cliffs of Dover. Beneath them the chalk-white rock was peppered with sinewy black arms and legs. Gor-balins when climbing in great numbers look very much like an army of ants. The handful of Barbarossa’s ticker flies that had made it into the BBB’s base had discovered a single but brilliant flaw in its defence system. There was little point in using a hammer to break down a door, especially when one had found a key.
Sar-adin looked to the clowns as they made it to the edge of the cliff. Their mission had been made very clear – Barbarossa would not let them fail again, and had sent his finest to ensure their success. The Demon despised nearly everything about them, but for one simple thing: they would do absolutely anything he told them to.
“Mo?”
The largest of the two remaining monstrosities simpered towards him. Dressed all in black for their mission, he looked even more ridiculous than usual.
“Sar-ee-dins? Mo is ears for you, he is.”
“Once we gain access to the compound you are not to leave my side. It must be done in front of me. Fail and you will …”
The clown’s face shuddered. “No speaksie of toasty cloons, no needs to get hot and fiery. We’s good cloons this time, Sar-ee-dins. You’ll sees it all, all the smushin’ and crushin’ of da jossy-boy und his girl.”