Sorry if this seemed to take ages – it's here now! The next update may take even longer as I'm about to start uni, but it'll be up as quickly as possible, I promise. Once again, thanks to Crystal Music for beta-ing.

Review responses

TonisMaximus: The snogging WILL start but probably not in the next chapter.

Lightning bug: Sorry about the cliffhanger, but it seems to be becoming quite a habit.

LovelyAcid: I'm glad to hear you like M/C so much. Christopher's a metrosexual is he? I do see your point, although I'm not sure its quite to the extent of David Beckham – I mean, can you imagine him in a sarong? And Millie's much nicer than Victoria. Sorry about the update delay, but enjoy the chapter now it's here, and I hope the suspense didn't kill you.

Chapter 6

"What are you doing here?" the voice rang out in a surprised, slightly indignant tone. Millie couldn't stop herself from starting nervously, but felt a little better about her lack of bravery when she saw a very brief deer-caught-in headlights expression flash across Christopher's face. He collected himself after a second, though, to assume his haughtiest, most intimidating look and aim it upward towards the voice. Clearly he wasn't going to show that he was in any way cowed. Millie admired him greatly for this – he looked at least ten times as brave as she felt, even if it might be all for show, and the impressive glare currently on his handsome face would have put even the terrifying Gabriel de Witt to shame.

The figure moved from the shadows, and Millie was surprised (and not a little relieved) to see it was only a boy or rather, a young man. Anyway, he certainly did not look old enough to be the brains behind an organisation that looked as though it could rival the Wraith in cunning and cruelty. He was perhaps a year or two younger than her and Christopher at the very most, was fairly stockily built with brownish hair and wore a slightly more expensive-looking version of the type of robe that absolutely everyone seemed to wear in this world. It was only a slightly richer brown than the ones that people had worn in the temple (She supposed it wouldn't do to wear anything that would show up the dirty coloured sand that seemed to get everywhere too much) It fell to his knees and the overall effect rather reminded Millie of one of the many pictures of the paintings on ancient Greek or Roman vases she had seen in Art textbooks at her finishing school in one of the seemingly endless lessons on Appreciating High Culture in a Ladylike Manner. It looked surprisingly thick and luxurious, considering how hot she knew it always was here.

A response was clearly required and, in his airiest, most nonchalant tone Christopher answered, "Oh, you now how it is, we just sort of wandered in." He accompanied this with a dazzling smile deliberately designed to unsettle the other boy. From his expression, he didn't seem to think that they were in much danger, and hadn't even bothered to come up with a proper excuse. Millie only wished she felt half so confident about the situation.

The boy did seem to find Christopher a little off-putting – at first he could only reply "I don't think so…" uncertainly, as though he couldn't quite remember what he had asked in the first place. Christopher did seem to have that effect on people when the met him for the first time. "You can't just wander in," he said a little more firmly recovering himself somewhat. "How did you get past all the spells?"

"Why is this place so well defended, anyway? Does the owner have something to hide? If you know, you must tell me, I'm simply fascinated." Christopher said, managing, cleverly Millie thought, both to avoid responding to the question he had been asked, and to ask another of his own in a way that made it difficult to avoid answering.

The boy moved down a few steps, frowning. "It can't be all that well defended if you two managed to get in," he pointed out a little ungraciously, "And my father takes security very seriously. I'd really hate to think of what he'd do if anyone got in."

Christopher smiled in a rather self-satisfied way, clearly storing away the information he had just heard for use against the boy at a future date if need be. Millie wasn't sure either way, but she knew that to her the boy had sounded like one of the most spoiled brats s had ever met, and there had been a lot of them at her Swiss finishing school. She had never had any patience with people like that, possibly because she had enough of it at the Castle with Christopher. Although he wasn't spoiled exactly – no one who had met his parents could ever think that, no, it was his arrogance that was the problem, and she had no idea where that had come from.

"Oh it is well defended, I just happen to have a extraordinary talent for magic," he said, entirely seriously and matter-of-factly without the slightest hint of modestyMillie only just managed to stop herself muttering something sarcastic in response. Normally she would have, but it occurred to her that it was probably a good idea to let Christopher intimidate the boy as much as possible. They weren't in the safest of situations after all, and it looked as he was doing a fairly good job of it already.

To his credit however, the boy on the stairs looked to be every bit as unimpressed by Christopher's declaration as Millie was. But he didn't seem to know quite how to respond and there was an awkward silence that seemed to last at least five hours although it couldn't have possibly taken more than a minute or so in reality.

Millie had a feeling that she didn't like the boy very much, – she didn't know why exactly, but the superior tone he had had when talking about his father annoyed her – of course, it wasn't that different than Christopher's had been, but somehow it seemed faintly ridiculous coming from the other boy. She knew she was being unfair, but somehow she couldn't help it. Unfortunately that didn't make it that much easier to decide how much they should tell him, or whether they should even trust him at all. She looked at Christopher meaningfully, wanting to ask him what he thought they should do, but all she got in response was one of his vaguer looks.

"It's clear we didn't just wander in," she began, deciding to tell him something that sounded fairly convincing, but without saying anything that could be used against her and Christopher if he didn't turn out to be as harmless as she thought he was. "The truth is, we're from another world, another Series in fact." The boy's face grew more interested as Christopher's grew more aghast. Millie shot Christopher a look that she hoped was reassuring. She wasn't planning to reveal the world they, or rather Christopher really came from – after the conversation they had just overheard she didn't want to say anything that would connect them to Series 12 or the title of Chrestomanci, and so she went on to explain how they were from Series 7 (well they had been there after all, and Conrad had told her plenty about it in the years he had been living at the castle). At this point, Christopher gallantly decided to take over. Millie didn't mind in the slightest – in fact she was a little relieved. During his time at the Castle he had become quite the expert at "manipulating the truth" (Millie thought that "lying" might actually be a better term). Certainly he had had enough practice – explaining missing essays or unrevised-for exams to Gabriel de Witt was no easy matter after all.

"I must confess that I did break your father's spells deliberately, but don't worry, there was no sinister motive behind it, if that's what you're worried about." While he was speaking he smoothed down his already immaculate robes, frowning vaguely as he did so in a way that made Millie sure that he was missing the expensive suits he always wore at the Castle. She didn't understand why he was so obsessed with his clothes at all – surely there couldn't be a single article of clothing anywhere in all the related worlds that could make him look less than handsome. "It's actually rather silly," he continued, "as Millie said, we're sort of…visiting this world, and when we saw this place, we couldn't help but wonder what it was, and why it was so well guarded. And so she bet me that I wouldn't be able to break all the spells on the gate – but I did of course – and well, here we are." The story may not have been the most creative or convincing that Millie had ever heard him come up with, but he said it with such conviction that she didn't see how the boy could fail to believe him. And of course, the fact that none of it was acually an outright lie helped.

It seemed to do the trick. The boy didn't look in the least suspicious now – in fact he bounded down the stairs so enthusiastically that Millie was afraid he would fall and do himself a serious injury. "You can do magic too? Proper Enchanter's magic? My father says not many people can do that. My name's Seth by the way."

Millie was surprised by how immature he sounded – more like a twelve year old than the fifteen or sixteen years he looked to be. She supposed he had led a terribly sheltered life. She had met plenty of girls like that at school -- spoilt little things that crumbled into tears whenever they didn't get their own way. She supposed this boy Seth was just like that.

It looked as though Christopher had come to the same conclusions that she had, but being Christopher he was taking full advantage of the situation to gain as much information as possible, firing off questions almost faster than they could be answered. Within just a few minutes he had managed to find out an impressive amount about him, including the fact that he had lived alone with his father for as long as he could remember and that they didn't seem to have any other family. Not all the information was strictly relevant though –he did tend to feel sorry for himself a bit and spent quite a proportion of the time complaining about how lonely he was. As Christopher said later, it wasn't really surprising that he didn't seem to have any friends.

"What does your father do for a living that he needs so much protection?" Christopher asked, taking care to keep his tone and expression impeccably vague. Millie jumped when she heard noises and clatterings from deep inside the building that suggested that people were waking up from their siestas. At first she thought that the stricken look on Seth's face was due to this or the question that Christopher had just asked him but when she followed his gaze and turned round she saw otherwise.

One of the brightly coloured curtains covering the many archways leading off the marble hallway had been flung violently aside – it was almost hanging off the rail. An older man was standing in front of it, dressed in a similar robe to Seth's. The only difference was that his robe had a sort of silver coloured armour over the top of it that reminded Millie uncomfortably of the Arm of Asheth. At that very moment his features were twisted in a glare, but at the same time he actually looked quite shocked, as though he had trouble believing what he saw before him.

"What is the meaning of this?" His voice came out choked with anger. "Guards!"

Christopher moved a few inches closer to Millie to whisper, "I think now is about the right time to leave, don't you?" He moved his hand just slightly, and she felt the felt the telltale gust of air rushing past her face that was so familiar from her Magical Transportation lessons at the Castle. Realising the urgency of the situation, she immediately began her own translocation spell.

Unluckily, the man chose that instant to grab hold of Christopher's arm. Millie sensed his magic disappear as soon as the silver gauntlet made contact with the bare skin of his arm. She remembered too late just how common silver was in this world.

Knowing that there was not a second to waste, Millie reached out with her own magic instead, but at the last possible moment found herself out in the narrow street beside the tall gate again. There was no sign of Christopher. She had absolutely no idea what had just happened, and worse, Christopher was inside, quite possibly still magic-less, and at the mercy of that awful man, and the thought terrified her

She ran back towards the spell-covered wall and let loose with her magic, not caring for secrecy this time. It didn't work this time, however. The spells were swarming too thickly, and no matter how hard she tried her magic wasn't strong enough to get through them. It looked as though security had just been heightened. She thought that even Christopher would have found it difficult. There was no way in, and she had no idea what to do.

A/N: As usual, reviews would be very much appreciated.