Eduardo really felt the weight of expectation when he saw that the ghost beacon and Itzel's tablet had been placed side by side on the coffee table, while Peter, Ray, Roland and Garrett were sitting on or near the couch like an audience awaiting the start of a play. Eduardo obliged them by going to the other side of the coffee table, sitting cross-legged on the floor and tentatively picking up the ghost beacon. He gave it a look of deep mistrust.

'It probably won't work if you handle it like a bomb,' said Roland.

'It is like a bomb,' said Eduardo.

'It'll be fine,' said Peter. 'If anything goes wrong, we have our weapons right over there, see?'

'We thought we'd better not put on a show of force by actually having them on us,' added Ray. 'But they're well within reach.'

Kylie knelt down on the floor beside Eduardo and rubbed his upper arm. 'It'll be okay, babe.'

'Well, here goes nothing.' Eduardo activated the ghost beacon, and when it filled the room with its loud noise and garish red light, his face registered absolute horror. 'Oh, God!'

Kylie clearly found his discomfort comical, for she dropped her forehead onto his shoulder and laughed. Eduardo was glad, as it evidently meant the ghost beacon hadn't triggered a post-traumatic stress reaction, and he laughed too. So did everybody else, for it was contagious, cutting through the tension of the moment and helping them all to feel a lot better.

'You didn't tell us, Ky,' said Eduardo.

'You didn't ask,' she said.

'It's so loud!'

'Yeah, I guess it is.'

'It's like a really small, really off-putting lighthouse,' said Eduardo, bringing on a fresh bout of laughter from Kylie.

'Oh, right, a lighthouse,' said Roland. 'Because it's a beacon.'

'Some beacon!' Eduardo was holding the thing at arm's length with an expression of deep mistrust. He looked at Ray. 'Are you sure this is attractive to anything that's not evil?'

As if on cue, Slimer appeared on the scene and began hovering about the beacon, staring at it and making 'ooh' and 'aah' noises.

'Or insane,' Eduardo added, impatiently swatting him away with his free hand, but Slimer dodged his efforts whilst staying as near as he could to the beacon.

'Sweetie,' said Kylie, in wheedling tones, rubbing Eduardo's arm again, 'I know I laughed, but let's take this seriously now. It probably won't work with that attitude.'

'Remember,' said Ray, 'you want to talk to Lu–... to Itzel.'

'I do.' Eduardo stopped swatting at Slimer and took the ghost beacon into both hands, looking at it and trying to get used to it. 'I do want to talk to her. Itzel, quiero hablar contigo.'

That did it: Itzel's form appeared suddenly above the coffee table, then sidestepped it and came down to ground level. Eduardo hastily shut off the ghost beacon and loosened his grip on it; Kylie caught it on its way to the ground and placed it on the coffee table. Slimer came out of his trance and backed off towards the kitchen, wary of the strange ghost. Ray took a PKE reading, without Itzel noticing, and nodded reassuringly at the company in general and Kylie in particular.

Itzel looked down at Eduardo where he sat, and he looked guardedly up at her. Then, suddenly, her round face broke into a smile. 'Quieres hablar conmigo?' You want to talk to me?

'Sí,' Eduardo said tentatively. Then he looked at Peter and Ray. 'What do I want to say to her?'

'I don't suppose she speaks any English?' said Ray.

'I doubt it,' said Eduardo, 'but I'll ask.'

'I can do that,' said Garrett, still stinging a little from Peter's earlier comment about listening. He looked at Itzel. 'Hablas inglés?'

Itzel looked back at him. 'Qué quieres decir?'

'Okay,' said Garrett, 'so she doesn't even know what I mean by that.' He looked at Eduardo. 'Right?'

'Right,' said Eduardo. 'So, what else?'

'Tell her hi and we're all happy to meet her,' said Roland.

'Um... okay.' Eduardo reiterated this to Itzel, and then introduced them all by name. 'Mi llamo Eduardo; le presento a Peter, Ray, Garrett, Roland y Kylie.'

'Hola,' they all said politely, and Itzel returned the greeting with a smile.

'Okay,' said Peter, 'that's the introductions out of the way. Now we need to know how we can help her. Ask her... um... oh, I know. Ask her how long she and Gaspar have been in conflict.'

Throughout the conversation, Eduardo translated efficiently, both he and Itzel overcoming the dialectical differences between them without difficulty. When he reiterated Peter's question to her, she replied in Spanish, 'Conflict? Only from today. We haven't seen each other for a long time.'

'When did you last see each other before this?' asked Ray.

Itzel shook her head. 'A long, long time ago. I don't know how much. But I'm sure I've been longer without him than with him.'

'Were you together while the tablet was still intact?' asked Ray. 'And when it broke, you were separated? That would seem to make sense.'

'I don't know. I suppose that must be right.' Itzel gazed down at her own half of the tablet, then looked around for Gaspar's, which she soon saw had been propped up on a shelf against some book spines. 'Where is this place?'

Eduardo reiterated the question, and then answered it himself: 'Nueva York... más al norte.'

'Further north?' said Itzel. 'That's where he went... before he came back and married me. Then we stayed in the south. How did our tablet get here?'

'Same way I did,' said Eduardo, first in Spanish and then in English, for the benefit of his listeners. 'Via my parents. Well, his half did. I have no idea how the other one ended up in Brooklyn.'

'Were they happy?' asked Peter. He addressed his questions to Eduardo rather than to Itzel. 'Before the tablet split, were they happy together?'

'Oh yes,' Itzel said simply. 'I've been lonely without him. And now I come here to find...'

'Seguir,' Eduardo said invitingly – go on – before he bothered to translate.

'He's back to his old ways,' said Itzel. 'Shouting and blustering and saying rude things about this poor girl.' She gestured towards Kylie. 'Completely uncalled for.'

'Thanks, Itzel,' said Kylie. 'Gracias.'

'Then he wasn't like that before?' said Ray.

'Not after he came back,' said Itzel. 'Before that, yes, he was exactly like that.'

'What exactly happened?' asked Kylie. 'From the beginning. Tell us the whole story.'

Before translating this, Eduardo gave her a look. He had guessed, quite correctly, that she was at least as interested in hearing about his family history as she was in helping its instigators. Kylie answered the look with an endearing smile, and Eduardo turned back to Itzel with the request.

'When Gaspar first came to my village,' said Itzel, 'I never would have imagined I'd end up married to him. He was a conquering soldier, as you may know. And he was one of the worst. He was looking for the Cities of Gold... hidden cities that they believed could be reached by following a series of complicated clues left by an extinct race, or almost extinct... I never quite understood about any of that.'

'Never mind,' said Ray. 'We don't need that much detail.'

'There were three children that the Spaniards said could find the way,' Itzel went on. 'A Spanish boy, an Inca girl and a black-skinned boy... I'm not clear on where he came from. These children came to our village, and then came Gaspar, with a man named Gomez. They had no other soldiers with them... he told me later that they'd broken away to look for the gold. Gaspar held the women hostage inside one of our houses, and said he'd let us go in exchange for the little Inca girl, Zia. He was going to force her, and the other two children, to show him the way to the City of Gold.'

'You okay, babe?' asked Kylie, giving Eduardo a rub on the back as a sort of resigned weariness came into his voice.

'This Gaspar guy sucks,' he said.

'Qué?' said Itzel, so Eduardo reiterated his sentiment to her. She nodded. 'That's just what I was thinking. So, when I noticed a rock by my feet, about this big,' she mimed holding something about the size of a grapefruit, 'I picked it up and threw it at him.'

A spark of life came back into Eduardo's voice as he gave the translation.

'Muy bien!' said Garrett.

'Then what happened?' asked Kylie.

'The other women picked things up and threw them as well,' said Itzel. 'Pots and spoons and things of that nature. Then the other two children came and tried to get Zia away from Gaspar and Gomez. They weren't able to do it on their own... I don't know exactly what happened. When they had the children, the men let us go, but we couldn't just leave them there. Once we were out of the house, I saw the back of Gaspar's head through the window – he was standing right next to it – so I picked up the biggest stick I could find and hit him with it. I could have killed him, but I suppose his head was stronger than my arm.'

Eduardo was positively grinning now.

'Then we all came back in with sticks and helped the children to escape,' Itzel went on. 'We beat Gaspar and Gomez right to the ground. The children didn't want us to kill them, though, so we let them tie them up.'

'Well, I'm glad you didn't kill them,' said Kylie, wrapping both her arms around Eduardo's shoulders and giving him a squeeze.

'So was I, in the end,' said Itzel. 'But not for a long time. Gaspar and Gomez escaped, and went after the children... I don't know exactly what happened next. He never told me the details... just that the children found the first City of Gold, and he and Gomez got nothing. That was when they sailed north... when they came to your part of the world... to look for the second.'

'They didn't go by land?' said Peter.

'The fastest way was by sea,' said Itzel.

Eduardo added to this, only in English, 'I really think she's a Mayan. They lived right out on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico: Belize, Guatemala, southern Mexico, that kind of thing.'

'Close to Cozumel,' said Roland. 'That's where your cousin lives, right?'

Eduardo nodded, then said to Itzel, 'No importa. Seguir, por favor.'

'They didn't find the second city,' said Itzel. 'They didn't even come close, since those children got away from them. And then Gaspar came back. He came courting.'

'We kind of knew that, didn't we?' said Garrett. 'But... if you don't mind me saying so, Itzel... I don't get why you gave him the time of day.'

'He was different,' said Itzel. 'Humbled. He said all the lust for gold had gone out of him, and without it, he had no need to fight and threaten any longer. He said that another idol had replaced the golden one in his heart: me. He hadn't stopped thinking about me since he left... at least, that's what he told me.'

'Even though you threw a rock at him and hit him with a stick?' said Roland.

Itzel smiled. 'Because of that, he said. He said he'd never met a woman like me, and if that was how I treated a bad man, he wanted to see how I would treat a good one. Oh, I didn't give in to him straight away – don't think that. I made him prove to me that he really was a good man.'

'And you decided in the end that he was,' said Kylie. 'You must have.'

'Yes,' said Itzel. 'I fell in love with him, and we married. But when more Spaniards came, they wouldn't accept me. They said I was unsuitable because I wouldn't behave like a Spanish woman. Gaspar never even tried to make me; he said he'd married me for love, not to make me Spanish, as other men did. That was what he said to me. But for them, he had that tablet carved, to show them something they could call "official"; he gave me a Spanish name for them to call me by, though he never used it himself out of their hearing. He wanted them to accept me, but he also didn't want me to change. I became as Spanish as I was prepared to be, especially when we had children to raise. But I never quite sat right with them... except for my husband.'

'All right,' said Peter, 'I think we're getting somewhere. Gaspar doesn't like Kylie because... well, because she reminds him of his wife. But it really sounds like he loved her, so... what gives?'

'It probably has to do with her never being accepted by Gaspar's people,' said Ray. 'He hated that and perhaps, to some extent, he wished Itzel was more like a Spanish wife... although at the time, he thought better of those feelings and managed to suppress them.'

'Right,' said Kylie, 'and since he and Itzel have been separated, he's forgotten why he loved her and those bad feelings have come to the surface. Then when I came along, that was enough to bring him out.'

'Okay,' said Roland, 'so if we released Gaspar... say, what was his first name, anyway?'

Eduardo asked Itzel the question, and she blinked in confusion. 'Primer nombre?'

'Didn't he have a name besides Gaspar?' asked Roland. 'Like Eduardo or Carlos or Juan or Alfredo or –?'

'Enough, man.' Eduardo raised his hand in a halting gesture. 'I'll explain,' and he put the question to Itzel.

She shook her head. 'Everyone just called him Gaspar.'

'Okay,' said Ray, 'that's that question answered. What else were you going to say, Roland? If we released Gaspar...?'

'I was just thinking,' said Roland, 'could we help him come to terms with his decision? Remind him of why he chose Itzel over his Spanish contemporaries? That should do it.'

'He doesn't deserve her,' said Eduardo. 'Let's put him in the containment unit – she's better off without him.' He did not repeat this in Spanish.

'Sweetie,' said Kylie, rubbing his arm some more, 'we should ask Itzel what she wants.'

Eduardo sighed heavily. 'Right,' and he asked.

Itzel also sighed, then answered, 'I want it to be like it used to be. Before I lost him. Perhaps we weren't in his Heaven, or my Underworld... perhaps we were both left behind in this world because we couldn't go to the next one together... but wherever it was, we were happy. A long time ago.'

'Then we have to let him out,' said Roland.

'Okay, but then what'll he do?' said Eduardo. He was no longer translating for Itzel. 'I don't think he's gonna be reasonable.'

'Itzel can talk to him,' said Roland.

'She already tried that,' said Eduardo.

'That's right, she did,' said Kylie. 'He just wouldn't listen to her.'

'That is so typical of the men in my family,' said Eduardo.

'Not all of them,' said Kylie, giving him another squeeze.

'You just really don't want to let him out, Eduardo, do you?' said Ray.

Eduardo thought about this for a moment. Then he said, 'I wouldn't mind... for her sake,' and he gestured to Itzel, 'if there was any reason to believe he'd behave. But he won't – I'm sure of it.'

'Sweetie,' Kylie said gently, 'he's not your brother.'

'No,' said Eduardo, 'he's worse, because he's four hundred years more out of touch!'

Itzel looked at him. 'Qué pasa?'

Eduardo summarised their conversation for her, and then gave her reply to the others. 'She says she can try to talk to him again, and that maybe being trapped has calmed him down. But I don't think so. Being trapped doesn't calm anyone down, does it? It just makes them worse.'

'Okay,' said Roland, 'let's look at this logically. What are our options? Either we put Gaspar in the containment unit, and Itzel has to do without him for the rest of eternity. But that seems awful hard on her.'

'I'm sure she'd adjust,' said Eduardo.

'Eduardo!' Ray said admonishingly.

'The man's an animal!' said Eduardo.

'Or,' Roland went on, 'we can let Gaspar out and see what happens. Or else... well, I guess we can put them both in the containment unit.'

'Both of them?' said Kylie. 'As in, her as well?'

'What's so terrible about that?' said Roland. 'Siren's in there, remember, so she can be with her sister. It'd be just like that.'

'Like Siren...' said Eduardo, with a slight shake of the head.

Roland narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him. 'What do you mean?'

'What? Nothing,' said Eduardo. 'I didn't say anything.'

'What about Siren?'

'Nothing!'

'You know something!'

Eduardo looked away and folded his arms across his chest. 'How could I know something?'

'Because... because you were in the containment unit!' said Roland, getting to his feet in his excitement and pointing an accusing finger at Eduardo. 'You saw her, didn't you?'

'Um,' said Eduardo. 'Yeah, okay, I did.'

'And...?'

'She was fine.'

Kylie sat back on her heels, taking her hands off him for the first time since she had picked up the ghost beacon, and sighed. 'Eduardo...'

'If that's true,' said Roland, a dangerous undertone in his voice, 'what's wrong with my idea of letting Itzel and Gaspar go in there together?'

Eduardo took a deep breath while he gathered his thoughts. Then he said, 'We can do that any time. They're not physically harming anybody, like Siren and Banshee were – we can afford to see what they do outside the containment unit first.'

'So,' said Ray, 'you're saying we should release him?'

'I guess I am,' said Eduardo. Then, after a pause, 'Yes, fine, let him out. She can spend the rest of eternity with an asshole who makes everybody miserable if she wants to – it's no skin off my nose.'

With that, he got to his feet and stalked off, making his way downstairs to the lobby. Everyone else watched him go, including Itzel, who was looking absolutely baffled by this point.

There was an awkward silence. Then Peter said, 'Eduardo went into the containment unit?'

Neither Roland nor Kylie seemed inclined to answer that, so Garrett said, 'Yes.'

'He never told me that,' said Peter.

'Eduardo doesn't tell people things,' said Kylie.

'Pardóneme,' said Itzel. She was looking at Garrett. 'A dónde ha ido?' Where has he gone?

Garrett shook his head. 'No sé.' I don't know.

'Lo necesimatos!'

'I don't know that one,' said Garrett, to the English-speakers in the room.

'Necesimatos... necessary,' said Ray. 'I guess she means we need him.'

'Well, he's gone,' Kylie said stiffly. 'We'll just have to not need him. Can someone else let Itzel know what we're planning to do? Maybe she can get it from the Latin.'

'The Latin for release, or free, is libero,' said Ray. 'As in, liberate... so, she could maybe get it from the English, too.'

Itzel raised her eyebrows. 'Liberación?' She gestured to the trap on the coffee table.

'Sí,' said Peter, now in the mood to try speaking a little Spanish himself.

Itzel beamed at this. 'Gracias!'

'De nada,' said Garrett. Then, to the others, 'There, you see? Who needs Eduardo?'

'All right,' said Ray, 'so... let's do it.'

Nobody moved.

'Oh, great,' said Peter. 'Nobody wants to be the one to push the button.'

'I wonder why not,' said Garrett.

'Well,' said Roland, 'why don't you want to, Gar?'

'I really don't know.' Garrett looked at the trap for a moment, then wheeled himself up to it. 'Okay, I'll do it.'

He pressed the release button. A beam of light exploded from the trap, and out came Gaspar, ranting and raving, looking around for the one who had trapped him and, of course, not finding him. The five remaining Ghostbusters all had a good look at Gaspar, particularly Kylie, who was the most curious and hadn't fully taken in his appearance outside the Riveras' house.

She had seen that he was a big, square-set man in a rather intimidating red shirt; she now silently formed the opinion that his muscular frame was excessive and, in this way, he reminded her of Carl. Those two also had moustaches in common (not genetic, she knew, but even so); unlike Carl's, Gaspar's extended down into a small ducktail beard (by no stretch of the imagination, Kylie told herself, could it be called a goatee). She saw little of Eduardo in him, but a very Spanish nose tied all of them together: Gaspar, Eduardo, Carl and Carl's son Kevin, whom Kylie had not seen that day. After forming this thought, she looked over at Itzel and decided there was nothing left of her in those particular descendants, except perhaps that her hair was closer to theirs in colour: a medium brown rather than Gaspar's darkest black. Eduardo's hair was something between the two, Kylie thought: a sort of rich, chocolatey colour, nice-smelling and lovely to run your fingers through...

But then, suddenly, something about Gaspar reminded her that she was feeling frustrated with Eduardo just at that moment. Itzel was trying to talk to him reasonably – this Kylie could tell, though she couldn't understand the words – and Gaspar was standing tight-lipped, with his massive arms folded across his even more massive chest.

'You've forgotten why you fell in love with me,' Itzel was saying, in Spanish too rapid even for Garrett to pick up more than a word or two at long intervals.

'Pah! Of course I have,' said Gaspar. 'I've had centuries to think it over, and I can't imagine why I let you lure me away from my quest for gold!'

Itzel scowled. 'I didn't lure you.'

'Ah! That's it, isn't it?' Gaspar unclasped his arms to point an accusing finger at her. 'You're a pagan witch! You beguiled me with your dark arts!'

'How can you say that to me?' Itzel was truly stung. 'You really are just like the other Spaniards!'

'I always was.' Gaspar folded his arms again, and turned his head from her. 'Until I met you.'

'You always said you were glad you met me,' said Itzel, her eyes pleading with him.

Gaspar shook his head and refused to answer her.

'You said you loved me.'

He turned his whole body away.

Itzel's pleading look turned to a glare. 'You can't have it all your own way!'

'Oh, can't I?' said Gaspar, and looked around at the strangers who were watching him. He was still wondering at the absence of Eduardo, but this went to the back of his mind when his eyes fell upon Kylie. He gestured to her. 'I'll do as I like, starting with her. From now on, there will be no more women like you mixing with my bloodline.'

'You leave Kylie alone!' said Roland, who had understood Gaspar's tone and gesture well enough, though not his words. This attracted both the ghosts' attention, while Garrett edged towards the proton packs a few feet away.

Gaspar looked round at them all like he might look at a small colony of insects. Then he said scathingly, 'English!'

'American,' said Garrett.

'Qué?'

'We speak English, anyway,' said Ray. 'Do you?'

Gaspar sniffed, then said, 'A little.'

'Why are you here?' said Ray. 'Is there something you want?'

'I want gold!' said Gaspar.

Garrett looked at his teammates. 'This guy's insane.'

'And I want these damned women to... to... comportarse!'

Ray thought out loud. 'Comportment... behaviour... behave themselves?'

Kylie gave a snort of derision. Gaspar turned and looked at her sharply.

'What have you to say?' he demanded.

Kylie opened her mouth.

'Too much, I know!' said Gaspar. 'Putita!'

'Oh, that was it!' Kylie told the others. 'That was what he called me earlier.'

Itzel rejoined the conversation at this point, raging against Gaspar in a tirade of Spanish.

'I didn't learn that one at school,' said Garrett.

'I'm not surprised,' said Peter, and Kylie looked at him with raised eyebrows. Remembering his promise to Eduardo, he added, 'I mean, it's something vulgar, surely. You can tell.'

Gaspar turned away from Itzel once more, tuning back in to the English. 'Vulgar? Ah, same in Espanish. Yes, she is vulgar!'

Peter scowled at him. 'That's not what I said.'

'Okay,' said Garrett, 'we tried, but the dude can't be reasoned with! I have had more than enough of him,' and he made a grab for the nearest proton gun.

Gaspar was too quick for him. His form dissolved, and a moment later reappeared behind Kylie with a hand at her throat. Had he been corporeal, such a hand might well have been enough to snap the neck of a woman her size without even meaning to, and the initial idea of this was enough to make her cry out in alarm while the others gave shouts and gasps of dismay. Physically, however, she did not feel in mortal danger, just a little cold and very uncomfortable. Still, Gaspar had achieved his aim of protecting himself; Garrett couldn't get a clear shot.

'Gaspar!' said Itzel. 'Libérala!'

'La escuchaste.' Eduardo, drawn by the sound of Kylie in danger, had appeared at the top of the stairs. You heard her.

Gaspar's eyes shifted over to Eduardo, and he gave an unpleasant little smile. 'Tu la quieres?'

Kylie could decipher that much – You want her? – and she half expected Eduardo to refuse to dignify it with an answer; he certainly would have done so if his brother asked him such a stupid and scathing question. But to Gaspar he said, 'Tú lo sabes.' You know it. 'Por favor!'

He would soon come to berate himself for this, as Gaspar was clearly in a mood to disdain any pleas for mercy, but really, there was no better alternative. Gaspar curled his lip at Eduardo and ran his free hand over Kylie's hair, smelling it (or pretending to) in a gesture that was clearly meant to incite both fear and fury. She shivered with cold and revulsion, while Eduardo's hackles rose as Gaspar had intended.

Then, suddenly, Gaspar and Kylie both vanished.

There was a stunned silence.

A moment later, before panic could set in, Itzel said quickly, 'La piedra.'

'The stone,' Eduardo translated, almost a reflex now, and walked zombie-like over to the bookcase where he reached down Gaspar's half of the tablet. He looked at it, and then at Itzel. 'Imposible.'

She shook her head. 'No, no, es posible.'

Eduardo looked at Ray. Ray, who until that point had been looking at Eduardo, shifted his gaze and saw that all eyes were now upon him.

'Well, there's one way to find out,' he said. 'If the PKE meters say Gaspar's in there, then Kylie must be with him in some way, shape or form.'

Eduardo had now frozen to the spot, so Roland took a PKE meter over to him and the tablet, and took the reading. He then turned back to Ray. 'How do we get her out?'

Eduardo put the same question to Itzel. 'Cómo la sacamos?'

Itzel and Ray exchanged a look, questioning each other. Eduardo saw this, put the tablet down – gently, for Kylie's sake, though he really wanted to hurl the thing at the nearest wall – and once more walked away.

Kylie found herself in what appeared to be a timber-framed house, simply furnished to her eyes, though perhaps quite extravagant by Mayan standards. The focal point of the room was a large table and set of chairs, both sturdily built, and on the nearest wall were a stone fireplace and a smaller table that held a pewter pitcher, pottery tableware and steel knives. Hanging from the ceiling was a glass lantern in which a candle was burning, and close to this was a doorway that seemed to lead to another room. The windows were dark, and Kylie almost wanted to go to one and see what was outside, but she knew she couldn't escape that way and she was too afraid to feel really curious.

She was afraid because Gaspar was there, leaning against a wooden pillar that supported the ceiling, looking inscrutably at her with his arms folded across his chest.

'Puedes ir...no... entrar... um... okay!' Garrett turned his chair sharply away from Itzel and looked across the room at Roland and Ray; they had put their heads together, quite literally, over a book about Celtic standing stones. 'Didn't anyone else take Spanish in high school?'

'I did.' Peter was hovering by the spiral staircase, keeping one eye on the landing above him. 'I don't remember anything except sí and hola and... no, wait, that's it.'

'Perfect,' Garrett said acidly.

'It was a long time ago,' said Peter. 'You'll forget too. You've already forgotten half of it, haven't you?'

'This isn't helping to get Kylie back,' said Roland, looking up from his book.

'Nor is looking at books about runes and standing stones,' said Peter. 'That tablet thing's not either of those.'

'No,' said Ray, 'it's completely anomalous. But it is made out of stone, and that's all we have to go on right now.'

Peter looked sceptical for a moment, then asked Garrett, 'What are you trying to say to Itzel?'

'I was wondering if she could go into Gaspar's half of the tablet,' said Garrett.

'I'd assume not,' said Ray.

'So would I,' said Garrett. 'So would she, probably. I'll bet she hasn't tried it.'

'Right,' said Peter. 'Definitely worth a try. Perhaps I'd better go see if I can get Eduardo down here.'

'No need.' Eduardo appeared on the spiral stairs and mooched down them, then to the middle of the room. 'How can I help?'

'Translate,' said Ray.

'Can do,' said Eduardo. 'Hit me.'

'Well,' Ray began, 'Garrett was wondering –'

'Why is it just me?' said Garrett.

'You were wondering,' said Ray.

'And none of the rest of you are?' said Garrett.

'Well,' said Ray, 'I don't think it's gonna work. But it's worth a try,' he added quickly, turning his gaze back to Eduardo. 'And anyway, it can't hurt. We just want to see if Itzel can get into Gaspar's half of the tablet.'

Eduardo put the question to Itzel.

'Id debuto,' she said. 'Experiar.' I doubt it. I'll try. Eduardo didn't bother to translate that.

Itzel's form became suddenly less substantial and flew at Gaspar's half of the tablet, where it was lying flat on the bookcase just as Eduardo had left it. A moment later, she reappeared in her most substantial form, looked at Eduardo and shook her head apologetically.

'Gracias por intentarlo,' said Eduardo. Thank you for trying. Itzel smiled sadly, went over to him and began stroking his hair in a maternal gesture. This made Eduardo feel cold and a little uncomfortable, but he didn't stop her.

'They were in there both together once,' said Roland. 'Before it was broken, obviously. So... can we fix it? Then can Itzel go in and get Kylie out that way?'

'You can't fix stone,' said Eduardo.

Roland frowned at him. 'That's not helpful.'

'It's more helpful than pretending it might work,' Eduardo bit back. 'If it was metal or even fabric, we could bind it back together with more of the same stuff. But you can't do that with stone.'

'Well, hold on,' said Peter. 'They restore stone statues, don't they, when the arms drop off or something? Yes... yes, they do – I'm pretty sure Dana did that when she worked at the art museum. Or at least she saw someone else do it.'

'Great,' said Ray. 'Call her and ask.'

'Okay,' said Peter, and he headed up the spiral stairs to the nearest phone.

'We'll all keep thinking,' said Ray, 'in case it doesn't work. Although it might,' he added bracingly.

Eduardo flopped onto the couch, dropping out from under Itzel's motherly caress, where he sat staring into space and shaking his head.

'Hey, come on now,' Ray said to him. 'Don't give up already.'

'I haven't,' said Eduardo. 'I'm thinking.'

'You could ask Itzel to keep thinking too,' said Roland.

Eduardo looked up at Itzel. 'Sigues pensando?'

'Oh, sí.'

'She is.' He was silent for a beat, then said, 'I wonder what he's doing to her.'

'Don't think like that,' said Ray. 'That's the worst thing you can do. You'll imagine all kinds of terrible things, and then it'll turn out none of them are true anyway.'