"WELL, SIX FYGGS down," Nick said. "How many left?"

"Just one, I believe," Erik said, examining my map, which was spread out on the desk of the captain's cabin. "Which is just as well, as we are beginning to run out of civilised locations in which to search."

Cristine shrugged. "If worst comes to worst, we can always just revisit the places we went before we started searching for fyggs."

"The closest place we haven't been yet is Swinedimpes Academy," I said. "What d'you reckon?"

Nick grimaced. "That's not going to be an easy place to get into," he warned. "The people there can be pretty paranoid - terrified that someone's going to come and steal their secrets."

Erik rolled his eyes. "Mortals," he muttered.

I made a mocking face at him.

"Well," Cristine said, interrupting my momentary five-year-oldness, "we could always go here, Wormwood Creek -"

"No."

All three of them looked at me in surprise. "Why not, Tammy?" Cristine asked.

I tried not to flush. "It's just... Haven't you ever spoken to minstrels who've tried to go there?" I asked them. "The whole village hates outsiders. I'd say they're xenophobic, but the thing is, they're not afraid - they're just hateful to anyone who's not from there." Which was entirely true, as I unfortunately knew from experience. We were not going to Wormwood Creek.

"All right, then," Erik said after a moment of silence, "not Wormwood Creek." He examined the map for a second longer, finger lingering on Swinedimples. "How difficult would it be to search here?"

Nick shrugged. "I've never been there myself," he said. "Mum and Dad went, but they just always said that everyone there is really protective of the school's secrets. So honestly, I've no idea. I just know that getting them to let us wander round campus at our leisure isn't going to be easy."

Cristine chewed on her lip, looking northeast. I followed her gaze. Far off, past Hermany and over the area where I knew the academy lay, I could see heavy clouds gathering. It looked like there would probably be snow soon.

"We'll figure out a way," I said finally. "After all, I think we've proved ourselves to be good at winging it. That's just what we'll have to do when we get there. Who knows - maybe they're more open than they were in your parents' days."

"Maybe," Nick said, though I could tell he doubted it.

I rolled up the map and stuck it back in my bag. "I'm ready to cast off when you are," I said, standing up. "Shall we get her ready to sail?"

We were back at sea in under an hour, steering through the channel between Hermany and Gleeba. Cristine was up in the rigging, continually adjusting the sails to try to catch the erratic breezes off the mountains and out of the desert. Nick was on the decks below, where Cristine had told him to stay so that she could take care of the work on her own. Erik was up on the quarterdeck with me, leaning up against the railings with his hands in his pockets.

"Why is it that you do not wish to go to Wormwood Creek?"

It had been half an hour since we'd left the Urdus Marshland, and since neither of us had spoken at all during that time, it took me a second to realise that Erik was talking to me. I looked round. "Huh?"

He raised his eyes to the heavens in a spectacular eye-roll. "Why is it," he said, enunciating each syllable, "that you do not wish to go to Wormwood Creek?"

"I was deaf, not stupid," I said, turning back around. "Why d'you care?"

He made a noncommittal noise that was probably accompanied by a shrug.

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"It's not really something I feel like discussing," I told him without taking my eyes off the sea in front of me. "What I do and don't want to do is my own business. So if you wouldn't mind, I'd like it if you'd not ask me about it."

For a moment, he didn't say anything. I could feel him back there, though, watching me with a quiet, contained sort of frustration. Then I realised that he had moved up beside me, and I scowled over at him. "What, Erik?"

He scrutinised me for a moment. "I do not understand you, Tammy," he said finally. "Most mortals I think I could understand by now; despite their peculiarities, I do not think their base motives are much different from those of Celestrians. But there are too many things about yourself that you hold back for me to ever gain a foothold. As soon as I think I have you figured out, you do something I do not expect, like in Gleeba - or you say something as you did earlier, something that reveals that you are hiding something that I did not know about - and I realise anew that you, Tammy, are a very strange mortal."

"Glad to hear it," I said, turning away from him pointedly. "As if I didn't know it already. I always need reminding of just how bloody weird I am. Thank you." I clenched my jaw, but I wasn't really mad. I was just trying to hide the fact that my throat had gone tight. And I struggled to keep my voice from shaking when I said, "Now, if you're not going to say anything I haven't heard before, please just leave me alone so I can steer the ship without running us aground on all these rocks."

There was a moment while I tried to ignore him and focus on the rocks in the channel which, despite not really being all that dangerous, would still cause a fair bit of damage to the Pride if I hit them.

"That is not how I meant it," Erik murmured finally. "I just... It is not a bad thing to be strange, Tammy. It simply means more work for those who wish to truly know who you are."

And before I could even manage to look up at him in shock, he slipped away down the ladder and towards the front of the ship.


We reached Swinedimples Academy at about lunchtime, as students were streaming out of the main building and into what I assumed was the cafeteria.

There was a grey-haired man standing at the gate, looking down the path eagerly. When we came into sight, he lit up. "Ah, hello," he said as soon as we were in earshot. "And welcome to Swinedimples Academy. I am the headmaster, and you are the ah...detectives, I take it?"

We had a collective blink, but before I could think about it my mouth came out with, "Yes, sir."

Three sidelong glances came my way, but I ignored them. It looked like we had our way into Swindedimples.

"Yes, yes," said the headmaster. "Just as I, ah...surmised. You have an air of, ah...savoir-faire about you. You're skilled sleuths, and, ah...no mistake. Right Well, we can't very well stand out here all day, ah...yakking now, can we? Shall we walk and talk?"

He turned and opened the gate. As we walked in, Nick muttered, "Tammy, what are you doing?"

"Getting us into Swindimples," I whispered back. "Just go with it. Winging it, right?"

He looked doubtful.

"Oh, come on," Cristine whispered. "At least we're in!"

"Now, the issue facing us is this," said the headmaster: "another of our students has, ah...disappeared. That makes two now. If it happens again, I rather fear that the Academy's, ah...reputation may be called into question. It really is rather vexing..."

Disappeared? Erik mouthed.

We all shrugged. I bit my lip.

As we headed through the nearly deserted main hall of the school building, the headmaster said, "But, ah...now that we have experienced detectives on the case, I'm sure it will be solved in no time. A simple missing persons incident shouldn't trouble seasoned, ah...sleuths like yourselves, should it? Of course not. But forgive me, where are my manners?"

I tried to shove down the slew of smart-mouth replies that popped into my head.

"Now how does one address such renowned, ah...gumshoes as yourselves?"

We made quick introductions.

"Must have heard it a thousand times," the headmaster said, nodding. He led us into the office and turned round to face us. "Now, Inspectors, I hate to talk of money, but, ah...please accept a small downpayment on your services." He pulled a bag of coins from where it had apparently been waiting on his desk and handed it to us. I hid my astonishment as I felt how heavy it was. There must have been at least two thousand gold in there!

"Now, all I have told the student body is that a new pupil will be arriving, so your, ah...true identities are safe. I hope you don't mind. I thought they might be more likely to, ah...open up if they thought of you as one of their own. Here is an, ah...uniform. I must remind you that, ah...infringements of uniform policy will result in detention. The school store carries all of this, as you will need more." He gave Erik the bundle of cloth, probably assuming it would fit him best.

Then he cleared his throat. "We have prepared a room for you in the student, ah...dormitory," he said, "but only one, as we were not expecting four detectives. However, there is, an, ah...empty room, left by one of the missing students."

We looked around at each other. Cristine shrugged. "I don't mind sharing a room," she said. "It'd be nice just to have a bed of our own for a little while."

I nodded in agreement.

"Erik?" Nick asked.

"I do not care," Erik said. "The dormitories I am accustomed to are shared by far more than two people."

"All right."

"Thanks, sir," I said, turning to the headmaster. "We'll do our very best, I promise."

He nodded gratefully.

As we headed out of the office, down towards the school store, Stella popped out. "I've heard of getting the wrong end of a stick, but he must have brained himself with it as well! He thinks you're detectives!" She laughed, and then shrugged. "Well, it doesn't matter. If something strange is going on, you can bet your bottom it's all down to a fygg! All right then, Inspector Erik, let's get sleuthing! I bet we can crack open this case in no time! Detectiving's all about legwork, so you'd better have a look round and see what everyone's got to say for themselves."

I shook my head, smiling, and said, "Come on. Let's get uniforms before we get yelled at too much."

"Tammy," Nick said as we headed out, "why did you tell him we were detectives? You know none of us have any idea what we're doing here, right?"

I wrinkled my nose. "I know," I said, "but it came out before I could think about it. Besides, we might be able to help. We've got a detective's best asset - a skill at getting ourselves tangled up in events just as they're trying to get themselves resolved."

"But it was a lie."

I stopped walking and turned to face him. "Look, Nick," I said, meeting his eyes. "There are students here going missing. Even if there isn't a fygg here, we know about this - we can't exactly turn round and leave everyone to their own devices. Who knows how long it could be before the real detective arrives? So either we go back in there, tell the headmaster we're not really detectives, and let people keep disappearing, or we could lie - yes, lie - and have a chance of helping these people." I turned and started walking again. "Lies or lives, Nick. I'm going to help. You can do whatever you like."

Cristine sighed aloud. "You can be really dramatic sometimes, you know that?" she asked.

I laughed. "Yeah, well," I said. "Sometimes it's necessary. Anybody else want a uniform?"

"We're coming - don't be so impatient!"

We made sure that Erik's uniform would fit, and then made our way to the store.

"Okay...we need three blazers, two pairs of slacks, and a skirt," I said to the lady who was working there, a matronly woman closely swathed in furs.

She smiled indulgently. "I'm sorry, dear," she said. "But the uniform policy says that girls have to wear skirts."

I frowned. I hated skirts. But arguing wouldn't do any good.

"Fine, then," I said. "One pair of slacks and two skirts. And the three blazers."

We figured out sizes and bought our stuff. Then we found our dorms, dumped our bags, and changed quickly.

"How are we going to know what our schedules are?" Cristine asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe we ought to go back to the headmaster."

We met back up with the boys in the corridor, passed around a little of the food that we had in our bags, and headed back into the school to get schedules.

So by the time the bell rang for afternoon classes, we were all ready to go.

My first class was Swordfighting, in a huge room to the southeast of the headmaster's office. A powerfully built man in the Swinedimple's teachers' uniform strode in front of the class.

"All right, everyone," he called, "weapons out! Form up - make sure you're at a safe distance from your classmates, we don't want any hospital wing visits this period - good!"

I copied the movements of the people around me, drawing my sword and holding it out in front of me.

The teacher took up a position at the front of the room with his own sword. "Now then," he said. "Ready...let's begin!"

That period was spent in some of the most strenuous work I'd ever done. I'd wielded my sword before, sure, but never very well and definitely not for such an extended period of time. We went through about a thousand different forms slowly, and then quickly, and then slowly again, but making sure we twisted just the right way or pivoted just right on our back foot. My left arm was burning by the end of the period, and I really wanted to rinse off before the next class, but unfortunately we didn't get a chance.

I met back up with Cristine and Nick in my next class, math. We sat at a string of desks right next to each other.

"How was your first class?" Cristine asked while we waited for the bell to ring.

"Tiring," I replied. "But you know, I think by the time we find the missing kids and the fyggs, I'll know how to use a sword without slicing off the arm of the person next to me."

Nick laughed. "Oh, now I feel confident about all these battles we've fought since Erik bought you that thing," he said.

I grinned.

Then a kid on Nick's other side, a small guy with spiky black hair, said, "Hey, you're the new kids, aren't you?"

We looked over at him. "Um, yeah," Cristine said.

The boy nodded. "Well, let me give you some advice," he said. "If you don't want to get beaten up, don't go anywhere near Fred and that lot." He nodded over towards a guy lounging in the hall outside the door, who had messy dirty blonde hair. "He's a right bully, he is."

"Yeah?" I asked, looking out at him.

Cristine looked out, too. She chewed her lip for a moment. "Fred," she murmured. "The name seems familiar... Oh!" Her eyes lit up. "The two students who disappeared - they were in his gang, weren't they?"

"Mh-hm."

"Huh," I said, not looking away from the door. "What a weird coincidence."

A big, mean-looking kid with a bowl cut and a scrawny boy with blue hair had met up with Fred, and the three of them swaggered off down the corridor as the bell rang to start class.

That period, my focus wasn't on math - it was on the new developments in our little mystery.


After supper, Cristine and I were heading back to our room to get homework done. Classes ran all the way til six, when we were released; after that we had supper and then an hour period when we were required to be in either our rooms or the library, taking care of homework.

"I dunno," I was saying. "I just don't think you were quite right about the other programmes. Everything seems great to me."

Cristine shrugged. "Well, I haven't had an elective class yet," she said. "I've got dance tomorrow morning - I suppose we'll see then if it's any good or not."

"I had music this afternoon, right after math," I said. "It seemed good."

Our room was down the end of the corridor, on the right. As I fumbled in my blazer pocket for the key, I heard a voice from inside: "What's goin' on? 'Ow come it's only members of our gang gettin' tooken away?"

My eyes went wide. Cristine and I edged closer to the door, which I realised just then was cracked open slightly. Another boy was talking now.

"Oi, d'you reckon it's true what they're sayin' about it bein' a ghost doin' it?"

"Of course it ain't, divvy," said the first boy derisively. "Why, you scared or summink? Anyway, Fred -" Cristine and I exchanged shocked glances at the name - "I reckon you're prob'ly next on the list. What you gonna do if they come for ya?"

A third boy - Fred, I assumed - laughed cockily. "Ha! Let 'em come! If they reckon they can take me, I'll teach 'em a lesson they won't forget."

"That's the spirit, Fred!" said the first boy. "I knew we could count on you."

"But if someone really wants to get you - which, no offence, I kind of doubt - there's really not much you can do about it now, is there?" I asked, pushing the door open and striding in. Immediately, a chill washed over me, and I raced to hide the surprise I felt when I realised there was a ghost standing behind Fred. It faded away as soon as I spotted it, though, and the temperature returned to normal.

"'Oo are you?" asked Fred agressively. He and the other two advanced on us. "You lookin' for trouble or summink? Get out! Go on, scram!"

I grinned. "I don't have to go looking for trouble. Besides, we don't have to do any scramming - this is our room, genius. What, you just figured it was vacant and all set up for no bloody reason?"

"Oh, you must be the new kids we've been 'earing about," Fred said sulkily. He looked at me for a moment, then at Cristine, and shrugged. "Sorry. We'll get out of yer way. Come on, you lot, shift!"

Cristine and I stepped out of the way of the door so that Fred and his gang could get out. Stella, who had decided she would stay in our room instead of with the boys, popped out and said, "Hey, did you see that ghost? Something's afoot, and it's not just the thing at the end of my leg! Hang on, maybe one of those kids is about to be spirited of! Well, we can't let that happen, can we! Get after them!"

I rolled my eyes. "Homework," I reminded her. "We can't get after them til the end of the hour."

"Huh?" Cristine asked.

I sighed. "Talking to Stella," I said. "Though I don't know why. She listens about as well as a brick wall."

"Hey!"

I grinned. "Come on," I said, "let's hit the books. We can meet up with the boys later and tell them what we heard. You know there was a ghost in the room behind Fred?"


When the hour was up, we headed out and met up with Nick and Erik. We paused in the corridor while some of the students headed out to socialise.

I gave a quick explanation of what had happened when we'd gone to our room. The boys listened quietly, and then Nick nodded.

"Right, then," he said. "All the evidence so far seems to be pointing to Fred's lot as the main victims of this whole thing. I think we need somebody to go in and be a sort of an inside guy - someone who can tell us what's going on with the gang, if anything. Odds are they're just a bunch of idiots trying to get by easy, but you never know. And even if they are, if someone's on the inside we might be able to figure out what's going on if someone else disappears."

"So who're we volunteering?" I asked.

Three pairs of eyes turned my way silently.

My eyes went wide. "What - no. You're joking!"

"Come on, Tammy," Cristine said. "You could do it no problem! It wouldn't be that hard."

"She is right," Erik said. "I could see you as a member of their gang. Butch, rude -"

"I can see a fist shoved through the back of your mouth if you don't shut it."

"And violent, as well. She would be perfect."

I scowled at him. "I'll do it," I said. "You don't need to be a pain about it."

Cristine beamed. "All right!" she cheered. "Now we just have to find them and convince them to let you in."

"Leave that to me," I said. "I'll figure something out. Besides, it would probably be better if I went on my own - less suspicion, you know?"

The others nodded. "I'm going down to the library," Cristine said. "It'll be a good idea to do some research on any ghosts that might be here. Who knows, maybe we'll find something good about the one you said was in our room."

They started to head off, but I caught Erik's arm before he could get too far. "Erik," I said under my breath. "What did you mean earlier, on board the Pride?"

"What?" he asked, turning. "Oh. I... Nothing. It meant nothing. It was merely something I thought you ought to know. Should you not be going to find Fred and the gang?"

He pulled away hastily and headed down the corridor before I could say anything else. I stared after him as he left.

No, Erik, I thought. You didn't mean nothing. People don't get that flustered over nothing.

Who did you mean by people who wish to truly know who I am...?


Well, that was fast! I've been trying to work fast on this chapter, though, because tomorrow and Wednesday are going to be pretty packed. But it'll be the fun kind of packed, at least, not like last-three-weeks-of-school packed.

Anyway...may all the bodies of the heavens watch over you!