Marra's POV:-

'We need to tell Uncle before we do something stupid,' I suggested.

‘We can't!’ said Aar, a vein popping from his forehead. ‘She’s not gonna last out there alone! Every second delayed is a second closer to her death!’

‘Aar – '

‘I’ll go on my own if I have to, bud. I’m not staying here waiting while Bee – why are we talking in the first place?’ He produced his amulet and raised it to his mouth –

I covered the thing in my fist. ‘Fine. Maybe you’re right. Uncle is too old and . . . well, we know what we have to face now.’

‘Do we?’ said Aar. His voice was low, scared.

Niffy poked him in the shoulder. Gestured: What does this all mean? How did she disappear like that?

She still looked quite pale. She had seen Bee vanish out of thin air, after all. And, oh, we haven’t told her – or anyone – about our last year's adventure. Who would believe us?

‘Later, Niffy,' Aar said briefly, turning to me. ‘Mar, get yours. Let's be quick.’

‘Without Es?’ I asked, doubtful. She had been a key factor in our survival on our last trip to Lakoswanion. Besides, her presence alone was soothing.

‘Uh . . . I mean, she doesn’t have her powers anymore, does she?’

Niffy looked confounded. She looked like Aunt May from the Marvel comic books, if Aunt May was slowly piecing together that her nephew was secretly the Amazing Spiderman.

I argued: 'Last time her powers boosted when we got there. This time, who knows if she at least gets some?’

Aar surrendered, clearly in a hurry to get going. ‘Fine. You wake her up.’

I did. She yawned and stretched and kicked me in the jaw before finally getting to her feet. She obviously had dozens of questions, the most prominent of which was: 'Are we going to meet the Bad Woman again?’

This stuck with me, and I replied, 'I hope not.’

We both got our amulets, and the three of us – me, Aar, Es – stood shoulder to shoulder, ready to go on our “rescue mission”, when I saw Niffy, just standing in front of us, looking hapless and terrorized, and something melted inside of me, and I told my companions to stop for a moment.

‘What now?’ roared Aar.

I had to only point at Niffy to make him see the deal. ‘We can't just leave her here,' I said, to be sure. ‘She’s terrified out of her wits, she’ll probably go crazy.’

‘Mar, if we take her, she’ll slow us down a lot. I mean, she can’t even – '

‘Don’t say it,' I told Aar. ‘Don’t.’

He looked down at his feet, shameful. I didn’t blame the poor guy. I was very well aware of his ardent fondness and rapport with Bee – I had made my first two real friends when I was twelve, but these two, they’d been pals since . . . but you already know.

I walked over to Niffy, kept my hand on her shoulders. This time, she didn’t shrug them off.

‘Listen,' I said to her calmly, 'we are going to a dangerous, dangerous place. Also magical. Bee is in grave danger. We need to go save her. No idea if we’ll come back or not. The moment we put that pendant-thingy in our mouth, we’ll be out of reach of everyone on Earth. Do. You. Get. It?’

She just stood there, mute as a defected flute (I still got my rhyme).

‘Uhm, yeah, takes some getting used to. Now - '

She started wildly gesticulating then, and Aar intercepted for me: 'She wants to go with us.’

I sighed. ‘You can't. You'll only - '

Again. ‘She says she won't slow us down or bog us with questions. She says she can’t stay here. Not after what she saw. Did I get that last part right?’

Niffy nodded.

‘What do you say, Aar?’

He shrugged. ‘I say we don’t have time to deliberate. So get Mr. Om's amulet.’

‘For what?’

‘We’re taking her with us, dumbo.’