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stopped.
    ‘They’ve gone,’ whispered Charlonge. ‘We should go to Ruzalia.’
    But Naif shook her head. ‘Wait.’
    The three leaned on the chest of drawers, listening. As the moments crawled past, Naif’s skin prickled with fear.
    She’d felt the same sense of wrongness at the Youth Council meeting on Ixion when the Ripers had inducted Markes. Then she’d seen demons appear and crawl from the floor and up Markes’s body. It had happened one other time too, soon after she’d eaten a whole pod.
    Right now she couldn’t see any demons. But it was as though they were hiding just out of her vision, waiting to claw at her.
    She blinked and shook her head. ‘Quickly! Lock the window!’
    Markes charged across the room and wrenched the shutters. Before he could close them a set of hands appeared on the ledge. A head followed the hands, a boy’s face painted with black stripes and a knife blade between his teeth.
    ‘Shut it!’ shouted Charlonge. ‘Shut it.’
    But Markes froze, unsure of what to do. If he closed it the boy would fall.
    Charlonge ran and grasped a large candlestick from the mantelpiece. She smashed it down on the intruder’s knuckles. The boy’s mouth fell open as he moaned and the knife dropped away.
    She hit him again, right across the bridge of the hand, and they heard the crack of his finger bones.
    He screamed and let go. They heard nothing more except the thud as he hit the ground far below the window.
    Charlonge threw the candlestick away and gave a low moan of distress.
    ‘Markes, close it!’
    Naif’s command broke his trance.
    While he slid the bolts across, Naif went to comfort her friend.
    ‘Have I killed him?’ whispered Charlonge.
    ‘You stopped him, Char. He had a knife. You saved us.’
    Markes joined their huddle. ‘I’m s-sorry, Char. I’m not . . . I didn’t know . . . what to do.’
    Charlonge hugged him, crying. ‘It’s all right.’
    They stayed together like that until the banging started on the door again.
    ‘Murderers!’ screamed Rajka. ‘Filthy murderers.’
    Naif went to the door and raised her voice. ‘He came at us with a knife. Why do you want to hurt us?’
    ‘We want our freedom. She can’t make us stay here,’ he said.
    ‘That’s between you and Ruzalia.’
    ‘She won’t listen, but we’ll make her take notice . You will make her take notice.’
    ‘Why would she listen to me?’
    ‘She singled you out tonight. She talked to you. Now come out or we’ll hack the door down!’
    ‘You think she’ll allow you to destroy her home?’ Naif scoffed.
    ‘She’s not here. She took the airship out. We’re getting an axe. By the time she’s back we’ll have you.’
    ‘Ruzalia doesn’t bargain. She’ll come after you.’
    ‘Let her try,’ retorted Rajka. ‘We know what to do.’
    Naif returned to her friends and crouched down. ‘We have to get out of here,’ she whispered.
    ‘How? They’re outside the door and the window,’ said Markes.
    He was still holding Charlonge’s hands. Her eyes were red and swollen from tears and she was trembling.
    ‘What about the ceiling?’ Naif said.
    They looked up. A dusty ventilation grille was in the corner of the ceiling above the door. Charlonge pulled her hand free from Markes’s to cover her eyes. ‘It’s too high. I couldn’t.’
    ‘We’ll slide the desk onto the chest of drawers and then put the chair on top of that,’ said Naif. ‘You’ll be able to manage that.’
    She shook her head; her whole body shook.
    ‘Char,’ said Naif. ‘You just did something really brave to save us. Don’t wait for Rajka to break the door down. You heard what he said. Ruzalia isn’t here. We have to look after ourselves.’
    ‘You don’t understand. It’s the height. In Ruzalia’s airship, I wanted to throw myself over the edge. I c-can’t control the feeling.’
    ‘I’ll tie you to me.’
    She shook her head. ‘Too dangerous. I might kill us both.’
    ‘No, you won’t,’ Naif