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made the Queen smile.
    With a casual twist of her hand, the stuff she was holding began to spin and form itself into a funnel which she balanced on her palm – a perfect tiny copy had been spawned, identical to the huge vortex whirling above it. For a moment the Queen played about with it, leaning it this way and that and watching it right itself like a gyroscope, admiring her new toy.
    ‘We call it a Traveller,’ she said, still dallying with it.
    Then, as if by accident, she let it fall.
    As soon as it hit the ground the Traveller began to grow, until it was as tall as the Queen herself. She nodded, satisfied, and flicked her fingers at it. As the Traveller started to move, the three adult G found themselves frozen to the spot, unable to escape in any way. But the thing wasn’t interested in them. It was Eo it wanted. Closer it came, and closer, until the very edge of the Traveller touched him. Eo screamed in terror and the onlookers groaned, but even then it didn’t take him all at once. Instead he began to be drawn out, thinner and longer, as if he were paint dissolving in water that caught and swirled and dragged him in, dragged him round.Even his cries for help became thinner, like a distant wailing, and then he was gone.
    In the silence that followed they could hear the Queen chuckling to herself. She snapped her fingers and the Traveller returned to her, shrinking as it came, until it was as small as when she first formed it. She scooped it up from the sand and showed it to the remaining G. They clustered around, needing to look but sick at the thought of what they might see…
    A tiny Eo was trapped inside, whirled round and round, his face distorted with fear, his hands clawing at the invisible barrier, his body stretched impossibly backwards around the contour of the minute maelstrom. With a sudden jerk, the Kelpie Queen tipped the Traveller into Gladrag’s hands.
    ‘Your throw,’ she said.
    Gladrag yelped and almost dropped it.
    ‘Careful!’ warned Market Jones.
    Hibernation nodded, holding the thing gingerly now in her two hands, as if it might break. She couldn’t stop staring at it and the tiny terrified face that kept swirling past.
    Your throw !’ The Queen’s voice grated. ‘It’s TIME !’
    Market Jones leaned close to the Head of the G and whispered to her from behind his hand. Gladrag closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded. Interrupted Cadence was practically jigging up and down on the spot with anxiety.
    ‘I don’t understand,’ he half-whispered, half-wailed. ‘How can we know when – where to throw it?!’
    ‘NOW !’ shrieked the Queen. ‘ The Tide is turning – can’t you tell?! NOW !’
    ‘Best guess,’ Gladrag muttered – and threw.
    The tiny vortex glinted in the morning sun as it arced from her hand and then fell towards the sand…
    … and disappeared.
    For a moment no one moved. Then the distant, indifferent cry of a gull broke the silence. The G stirred and looked at one another.
    ‘Is that it?’ croaked Interrupted. ‘Is there nothing more we can do? Do we just wait ?’
    Gladrag had already started to nod when the Kelpie Queen laughed scornfully. ‘Why wait when watching’s half the fun?’ she shrilled. She reached into the main vortex, making it scream again as she dragged away a part. She smashed the piece flat between her long hands, then spun it out like pizza dough till it was about the size of an Extra Large.
    ‘A window on the worlds,’ she purred unpleasantly, and flipped the disc on to the beach, where it lay, shiny and vibrating slightly.
    The G looked from the Queen to the disc and back again.
    ‘Er,’ said Hibernation. ‘You’re staying? I mean, aren’t you going back in, er, there?’ She nodded at the Kelpie vortex.
    ‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’ the Queen sneered. ‘You’d like me to just leave you on your own, hatching up some cheat. Well, I don’t choose to do so. I think I’d rather just stay. Settle in a little,