There weren't many seats in the old man's cave, so Jack and Ellini settled on the floor. 

She seemed to understand the state he was in, even if he didn't, because she wrapped Darwin's wolf-skin cloak around his shoulders, made him eat some kind of phosphorescent root that tasted of horseradish, and – most importantly – let him wind his arms about her and rest his head against her hair, while the others talked.

There were so many explanations – demanded and forthcoming – that it was no surprise when they all got tangled. Darwin wanted to know who everyone was. Alice wanted to know why the dragons had carried a message from Ellini – and, to a lesser extent, where her husband had been for the past seven years. Val didn't want to know anything. She flounced off as soon as she saw Jack and Ellini holding hands.

And the old man known as Faustus hung back, nursing a small, ominous smile which suggested his explanations were going to blow everyone else's out of the water.

Jack curled up around Ellini in a sulky, possessive way, and said nothing. Little by little, he could feel warmth inching through him again. He hadn't realized how cold he'd been.

James Darwin stood up as if he was chairing a conference, and told them all about the lake of despair, and how he had selflessly pulled Jack out of it. Was he hoping for some praise from his wife? Surely he knew her too well for that.

Alice asked Jack why he'd been wallowing in that lake in the first place, but he would only say, "A favour for a friend". He couldn't say anything about the ring with Ellini here. That was a subject which was going to be even harder to broach than Sita coming back from the dead. If she didn't understand everything else first – the whole 'Ring. Sister. Piano' conundrum – she might think he'd gone looking for the ring just to force her to marry him.

Into this temporary lull, the old man dropped the words: "Wilt hear my tale now, goodly travellers?"

That word 'traveller' made Jack think of the lady, and gave him an involuntary shudder. But he was too weary and happy to heed this gut feeling. Alice was running the show, anyway, and she offered no objection – if a slight, distasteful wince could be classed as no objection.

Faustus started speaking, in language so old, it practically groaned. And Jack tried to listen, he really did – it had just been a long time since he'd been this close to Ellini, and she smelled so good, and his thoughts kept wandering off.

But when Myrrha's name was mentioned, his ears pricked up with the force of cold terror.

He heard that she was Eve's sister, created as a kind of looking-glass to help her answer the question of what she was. She had Eve's curiosity, but it had got perverted somehow. She had started experimenting on human hearts, using the same spell she had used on Jack when she'd caused him to forget Ellini. It was strange – and slightly demeaning – to find out you were just the latest in a long line of men she'd ruined.

And then one of the spell's victims had complained to Eve, and Eve had condemned Myrrha to love a mortal. Lots of goddesses got punished in this way – he knew that from Ellini's stories. Of course, the tragedy of Myrrha's situation was that she wasn't quite a goddess, but nobody could really pin down why.

Jack got the feeling that Faustus had told this story more than once before he'd arrived. Alice and Ellini seemed to know it. The former was looking bored, while the latter looked grimly resigned. She had closed her eyes, as though she was waiting in dread for some contentious point when the story would give way to arguments.

So Myrrha had cut herself off from Eve, to ensure she didn't fall asleep with the other demons and miss the life of Robin Crake. That explained why Elsie hadn't been able to tell him anything about her.

She had then offered Faustus a deal, which still seemed like a suspiciously good one: all her knowledge and experience in exchange for Faustus's journal. She had given everything just to understand how Eve came about.

"She learned therein," said Faustus, "that 'twas Martha who summoned her, by patient reassembling of my icon. All my incantations were as nought next that woman's wit. And she learned to 'vision Martha as one whose life hovers about Eve's like a moth's round a taper. As Eve returns, in her season, so too does Martha – or rather, it is the return of Martha that facilitates the return of Eve."

Here, he turned to Ellini, with something a bit more sober than his usual grin. "She knew thee for Eve's resurrecter, dark lady, long ere the pieces of the doll came to thy hands."

Jack did not want to start any fights. He was too warm, too happy, too fortunately situated. But they were talking about Myrrha, which always made him edgy, and the old man was bringing Ellini into it in a way he didn't quite understand.

"What's he talking about?" he said, in Ellini's ear. "Is he saying you're the reincarnation of his dead housemaid? Would you like me to make him stop saying that?"

"No," she murmured, half-turning towards him. What he could see of her face was very pale.

Now he understood what she'd been dreading. Now he realized that she had looked shaken when he'd first arrived, in a way that his dragon-back entrance, spectacular as it was, couldn't quite account for.

"From the moment she heard of ye," said Faustus, "she has lured you on. She gave you access to her books, to the end that you might learn therein the magic required to wake her sister."

Jack's grip around Ellini's waist tightened. What he was dreading – though his head was spinning too much to come to terms with it at the moment – was that this new-found identity would force her into some kind of sacrifice. The old man would talk about destiny, and it would appeal to her story-book sensibilities, as well as her incurable martyr-complex – or Martha-complex, as it might be called now.

Except that was what she'd been planning all along, wasn't it? That was what he'd had to reconcile himself to. She had always known she was going to Edinburgh to fight Myrrha. This might give her an extra reason, but it wouldn't change anything.

"You don't have to believe any of this," he said.

"I don't believe it," she said quietly, as if she were talking just to him. "At least, I don't believe that part. I know who I am. There isn't a particle of me that remembers being anyone else."

"Tis but the transmigration of souls," said Faustus. "A platonic hypothesis, lady."

"I know what it is." It was reassuring – and quite exciting – to hear the contempt in her voice. For all this man's stories and archaic syntax, Ellini didn't like him.

"It hath one circumstance in its favour," Faustus went on. "Martha died by fire – and, quite by chance, thy tresses kindle flame."

"It isn't by chance!" she said hotly. "It was the fire-mines. The flames usually bleach human hair but, for some reason, mine absorbed them."

"How differs chance from 'for some reason'?"

"I am not your housemaid."

"It is no disgrace," said Faustus. "Nor is't to be Myrrha's plaything, as thou art. She lures thee still, by tossing her followers like golden apples at thy feet, each inspiring you with confidence, each leading north to her stronghold in the Scottish hills. You have been a pawn in her game ere you were grown to womanhood."

Ellini placed a hand on Jack's wrist, as if to restrain him. Or was she trying to restrain herself? Her voice shook a little when she spoke. "No. I haven't been a pawn in her game – or, if I have, it hasn't been the only game in play. Just because her motives coincide with mine, that doesn't mean she's in charge. It doesn't matter if she's been luring me to Edinburgh; I want to go."

"To what end?" Faustus demanded. "To kill her? None but the guardians of Oxford may do that."

"Yes," said Alice breezily, as if she'd been waiting for this. "You mentioned them before. My dear Miss Syal, there's no point arguing with him before he gets to the end of his tedious narrative. Although, as one who's already endured it once, perhaps he would permit me to summarize?"

The old man shrugged. "I would permit thee much, my Darwin."

"Well, then," she swept on. "Let's just say briefly that before Eve's execution, she and the good Doctor devised a way to kill Myrrha using Oxford itself as a weapon. They each appointed a guardian. In the Doctor's case, it was his last descendent – which, he callously informs me, is myself. And Eve appointed a demon, is that correct?"

"Yea, my Darwin."

"And where can we find him?"

The old man shrugged again. It made his shoulders click. "He – or, as it may be, she – is a demon of long life. Such a one as may pass unnoticed in a crowd of men. I know no more. Eve herself may not recall, for she remembers not her previous incarnations."

Alice pressed a hand to her temple. "Well, what was your brilliant plan for finding him, then?"

"Faith, he will make himself known to Eve, as thou did'st to me. I sought thee not, if you recall?"

Alice rolled her eyes and turned back to Ellini. "I don't like his tone any more than you do, Miss Syal, but he makes some practical points. Eve seems only to want to know what she is, but this Myrrha character wants war, which I will not allow. He tells me I was ordained over three hundred years ago to be her murderer, but I will not allow that either. There is to be no more stupidity."

Jack snorted derisively, but he let her go on.

"I would, however, like to speak to this Myrrha. He tells me we must lure her to Oxford, and I'm not at all opposed to that, since it makes sense to meet potentially hostile people in a place we know well."

"I'll go and fetch her," said Ellini.

Jack and Faustus groaned at the same time, but Faustus was the first to speak.

"I fear me it would be a misstep, lady. She seeks to lure thee as I said because she requires thee. Thy bones can make a weapon as will end Eve's repeated lives on earth, for Martha's bones did take her eyes. Have mind, she will not kill thee. But a severed arm will serve her purpose. Boiled down and stripped of flesh and sharpened-"

Jack started to stand up. He couldn't think of any other way to get him to stop talking. But Alice, who was already on her feet, and already buzzing with purpose, put a hand on his shoulder.

"Then I'll go. Jack can provide security, if needed."

Faustus shook his head. "Cannon-fodder. All will fall who dare approach. None can grapple with her save Oxford's guardians in Oxford. She must journey to Oxford – and, being in possession of my journal, she knows she must not. We are at an impasse. I know of only one who may resolve it."

Alice groaned. "If you're going to start talking about Robin Crake again-"

Jack felt Ellini's muscles tense against him. He hated – he hated – that the mere mention of the bastard's name could do that.

"What about Robin Crake?" she asked.

"Oh, everything," said Alice, waving a hand. "All the sordid details of his upbringing-"

"Nay, my Darwin," said Faustus. "Not everything. My knowledge of his history is but slight. Myrrha's every experience is mine also, as a consequence of our bargain, yet the Kraken's history has revealed itself to me but in glimpses. Yet, from my glimpses, I am assured he means her downfall. Moreover, I am assured it is he only whom she loves enough to chase."

"No," said Jack, in a voice so leaden, he was surprised it could get up out of his throat. "Oh no. You know nothing."

It was a mark of just how happy he'd been – how deep an impression the dragons' message had made on him – that he'd lasted this long without shouting. A naked man had been pacing up and down in front of Ellini, telling her she was the reincarnation of his dead housemaid and Myrrha intended to make a demon-slaying weapon out of her bones, and he had held his tongue. But now they were talking about trusting Robin.

"You think a few glimpses of a tragic childhood can teach you anything about Robin Crake? I know him. I know what he does. He lives to make people beg. He thinks that makes him important. He will never oppose Myrrha, because she's stronger than he is. He can't make her beg. Any fight with her would just remind him how weak he is, and he'd rather die than come to that realization."

He could still feel Ellini's tensed muscles next to him. Was she longing to object? He supposed this was the material point. She would never trust Robin, and no wonder, but in order to have spent so long living with him, she must have believed he wasn't working for Myrrha. Why had she believed it? She knew what a coward he was. She knew he had never opposed Myrrha's whims before.

Well, she would go anyway. There was nothing he could do to stop her. Would she change her mind once she'd seen Sita? Your life was a lot to risk when you were fortunate enough to have Sita in it.

But he couldn't count on that. At the very least, he had to get her back to Oxford first, so that the objects destined to save her from her past could – well, do whatever it was they were supposed to do: plead their cases, or work their magic, or whatever.

"Know you of his history, Jack Cade?" Faustus enquired.

"I've known him since I was eight years old and never been surprised by him once."

"What I know, I shall relate. Yet is there much I know not."

Alice had obviously heard this part already, because she pursed her lips and settled her hands in her lap, ready to shudder.

He told them about the seminary, and Miller-neither-Miss-nor-Mrs. It was no worse than Jack had expected – it was milder than some of the things he'd imagined – but it was still, by anybody's standards, not nice.

Did Jack feel sorry for him at any point? Maybe in the seminary, before he'd done anything to deserve the punishments being meted out. But that was the thing: knowing what he'd done to deserve them later, it seemed like retroactive justice, not misfortune. You could never see him as an innocent child, not once you'd seen the full, raging man-child he went on to become.

Mostly, he worried about the effect these disclosures would have on Ellini. She was a soft-hearted thing, especially when it came to the sufferings of children.

But none of it seemed that surprising to her. In fact, he felt the tension in her muscles ebbing away as the story went on. She must have suspected this. Or something similar.

"Well, here's the thing, Doctor Gullible," he said, when Faustus had trailed off into silence. "Suffering doesn't necessarily make you nice. Slavery doesn't necessarily make you rebellious. What you say of him may be true, but it doesn't mean he's going to oppose Myrrha."

"I am of your mind, Jack Cade," said the old man. "Faith, of our welfare, I am sure he cares nothing. Were it not that he desires Myrrha's downfall, I would think him as like to betray us as not."

"Us?" said Jack. "You are not us." He waved a petulant hand at Alice and James. "None of you are. Me and her," he said, putting a hand on Ellini's shoulder, "that's us. We know what it's like to suffer at the hands of this woman. The rest of you are just tourists."

"Oh, don't be so childish, Jack," said Alice. "Are you only qualified to deplore someone's actions if you've been a victim of them? Besides, if victims didn't accept help, they'd never get anything done. Where is Mr Crake now?"

She turned to Faustus as she said this – no doubt because he seemed to be mystically aware of everyone's comings and goings – but Ellini looked at Jack.

"He left Oxford a few days ago," said Jack sullenly. He knew he was in danger of upsetting Ellini with this news, but he was too worked-up to climb down. "When I was underground."

"I thought you said you were going to keep an eye on him?"

"I have been keeping eyes on him," Jack snapped. "I didn't say they'd be my own. I can tell you where he's going, anyway – any idiot could. He'll be in Edinburgh, cosying up to Myrrha."

Alice and Ellini looked at Faustus, as if for confirmation of this.

"Yea and nay," said the old man. "He is without the city walls, and quite alone. He waits."

"For what?"

"Nay, my Darwin. For whom?"

"He's waiting for me," said Ellini, looking half-gloomy and half-apologetic. "If we got separated, we were supposed to meet half a mile outside Edinburgh. There's an Inn."

"He knows of me," said Faustus, as if he couldn't bear to be left out of any explanation. "He knows nought but my city can end her. He has some stratagem, I know not what, designed to lure her there." He looked at Ellini, and added, "It requires thee."

"So what are you saying?" said Jack. "It would be a misstep for her to go to Edinburgh, but she has to go to Edinburgh?"

Faustus spread his hands. It was a pacifying gesture, but the look in his eyes wasn't pacifying at all. Jack suddenly knew, from the pit of his stomach, that they hated each other.

"Such is our impasse," said Faustus.

"Why is there always a bloody impasse?"

"For that it is most difficult for Myrrha and I to out-manoeuvre each other, as she and I are one."

***

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