I decided instead to try and clear the cobwebs from my head and go for a wander around to Balud’s little shop. He’d been tasked with trying to find a weapon that might help defeat Endor. I could surmise by his absence at this morning’s meeting that he’d come up short thus far, but at least it gave me some sort of vague purpose.

The sun was high in the sky and blazing down with the full heat of summer. Dappled shadows danced across the pavement with each passerby, and the streets were busy with the glowing faces of contented tourists. None of it was making me feel particularly happy. I strode along, taking elongated steps in order to reach my destination as quickly as possible. I resolutely refused to get out of anyone’s way. The determination must have been visible on my face because virtually everyone maneuvered themselves out of my path. At one point, a sullen looking teenager seemed intent on playing chicken, heading straight for me and clearly refusing to get out of my way. When he was barely two feet from me, however, something in my face made him change his mind, and he hopped to my left with an elaborately heavy sigh. I knew I was being an idiot, but if I could control nothing else in my life then I was damn well going to control where I chose to walk. It was probably just as well that I arrived at the alleyway where Balud’s shop was located before anyone decided to take me on.

As per usual, the little street was deserted. I stalked down to the door and rapped on it sharply. When there was no immediate answer, I knocked again. From within came a sound of clattering and muttered expletives. Well, at least the little troll was in.

When the door eventually opened, and Balud peered out, I remained standing on the doorstep, hands on my hips. “Didn’t you get the memo?”

He stared at me, unblinking.

“Hello? Balud? There was a council meeting just now. Why weren’t you there?”

He slammed the door shut. I only just had enough time to jump out of the way to avoid being thwacked yet again in the face. Okay. Perhaps I needed to calm down a little and be nicer. I knocked again, albeit more gently this time.

The door opened half an inch. “I’m sorry,” I called in through the gap. “I’ve been having a bad day. Well, a bad week. More like a bad year. I didn’t mean to sound so tetchy.”

Silence answered me. I tried again. “I was just wondering if maybe you’d made any headway in finding something to defeat Endor. You know, the necromancer chappie? The one who might kill us all if we don’t stop him?”

The door opened a fraction more.

“You did say that you were going to look for some kind of materials that might help us,” I coaxed, “you know, being the best Otherworld weapons shop that the country has to offer, and all.”

Clearly, flattery will get you everywhere. A small gnarled hand finally snaked out and beckoned me inside. Grateful, I stepped over the threshold and the door banged loudly closed behind me. I jumped, startled.

“This might have once been the best weapons shop,” the troll grunted. “It’s not anymore.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

He snatched up a glossy sheet of A5 paper and thrust it in my face. “Look.”

My eyes scanned it. It was an advert for Wold’s Weaponry. ‘THE BIGGEST RANGE AND THE BEST PRICES’ proclaimed the banner in capital letters. I smacked myself in the forehead. “The Batibat’s shop is still open,” I said, surprised.

It hadn’t even occurred to me. Endor had forced the Batibats to work for him, including through this shop, as well as up at Haughmond Hill where Corrigan and I had confronted him. I’d had Alex investigate it to find out what information he could. In fact, the only reason that we knew anything at all about Endor’s master plan had been from what the Batibat who ran the shop had told him. I’d just assumed that, by dint of our discovery, it would have been shut down. I was pretty confident Alex had already gotten all the potentially useful information there was to get out of her. And yet it wouldn’t hurt to pay another little visit and see if there was anything else that he’d missed.

“Yes, little girl,” spat Balud, “it’s still open. And undercutting me at every turn.” He waved the advert in my face. “How am I supposed to compete with these prices? It’s outrageous!”

“Do you think Endor’s still in contact with her?” I mused thoughtfully. “It’s unlikely he’d risk it, or let her into his confidence. But perhaps she’s got some clue as to where he might be holed up.” I should have gone to check on her before now. I was an idiot.

Balud looked at me as if to confirm the fact that I was crazy. “Did you hear what I said?” the troll demanded. “She’s putting me out of business!”

“Oh, yes, that,” I bobbed my head, attempting an air of brisk sobriety. “I can talk to her about it. Maybe ask her to look at her prices?”

“Or make sure she shuts up that shop and never tries to start up any kind of business ever again.”

Somehow I didn’t think that was how capitalism was supposed to work. I nodded slowly though. “Er, yes, I could maybe ask her to do that too.”

Balud’s eyes narrowed at me suspiciously. I smiled at him. “I’ll see what I can do. Honest.”

He grunted in doubtful acquiescence. “So what happened to your face?”

“Huh?” I was momentarily confused.

“Your face. You have a most arresting bruise.”

“I walked into a door.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

“Really,” I said, mildly protesting.

He crooked his finger towards me. “Come with me.”

“Well, actually I thought I might go now and check out Wold…”

“You’d forgotten she even existed until five minutes ago. She will keep for another half an hour.”

I supposed he was right. Now that I had a potential lead to follow, however, I was itching to get onto it as soon as possible. Balud gave me a baleful look. I sighed. “Okay then.”

He led me towards the back, then pointed into a small room off the side. “In here.”

I pushed open the door. It creaked somewhat menacingly, and I looked askance at the troll. He rolled his eyes and pushed past me to enter. Shrugging, I followed him inside, attempting not to breathe in too deeply. The air was musty with the distinct aroma of mould, and it was so dark that I could make out virtually nothing whatsoever. I could hear the sound of scrabbling, and a curse, before the room was abruptly bathed in light. I blinked rapidly to adjust to the sudden change, then Balud was thrusting something into my hands. I glanced down. It was a small, cracked hand mirror.

He gestured at it. “Go on then. Take a look.”

For once doing as I was told, I held the mirror up and stared at my reflection. Blimey. A large purple stain was making its way across the bridge of my nose and down under my right eye. It looked like I’d been punched repeatedly in the face. I poked at it gingerly, then winced.

“Wow.”

“Indeed.”

My eye seemed to be starting to swell up rather alarmingly. No wonder that teenager had veered out of my way so abruptly on the street. Even I had to admit that it made me look rather scary.

“I don’t suppose you have any ice that I could put on this?” I asked.

“No.”

“Not even any frozen peas?”

“No.”

“A steak?”

The answering look was enough. I put the mirror down. Oh well. There wasn’t much I could do about it now, I figured.

“I do sell a lovely range of balaclavas,” Balud commented.

I flicked him a glance. He put up his palms. “Okay, okay, it was just an idea.”

Harrumphing, I looked around the small room. “So what is this place?”

“My office. I have something here that you might find interesting. I was going to come by to the council meeting to show you, but then the flyer was shoved in through my door and I got distracted.” He began shuffling around pieces of paper, scooping up first one bunch and then another. “It’s around here somewhere,” he muttered.

Motes of dust flew up into the air. I began to inadvertently choke and my eyes started to sting. Balud stopped what he was doing and peered up at me. “Do your eyes always do that?”

“What? Water? They seem to be doing rather a lot of it of late, to be fair.”

“No. Not that.” His voice sounded strange.

Puzzled, I stared at him. “What then?”

He continued to look at me, then eventually shrugged and went back to what he was doing. “Never mind.”

“Balud…” I said warningly.

“Here it is!” he interrupted, triumphantly holding aloft a stained sheet of paper.

Curiosity gave way. I took the piece of paper and scanned down it quickly. For a moment, I was utterly dumbfounded. “The Palladium? But that’s what…”

“No, no, no, no, no,” muttered Balud. “There’s no article in front of it. It’s just palladium. Like gold. Not The Gold. Or The Silver. Just silver. Just palladium. It’s an element. Similar to platinum. According to my research, humans only discovered it a couple of hundred years ago. But here it says it was used back in the fifteenth century to destroy a necromancer who was wandering about the French countryside. Nowadays it gets used for jewellery, dentistry, catalytic converters for cars, that kind of thing.”

“The English language is indeed a curious thing,” I said, half to myself.

“You are a strange little girl.”

“Do me a favour, Balud, call me Mack.”

He shrugged. “You’re correct that the English language is a curious thing. Why would your parents call you Mackintosh?”

I gave him a dirty look. “You know perfectly well that it’s Mackenzie.” I turned my attention back to the grubby piece of paper. “So you think this will work? That Endor will be vulnerable to a weapon made from palladium?”

“I need to do some more research to cross-check, but it does indeed appear as if we have a winner.”