Twilight had just possessed the world as Hala, Freddie and Luco arrived at Woodforest House. Shivering, Freddie pulled his bobble hat over his ears; it was going to be a bitter November night. All the hackles on Luco’s back prickled. Menacingly, he barked into the echoing, still silence. Hala stepped slowly forwards. This wasn’t the home she’d remembered. Cobwebs like branches hung from the strangled trees, and ivy plastered the once lovely brick walls. Any hopes she had had of her father being there all along were whisked away. Gingerly climbing the front steps of the large house, Hala reached into a hanging plant pot, turned a cog anti-clockwise, and claimed the key from a tiny key safe. Relieved that it was still there, she slid it into the rusty lock with a little difficulty, and the three stepped inside.

Glancing into the kitchen on the way to the stairs, Freddie was surprised to see an armchair by the range looking like it had been sat in recently, and a cupboard swinging slightly open. Expelling all dark thoughts from his head, he caught up with Hala and Luco, and they nudged the door into Hala’s bedroom. A towering pile of books was balanced precariously at the corner of the wardrobe. Her familiar patchwork blanket was draped over the foot of the bed, and was a comforting sight compared to the immaculate, stern sheets that had been tugged straight over the springy mattress. Hung at the head of her four-poster bed, Hala glimpsed a tiny piece of parchment. ‘Freddie, look at this!’ she exclaimed. It swayed gently in the breeze from the open window with the lace curtains which were evidently ​moth-eaten. Tearing it gently away from the string, she read it out loud. It was another note from her father. Suddenly remembering the last one, she reached under her pillow, and brought out her locket. Without hesitation, she clipped it around her neck. Hala’s fingers brushed against the cold chain, and she was only brought back to the present by Luco.

‘My word,’ he whispered. Picking up the note in his jaws, he presented it to Hala. Turning it over, she gasped. Drawn in Will Lightful’s intricate writing, was a map. It clearly presented a route into the sky that described the location of where the mythical ‘Cloud Crystals’ were supposedly located. Scanning her eyes over the words of the letter, Hala and Freddie discovered that the very locket that was hung around Hala’s neck held the ‘key’ and possibly a helpful asset to their missions. Prising open the locket, Hala gasped at what she saw in the reflection of the tiny mirror that was inside it.

‘You,’ Hala spat, turning round to face the intruder. Miss Elinor, Will’s old secretary who had spilled all his secrets and plans to the bigger companies, wore a cunning smile on her face. ‘What do you want?’ hissed Hala through gritted teeth.
‘This, actually!’ With that, Miss Elinor strode past Freddie, plucking the map from his back pocket. He spun round, ready for a fight, but Hala eased him, drawing his hands to his side.
‘How could you leave it in such plain sight?’ she whispered sharply in his ear. Blocking the door, Luco jumped up and tore a hole in Miss Elinor’s pencil-straight skirt.She gasped, hitting him and sending him flying across the room, luckily landing on the bed. Without wasting a second, Miss Elinor was gone. But not for long.

As Hala, Freddie and Luco raced down the back staircase towards the larder and kitchen, they didn’t notice Miss Elinor’s mechanicals ready to pounce. As soon as they turned a corner in the corridor, they leapt towards them, and the three tumbled into the larder. Before they could stand, the sound of the key turning in the lock could have been heard from in a airship.
‘We’re doomed’ Hala groaned, picking a tin of biscuits from one of the shelves, and letting the lid clatter on the cold, stone floor.
‘We’ll think of something, never you mind,’ Freddie said, cheerfully,’ Honestly, with the amount of situations like this that we’ve all been in, by now we should be able to get ourselves out of one in our sleep,’

But even he couldn’t be sure that they could beat Miss Elinor.