‘Then give me a hand to put him on the couch,’ said Trev. ‘Should he be covered in sweat like that?’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Glenda.

‘I would be happier if you chained me down,’ said Nutt.

‘What? Why do you think we should do that?’ said Glenda.

‘I think you should beware. Some things leak around the door. They may be bad.’

Glenda looked at the claws. They were a shiny black and, in their way, quite neat, but it was hard to imagine them being used for, say, painting a picture or cooking an omelette. They were claws, and claws were for clawing, weren’t they? But this was Mr Nutt. Even with claws it was still Mr Nutt.

‘Shall we get started?’ said Trev.

‘I insist on the chains,’ said Nutt. ‘There are all sorts of metal things in the old storeroom four doors down. I saw chains there. Please hurry.’

Automatically Glenda looked down at the claws and saw they had grown longer. ‘Yes, Trev, please hurry.’

Trev followed her gaze and said brightly, ‘I’ll be back before you know I’ve gone.’

In fact, it was less than a couple of minutes, and she could hear the clanking as he dragged them all the way down the passageway.

Glenda was fighting tears at the simple strangeness of the whole business. Nutt lay there, looking at the ceiling, as they lifted him on to the couch and carefully wrapped the chains around him.

‘There’s padlocks, but there’s no keys. I can close them, but I can’t open them.’

‘Close them,’ said Nutt.

Glenda had very seldom cried, and she was trying not to now. ‘I don’t think we should be doing this,’ she said. ‘Not here in the vats. People are watching.’

‘Please swing your pendulum, Mister Trev,’ said Nutt.

Trev shrugged and did so.

‘Now you have to start telling me that I am feeling sleepy, Mister Trev,’ said Nutt.

Trev cleared his throat and swung the shiny can back and forth. ‘You are definitely feelin’ sleepy. Extremely sleepy.’

‘That is good. I am feeling enormously sleepy,’ said Nutt wearily. ‘And now you must ask me to analyse myself.’

‘What does that mean?’ said Glenda sharply, always on the lookout for dangerous words.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Nutt. ‘I mean, help me examine in detail the workings of my own mind by means of question and answer.’

‘But I don’t know the questions to ask,’ said Trev.

‘I do,’ said Nutt patiently, ‘but you must instruct me to do it.’

Trev shrugged. ‘Mister Nutt, you must find out what is wrong with Mister Nutt,’ he said.

‘Ah yes,’ said Nutt, his tone of voice changing slightly. ‘Are ve comfortable, Mister Nutt? Yes, thank you. The chains hardly chafe at all. Verrry good. Now, tell me about your mother, Mister Nutt. I am familiar with the concept, but I never had a mother as I recall. Thank you for asking anyway,’ said Nutt.

And so the monological dialogue began. The other two sat on the stone steps as the quiet voice unravelled itself until: ‘Ah yes, ze library. Is zere something in ze library, Mister Nutt?’

‘There are many books in the library.’

‘What else is in ze library, Mister Nutt?’

‘There are many chairs and ladders in the library.’

‘And what is in ze library zat you do not want to tell me about, Mister Nutt?’

They waited. At last, the voice said, ‘There’s a cupboard in the library.’

‘Is zere anything special about zis cupboard, Mister Nutt?’

Another pause, another faint little voice: ‘I must not open the cupboard.’

‘Why is half of him talking like someone from Uberwald?’ said Glenda to Trev, forgetting the notoriously acute sense of hearing.

‘Questions asked in a mild Uberwaldian accent in examinations of zis nature appear to put ze patient more at ease,’ said Nutt. ‘And now I would be pleased if you would not make wiz ze interruptions.’

‘Sorry,’ said Glenda.

‘Don’t mention it. So, why must you not open ze cupboard, Mister Nutt?’

‘Because I promised Ladyship that I would not open the cupboard.’

‘And did you open ze cupboard, Mister Nutt?’

‘I promised Ladyship that I would not open the cupboard.’

‘And did you open ze cupboard, Mister Nutt?’

A much longer pause this time. ‘I promised Ladyship that I would not open the cupboard.’

‘Did you learn many things in ze castle, Mister Nutt?’

‘Many things.’

‘Did you learn how to make ze lockpicks, Mister Nutt?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where is ze door now, Mister Nutt?’

‘It is in front of me.’

‘You opened ze door, Mister Nutt. You think you did not, but you did. And now it is very important zat you open ze door again.’

‘But what is inside the door is wrong!’

The two eavesdroppers craned to hear.

‘Nothing is wronk. Nothing is wronk at all. In ze past, you opened ze door in the foolishness of chilthood. Now, to understand ze door, you must open it with ze wisdom of ze adult. Open ze door, Mister Nutt, and I will walk with you to it.’

‘But I no longer have the lockpick.’

‘Nature will provide, Mister Nutt.’

Glenda shivered. It had to be her imagination, but they didn’t seem to be in the candle vats any more.

A corridor stretched in front of Nutt. He felt everything drop away from him. Chains, clothes, flesh, thoughts. All there was was the corridor and, drifting gently towards him, the cupboard. It was glass-fronted. Light glinted off the bevelled edges. He raised a hand and extended the claw. It cut through wood and glass as if they were air. There was one shelf in the cupboard and one book on the shelf. There was a title on it in silver and chains around it in steel. These were much easier to break through than last time as well. He sat down on a chair that had not been there until he sat down and he began to read the book. The book was called ORC.

When the scream came, it didn’t come from Nutt, but from overhead in the tangle of pipes. A skinny woman in a long black robe, perhaps a witch, Glenda thought, shocked by the suddenness, dropped down on to the flagstones and looked around like a cat.

No, more like a bird, Glenda thought. Jerky.

And then it opened its mouth and screamed: ‘Awk! Awk! Danger! Danger! Beware! Beware!’ It made a lunge towards the couch, but Trev stepped in the way. ‘Foolish! The orc will eat your eyes!’

And now this was a duet, because another of the creatures had slid down out of the gloom on what might have been a billowing cloak, or might have been wings. They never stopped moving, each in a different direction, trying to get closer to the couch.

‘Do not be afraaaid,’ squawked one of them, ‘we are on your siiide. We are here to protect you.’

Glenda, trembling in shock, managed to stand up. She folded her arms. She always felt better like that. ‘Who do you think you are–dropping out of the ceiling and shouting at people? And you’re shedding feathers. That’s disgusting. This is a—this is quite near a food-preparation area.’

‘Yeah, push off,’ said Trev.

‘That’s telling them,’ said Glenda out of the corner of her mouth. ‘I bet that took a lot of thinking.’

‘You do not understand,’ said a creature. The faces really were strange, as if someone had made a bird out of a woman. ‘You are in great danger! Awk!’

‘From you?’ said Glenda.

‘From the orc,’ said the creature. And the word was a scream. ‘Awk!’

In the shadows in front of the open cupboard the soul of Nutt turned a page. He felt someone at his elbow and looked up into the face of Ladyship.

‘Why did you tell me not to open the book, Ladyship?’

‘Because I wanted you to read it,’ said her voice. ‘You had to find the truth for yourself. That is how we all find the truth.’

‘And if the truth is terrible?’

‘I think you know the answer to that one, Nutt,’ said the voice of Ladyship.

‘The answer is that, terrible or not, it is still the truth,’ said Nutt.