“The cabin door swung open and Molly belly-crawled onto the deck until she could see me. "Who started shooting at us?""Bad guys!" I cringed as another round hit the side of the boat and peppered me with wooden splinters. "Obviously!”

“Another door swung open, and another guard appeared, this time with Gabrielle, who wore a black catsuit and rappelling harness.”

“Why did people run around in random directions when shooting started instead of literally hitting the deck to stay out of the line of fire? How stupid could you get?”

“The cleaning woman could contain herself no longer, As far as I'm concerned, that's the boat for me, And who are you, asked the man, Don't you remember me, No, I don't, I'm the cleaning woman, Cleaning what, The king's palace, The woman who opened the door for petitions, The very same, And why aren't you back at the king's palace cleaning and opening doors, Because the doors I really wanted to open have already been opened and because, from now on, I will only clean boats, So you want to go with me in search of the unknown island, I left the palace by the door of decisions, In that case, go and have a look at the caravel, after all this time, it must be in need of a good wash, but watch out for the seagulls, they're not to be trusted, Don't you want to come with me and see what your boat is like inside, You said it was your boat, Sorry about that, I only said it because I liked it, Liking is probably the best form of ownership, and ownership the worst form of liking.”

“Escort service,” Puck replied, shifting to the side so that Twiggs could get a clear viewof me. Those beady eyes fixed on me, blinking in confusion. Then, suddenly, they gothuge and round, as Twiggs looked back at Puck.“Is…is that…?”“It is.”“Does she…?”“No.”“Oh, my.” Twiggs opened the door wide, beckoning with a sticklike arm.”

“I could dodge the kick, but the stable door was already down - and I hadn't even realised it until I saw the splinters.”