"Please," I begged, "don't describe them." Harkat laughed again, pulled me to my feet and led me out of the cell, into the maze of tunnels. "Where are we going?" I asked.

"The Hall of Perta Vin Grahl. I asked Seba about cures… for hangovers — I had a feeling you'd have one — and he said… a shower usually did the trick."

"No!" I moaned. "Not the showers! Have mercy!"

Harkat took no notice of my pleas, and soon he was shoving me under the icy cold waters of the internal waterfalls in the Hall of Perta Vin Grahl. I thought my head was going to explode when the water first struck, but after a few minutes the worst of my headache had passed and my stomach had settled. By the time I was towelling myself dry, I felt a hundred times better.

We passed a green-faced Mr. Crepsley on our way back to our cell. I bid him a good evening, but he only snarled in reply.

"I'll never understand the appeal of… alcohol," Harkat said as I was dressing.

"Haven't you ever got drunk?" I replied.

"Perhaps in my past life, but not since… becoming a Little Person. I don't have taste buds, and alcohol doesn't… affect me."

"Lucky you," I muttered sourly.

Once I'd dressed, we strolled up to the Hall of Princes to see if Paris needed me, but it was largely deserted and Paris was still in his coffin.

"Let's go on a tour of the tunnels… beneath the Halls," Harkat suggested. We'd done a lot of exploring when we first came to the mountain, but it had been two or three years since we'd last gone off on an adventure.

"Don't you have work to do?" I asked.

"Yes, but…" He frowned. It took a while to get used to Harkat's expressions — it was hard to know whether someone without eyelids and a nose was frowning or grinning — but I'd learnt to read them. "It will hold. I feel strange. I need to be on the move."