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Liz lowered her shopping bags and threw her daughter such a look of deep shock that Lucy felt compelled to pull a tissue from her sleeve and blow her nose to avoid eye contact.
    “It was in your drawer — with a stamp on and everything.”
    “Yes, and that’s where it should have stayed.”
    “But you
promised
you would mail it and I thought you had. Instead, you hid it and you didn’t even
tell
me. That’s sneaky, Mom. David will go mad.”
    Liz sank into a kitchen chair, rubbing her brow. “Something wasn’t right about that contract, Lucy. It was tainted with Gwilanna’s magics, I’m sure of it.”
    Lucy settled nervously against the workbench. Shethought back to the day that David had signed the agreement with his publisher, then left to go to the Arctic. The ink in his signature had run down the page, which was odd because the pen he’d used had not been “globby.” The ink had run to form a strange kind of sign. This was what Lucy queried now: “Just because of that dribbly pen mark?”
    Bonnington leaped onto Liz’s lap. She stroked him idly and quietly said, “Yes.”
    On the fridge top, the listening dragon stirred. Within seconds, it had transmitted the information around the house. Dragon scales everywhere nervously rattled.
    “I did intend to mail it, but I changed my mind. I was planning to talk it through with David when he came home. It would have been easy for his publishers to draw up a copy contract. Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
    “It’s just a piece of paper,” Lucy protested.
    Liz set her gaze into the middle distance and shookher head slowly, deep in thought. “No, I think that mark’s significant. Gwilanna’s using it to set something evil in motion, something to do with David’s writing, perhaps. Mailing the contract probably represented the final commitment she needed for her spell.”
    “But …?”
    “Shush, it’s all right.” Liz clutched her hand. “Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it. But we should be on our guard. And David needs to be alerted now.”
    Lucy pushed the cordless phone across the table.
    “Not just yet. Go and call Gadzooks. I want to talk to him. He seemed ruffled this morning. I want to know why.”
    Lucy turned on her heels, then back again. “What about Zanna? She’s got that mark. Is she going to turn into an evil sibyl?”
    “I don’t know,” said Liz, hugging Bonnington to her. “Go and bring Gadzooks — and tell Gruffen to keep a close eye on Gretel.”
    Meanwhile, on the windowsill in David’s room, G’reth and Gadzooks were engaged in another important conversation — about the origins of the universe. G’reth, by virtue of his gift of granting wishes, had vast experience in the workings of the universe — but as to its origins, there he was stumped. He felt sure that the universe had not always been in being and therefore something had created it. But what?
    Gadzooks tapped his pencil against his pad. In his opinion, he said, the answer to the mystery was in the stars.
    G’reth raised an eye ridge and glanced into the garden. The sky was barely gray. No stars were visible yet. Why did Gadzooks want to know this, he queried?
    The writing dragon chewed on his pencil, making another score in its end. The David was thinking about it, he said.
    At that moment, Lucy walked in and asked Gadzooks to come to the kitchen.
    Seeming grateful for the chance to cease his pondering,Gadzooks laid his pad and pencil on the sill and flew straightaway to Lucy’s shoulder.
    G’reth blew a smoke ring and rattled his scales. He’d been hoping to assess his brother dragon’s thoughts on this worrying business concerning Gwilanna, but for now the moment was gone. He drummed his claws and looked along the sill. His gaze alighted on the pencil and pad. He had always been entranced by this simple device of writing things down and having them happen. Curious to know just how it worked, he pottered over and peered at the pad. He