Want to know more about The Stolen Child? Here’s a little taste of what’s to come...

Arsha laughed.

“It's not that easy. If you could walk through the Ways, we wouldn't need ships, I bet.”

As Arsha spoke, she reached for the front of Rachael's coat, and fished out several large metal clips on thick straps. She began to methodically attach each of the clips to the first cable.

“So how does it work then, flying through these things?”

Arsha smiled and shrugged.

“Sorry, I really don't know that much about it. You should ask Abasi some time. He's an expert navigator. He knows all about the Ways. But even he says there's lots about them we just don't understand.”

“So you have, like, maps or something?”

“Well, something like that. The Ways are complicated. They shift and change. Sometimes the patterns are predictable, sometimes they aren't. So travelling from one place to another, it's not always the same.”

“So why's it look like we're over an ocean then?” Rachael said, as Arsha tested the last of the clips. Apparently satisfied, the girl produced another set of clips from her own coat.

“Dad says that the Ways are sort of... They don't have a proper shape. Stuff that you can see and touch. So, they build themselves out of bits of other worlds. Like a whole bunch of random pieces of stuff thrown together,” she said, as she began to attach herself to the other cable.

“That's insane. How can all this be hiding, like no one ever sees it? How's no one from my world ever found them?”

“Because you have to know where to look. They're not something you can see. You just have to know where you're going. People from your world, they don't even know the Ways exist,” Arsha said, as she tested the last clip.

“Doesn't anyone ever just find one, by accident?”

“Sometimes? Dad says it's very rare, but it does happen.”

“And what happens to them after that?” Rachael said.

Seemingly at a loss for words, Arsha just gestured in Rachael's direction.

“Oh. Right,” Rachael said. “So... What are we doing here anyhow?”

Arsha grinned and hoisted herself up to sit on the railing, with her back to the open sky.

“Something fun,” she said. Before Rachael could ask what she meant, the girl spread her arms, raised her head, and fell backwards off the deck.