Piri was cleaning the windows in Countess Sabra’s apartment. Dead flies, moths, and beetles were caked into a coating of dust which quickly turned to black mud when she smeared it off with her wet rag. Once the worst of the muck was off, with new water and a clean rag she had to scrub away at the grime until she could properly see through each of the little diamond-shaped panes, and then she had to do a final rinse so they sparkled. All this on both sides of each window, and there were twenty-four in this hall alone. She would never be finished!

Piri had often dreamed of living in a wonderful stately castle, but she’d never thought about the poor maids who’d have to clean it.

There was someone behind her, and she twisted to see. It was Isolde, so she dropped her rag into her bucket and clambered out of the embrasure. Isolde was pulling her hair back in a fist, making her skull-face look even worse.

‘Piri, have you seen Doncia?’ she asked. ‘She’s not in the Audience Hall, and I can’t find her anywhere in the front wing. I thought she might be with you.’

‘No, Isolde,’ Piri said. ‘I haven’t seen her.’ She assumed Doncia had gone snooping around, poking her nose in where it wasn’t wanted.

Isolde released her hair. ‘If you do see her, send her to the muster room and tell her to wait. How are you doing here?’

‘It’s not my favourite job,’ Piri said.

Isolde shrugged, which tightened all the muscle cords in her neck, then turned and left. Piri wondered if she kept working in the castle whether she’d eventually end up looking like Isolde, all skin and veins.

At first she worried about Doncia, thinking she should go look for her, but she’d probably get just as lost. She helped pass the time by inspecting every new kind of bug she found stuck to the glass. She made a line of them on the sill, one of each type. She collected twelve different kinds, but then it became difficult to know if they matched, or if they just seemed different because they were different sizes.

Someone was in the room again. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, a reflection of a foxy face in one of the window panes. She turned to look into the room but there was no one.

Piri gave that pane a thorough cleaning. There was the fox-faced figure again, more visible when the glass was slick with soapy water.

She looked again into the room, and saw a slender woman wearing a furry mask. She wore a short shiny silk dress—well-made but brown and motley. Someone was dressed up and playing a trick. Even her arms were furry. Her pointy face wore no expression, as you would expect from a costume mask.

‘That’s an excellent costume,’ Piri said to the reflection, then continued to clean. When she looked again, the face filled it entirely.

She jumped and almost fell out of the embrasure, then backed away. She’d seen a face like that before, in the paintings of battles downstairs.

The foxy face smiled wickedly. It wasn’t a mask! She opened her mouth to call for help, but wasn’t able to make a sound.

‘You’ll do just nicely,’ the woman said in an accent Piri had never heard.

Piri was able to talk again. ‘Are you a puka?’ she asked, backing further away. Unfortunately the woman was between her and the door.

The woman grinned, showing sharp teeth.

‘Well, I was once. This body was, anyway. I really like it, don’t you? It’s much better than yours.’

Piri tried to step away further, but was against the wall. This was no puka; it was a demon! She tried to scream out, but could not. She tried to sidle away, but could not move at all. She couldn’t even avert or close her eyes. The demon’s own dark eyes were narrow now, with slitted pupils like a cat or snake. Piri shook with fear, at least she could do that.

The demon moved a slender clawed hand to its neck, and drew a silver chain from beneath its dress. On the end a silver locket swung, and Piri was forced to watch it. With a long claw the demon flicked open the clasp of the locket, and she placed it on the floor, lying open.

Piri stared back into the eyes of the demon-puka, concentrating so hard she knew she’d never forget the subtle texture of green, brown, and silver flecks deep in its deep brown irises.

Then the demon vanished, leaving her staring unfocussed. A large pearl fell to the floor, bounced once, and rolled a little on the carpet.

Her reflex action was to sigh and loosen her shoulders in relief that the demon was gone, but nothing happened. Instead, she couldn’t stop herself from stooping and picking up the pearl and locket. Her body was moving by itself! Her hands placed the pearl in the locket, locked the clasp, then secured the silver chain around her own neck.

Her brain sent signals to her body: Scream in horror! Cry out for help! Run in panic! But it just looked back at her in the window reflection, expressionless.

‘It’s best if you keep calm,’ Piri’s own body said to her, aloud in her own stolen voice, ‘I need to borrow you for a while.’

‘Leave me alone!’ Piri tried to shout, but could make no sound.

No, said a thought in her head that was not her own. If you are good, if you keep calm and don’t bother me, I’ll let you ride along and watch. You’ll learn a lot. But if you rant and rail against me I’ll take you and leave you somewhere else. Somewhere out of my way; somewhere you won’t like, and won’t be able to escape from.

The demon in her body picked up the rag and continued cleaning the windows.

Piri could not be calm. She tried to scream. She tried to thrash about. She eventually worked herself into a kind of exhausted stupor. Everything faded to a grey, quiet nothing.

She caught herself, and panicked, afraid she would disappear for good. She saw what was happening, but had no emotion left to react to it. Her body wasn’t her own. Was this what it was like to be dead?

The demon found her collection of bugs and flicked them off the sill one by one.

Silly girl, we don’t need to collect bugs. There are much more interesting creatures to collect. Humans are fun, for instance.

The demon was good at cleaning, and much faster than Piri. She was meticulous and systematic where Piri had been rather haphazard. By the end-of-shift bells all the windows were done, and she was exhausted.

Now—it begins, the demon thought, but it didn’t just abandon the buckets and rags; it tidied up properly and returned to the service room to rinse them. It stacked the buckets and hung the rags.

We don’t want to get you into trouble. Be sure to let me know if I forget anything. Now, let’s go meet your little friend.

Piri realised this wasn’t about her at all; it was about Doncia.

That’s right. Your friend seems to be able to see me, which is not good at all, and now she is snooping around. She’s far too clever—there is something special about her, and you’re going to help me find it out.

Leave her alone!

She felt the corners of her mouth curling up. The demon was smiling.

Or what? There’s nothing you can do, girl, except let me know what you know. As I said, if you help, things can go well for you. If you don’t, well you can expect more of the same—or worse.

Piri thought she didn’t know anything that might betray Doncia, but then half formed ideas came to her and she quashed them before they could take shape. She searched her memories to find something to think about, anything at all that was nothing to do with Doncia, or anything they’d ever done together. The bugs! She’d studied each one carefully, and now she could picture each in her mind. She chose one, a wasp, and imagined it in complete detail, with all the iridescent colours and spiky textures.

Hah! So you do have something to hide. I’ll find it out eventually, don’t worry. You can’t think about your stupid bugs forever.

Piri was glad she had a dozen different bugs to go through, and concentrated on each in turn to reinforce the images.

The demon walked her down the tower stairs to the Hall of Art, and along the front wing past the entrance and reception hall. Piri could see and hear everything the demon could see and hear.

Which is not so much, the demon thought. Humans have pathetic senses; that’s why I like the puka body better. You can only see while I allow it, so for a start, please stop thinking of me as the demon. Yes, I am a demon, but the name you may use for me is Adzra.

It was not a name she had ever heard.

Well, you’ve heard it now.

Adzra continued through the dragonfly room and along the green corridor to the servants' muster room. Doncia was waiting there, and Piri was relieved to see she was all right, but then her mind started drifting, thinking about ways to warn her. She caught herself quickly, bringing the wasp and other bugs to mind.

Bugs! Adzra thought at Piri. I’ll get past them eventually, so why bother?

Piri kept the bugs foremost in her mind, but paid attention to what Adzra let her see. Isolde was there, scolding Doncia.

‘It doesn’t matter if I’m not there, you will wait for me. Don’t go wandering about the castle, and especially you must stay above ground level. If there is work to be done down in the robot store, I’ll take you there myself. Understood?’

‘Yes, Isolde,’ Doncia said, looking at her shoes.

‘If this happens again, I’ll need to make Ma’am aware.’

‘Yes, Isolde,’ Doncia said.

‘Ah, there you are Piri,’ Isolde said. ‘Take Doncia down to Nola, and don’t manage to get yourselves lost on the way.’

‘Yes, Isolde,’ the demon said, in Piri’s stolen voice.

Doncia gave Piri an expressionless glance, and they headed down the tower stairs to the laundry.

‘Where did you go? What did you find?’ the demon asked Doncia when they were far enough away.

Piri, frightened that Doncia would expose herself in some way, tried to shout out to warn her, but Adzra’s control was complete.

‘Nothing really,’ Doncia said, but Piri could hear she was lying. She wondered why; Doncia didn’t usually keep secrets from her. Actually, no, she did. There was that stupid...bug! Wasp! Beetle! Fly! Misery. Misery.

Almost got you, the demon thought.

Piri tried to cry. She tried to grab her head and press her fingers into it. Of course her arms and hands didn’t obey.

Stop fighting, Piri, Adzra thought gently. You’ll be all right. I can make things go extremely well for you.

Piri concentrated on the largest beetle of her memory collection. It had hard black wing covers, with smooth grooves running from front to back, and little antennae like miniature tree branches.

Doncia’s mother greeted them, holding the night’s ironing. They headed home. Piri just kept thinking about bugs, over and over. She was scared to react to anything, but just as scared of greying out again. She had to go along with what the demon wanted and wait for some chance.

They crunched down the gravel drive past the long pool, and said good-bye to Captain Anton.

‘Was it a good day?’ Doncia’s mother asked, breaking a silence that had seemed to drag.

‘Not the best,’ Doncia said. ‘I got lost and Isolde was angry. I’m worried she won’t let me work with the robots now.’

‘She’ll forgive you. Just do as she says.’

‘I was cleaning windows,’ Adzra said. ‘There were all these horrible bugs stuck to the glass.’

Big beetle, iridescent wasp, green ant. Piri noticed her vision start to grey.

I’m patient, Piri, when I need to be, Adzra thought to her. Doncia has some sort of protection, so I can’t get through to her on my own, but of course, if I don’t get my way, eventually I’ll need to take this to the next level.

Piri focussed on her own misery.

They descended into town and through to the tenements. It was almost dark and became so cold Piri started to shiver. At least the demon couldn’t stop that.

They reached the place where Piri would normally turn off to head to her own apartment. She didn’t even need to think about it, Adzra knew exactly the spot.

‘Good night, Doncia. Good night Mrs Beltran,’ Adzra said, as sweet as could be, and left them. She continued towards Piri’s tenement.

I’ve done my research, of course, Adzra thought, I know where you live, about your mother, father, baby brother. We can have a little fun!

No! Piri tried to scream. She couldn’t put her family in danger. She fought the demon stronger than ever, concentrating on her left leg, trying to stop it taking another step.

Adzra’s stride broke. It wasn’t much, just a minor stumble, but it was a major triumph for Piri.

You think you can break free of me? You are wrong!

Everything went silent. Piri’s vision started to dim; she could barely see that Adzra was taking her into the dark gap between her tenement and its neighbour.

Piri concentrated again on her leg. Was there the slightest hesitation?

This is a test, girl. You might decide to go along with me. You know, if you decide to be useful there could be an interesting future for you. Think of all the things I can do. You’ll be able to do some of them also.

No! I’ll not betray my friends and family, no matter what you promise me!

Very well, if that is how it has to be, Adzra thought.

Piri’s vision returned, but what she saw was strange. She was still between the brick tenement walls, but they were blurry, and greyish vines, with droopy heart shaped leaves, climbed. Gaps opened and closed in the brickwork.

Where are we?

Nowhere.

Leave me alone!

It’s far too late for that, Piri. You know too much now, and yet you have told me too little. Let’s make another pretty pearl for my locket.

Someone appeared before her in the greyness: a blonde girl just about the same size as herself. No, it was a mirror. But the other Piri was smiling, and she could feel that she was not.

The demon was gone from her head! Her body was obeying. She started to back away, to turn, her leg muscles tensed to run.

All she could see was grey, and then swirly, oily, distorted reflections of herself. There was nowhere to run to.

‘Aren’t you a charming trinket now, my dear?’ she heard Adzra whisper. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t leave you in there forever.’

There was a thundering click, and everything was dark.