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CHAPTER TEN

FIGHTING FOR A BETTER WORLD




Standing stones, under a night sky. A horned moon and a scattering of stars. Ancient stone monoliths set in a circle, with openings like doorways. The past made real, and solid. Bright security lights poured in from outside the circle, flooding the scene with flat colourless light. The present, trying to intimidate the past.

“Stonehenge,” I said. “I should have known.”

“It’s good to be back,” said Amanda. “I always feel at home here.”

I looked at her sternly. “Are you about to tell me you were here when it was built?”

“No,” said Amanda. “But I did help with the design.”

“Okay . . . When, exactly, are we?”

“Right back where we started,” Amanda said happily. “We have returned to the very day we left. Our journey is almost over, Jack.”

I looked out past the Stones. “I never did understand why they felt the need to surround Stonehenge with barbed wire. It’s not like anyone was going to steal it.”

Amanda looked down her nose at the security barrier, and sniffed loudly.

“The last repository of magic in the world, and they’ve put it in a cage. So the secret masters can watch it wither and die.”

“I’m not seeing any security guards,” I said carefully.

“They’re here,” said Amanda. “They just haven’t shown themselves yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because they’re waiting to see what we’ll do.”

“All right,” I said. “What are we going to do?”

“Bring an end to this sick miserable mistake of a world,” said Amanda. “And put things back the way they should be.”

“I’m still not clear why you need me to help you do that,” I said.

“There are rules, Jack, even for beings like me. Perhaps especially for beings like me. Things must be done the right way, if they’re to mean anything. That’s what our little road trip through history was all about: teaching and preparing you, for this place and this moment. So you can stand in judgement on what the world should be.”

“You should listen to her,” said a cheerful young voice. “She knows what she’s talking about. In fact, that’s pretty much her job description.”

I turned sharply, and was surprised to find a boy of about twelve standing a few feet away, particularly when I was positive he hadn’t been there just a moment ago. He was wearing a smart school uniform and cap, and leaning on a tall wooden staff. He had a typical schoolboy face, but his eyes were so much older. He smiled at me, and nodded familiarly to Amanda.

“Took you long enough to get here.”

She smiled fondly at him. “We had a lot to do.”

“At least you could take short cuts,” said the boy. “I had to come the long way round.”

There was something about the way the boy spoke, and those old old eyes . . . 

“Merlin?” I said.

He grinned broadly, his ancient eyes sparkling with mischief. “Good to see you again, Jack. I’ve been remembering this moment all my life.”

“You age backwards?” I said.

He shrugged. “Trust me, it wasn’t my idea. It came with the job. But I quite like being this young. No one expects anything from me, and my only real worry is where the next toffee is coming from. I’m looking forward to being born, so I can get some rest at last.” He looked at Amanda. “You do know this is a trap?”

“Of course,” said Amanda. “Did you bring what I’m going to need?”

“Of course,” said Merlin.

“This is just typical of magic,” I said. “I don’t know what’s going on, I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about, and just looking at Harry Potter here is freaking me out big time. At least I know where I am with science.”

“Do you?” said Amanda. “Do you understand how your computers work? Or any of the machines you depend on every day? You’re constantly at the mercy of specialists who might or might not be available when you need them. That didn’t happen by accident, Jack. It was deliberately set up to isolate and control people.

“Magic can be used by anyone, or it can just be experienced, and enjoyed for its own sake. Science is a way of life; magic can be lived. Of course magic can be scary as well as marvellous, but anything else would just be boring, wouldn’t it?”

And that was when hundreds of heavily armed figures burst out of the darkness and into the light, closing in on us from every direction at once, until we were surrounded by Men In Black and alien Greys.

“Looks like they emptied the barracks, just for us,” said Merlin. “Which is something of a compliment, if you think about it.”

Some of the spindly creatures in shabby black suits went skittering up the standing stones, like so many oversized insects. They clung to the sides and crouched on the cross-pieces, covering us with their guns. The Greys took up positions between the stones, carrying the same futuristic weapons they’d used to shoot dragons out of the sky.

“The word overkill comes to mind,” I said. “And not in a good way.”

“We’ve finally reached the endgame,” said Amanda. “The secret masters’ last chance to stop us.”

“Please tell me you have a plan,” I said.

“Of course she has,” said Merlin. “She plans like other people breathe.”

A handful of Greys stepped aside, to let a single figure through. A large man in a smart city suit, with a face that was classically handsome but essentially characterless. A plastic surgeon’s idea of perfection. Jet black hair and eyebrows gave him a sardonic air, but whatever he might be thinking didn’t disturb his perfect face in the least.

All along I had been convinced that when I finally came face to face with the leader of the secret masters, it would be someone I knew. Some familiar face who’d been hiding in plain sight all along. But I was positive I’d never seen this man before in my life.

“Jack,” said Amanda. “Allow me to present to you: the man behind the secret masters.”

“The only master, for some time now,” said the big man, in a smooth and cultured voice. “Call me Caliban: the child betrayed by his father.”

I stared into his different-coloured eyes and realised that I had seen him before, after all.

“Frankenstein’s monster. I should have known.”

“Ease back on the m-word,” Merlin said quietly.

“Yes, be polite, Outsider,” said Caliban. “I’d hate to have to tear you limb from limb, when there are still things I want to say to you.”

“We could start with why your people didn’t just shoot us on sight,” I said.

“Don’t give him ideas,” said Merlin.

“Jack Daimon,” Caliban said heavily. “The Outsider who turned on his own kind. All for a smile from a pretty face.”

“I’m not the only one who’s changed,” I said. “You didn’t always look this good.”

Caliban shrugged. “In this modern age, we can all have the face we want.”

“How are you still alive, after all these years?”

“What was never born can never die,” said Caliban. “The energies of Hell have no limit.”

“How ironic,” Amanda said sweetly. “That science’s most famous son can only exist by depending on magic.”

“Speak one more word that I don’t care for,” said Caliban, “And I will rip your tongue out.”

“Don’t speak to her like that,” I said. And there must have been something in my voice, because he stopped and looked at me thoughtfully.

“If you could only see her as she really is, Outsider.”

“You have a handsome new face,” I said. “But you’re still the monster your father made you.”

“I owe nothing to that man!” Caliban’s voice cracked like a whip. “He disowned me, for the sin of not being perfect. For being the ugly conclusion of his limited skills.” He broke off, and made himself smile coldly at Amanda. “I knew I could count on your arrogance to bring you here, even though you had to know I’d be waiting. Unfortunately for you, I saw to it that all magic was drained from this setting long ago. There’s nothing left in this place that you can use to protect yourself.”

“Why are you so keen to protect science?” I said. “Given that it produced something like you?”

“Only science can protect humanity,” said Caliban.

“From what?” I said.

“From Hell,” said Caliban. “My father opened a door to a whole other dimension of magic, to give me life. The door may be gone, but Hell’s armies are still there, waiting for their chance to break through and fill this world with chaos and madness. I’m damned if I’ll let that happen. I have dedicated myself to the destruction of magic, because no one knows better than me what it leads to.”

“How can you save humanity, by building a prison for everyone to live in?” I said.

“We need strong walls to keep everything else out,” said Caliban. “Consider your companion, Outsider. How do you think we look, to something that existed before humanity even appeared? We don’t matter to her; we’re just mayflies, come and gone in a moment. Things she can use to get what she wants.”

“It’s only by living so long that I have learned to appreciate life in all its forms,” Amanda said calmly. “Short or long, it must be savoured, because none of it lasts.”

“You do,” said Caliban. “And so do I. I will never allow creatures like you to have power over me.”

“Is that why you killed your creator?” said Amanda. “To make sure no one could ever tell you what to do?”

I looked at her. “All of this, because his father didn’t love him?”

She shrugged. “It’s a very human motivation.”

“Enough!” said Caliban. “The last hope of magic ends here, tonight. Once you’re dead the world will work perfectly, like clockwork, and I will hold the only key.”

“And you’ll be safe at last,” I said. “No one will be able to hurt you, ever again.”

“Everyone will be safe,” said Caliban. “How does it feel, Outsider? To know you’ve been working for the wrong side all along?”

“That’s what I was about to ask you,” I said.

Caliban shook his head. “I should have known you wouldn’t listen. But I had to try.”

“Why?” I said.

“Because we have so much in common.”

I looked at him. “Run that by me again.”

“We both know what it’s like to be always alone, cut off from the very humanity we’re trying to protect.”

“You want to lock everyone up for their own good. I want to set them free.”

“You’d damn us all, for something that only looks human!” said Caliban.

He raised a hand to the waiting Men In Black and alien Greys.

“Can I just ask,” I said quickly, “why you only brought homunculi to back you up? I saw plenty of human guards in the Department library.”

“Men are weak,” said Caliban. “I wanted something I could depend on.”

“For someone who claims to be so keen to protect humanity,” I said. “You don’t seem to have much time for them.”

He smiled his cold smile. “I know them so well.”

“Is that why you’ve surrounded yourself with monsters?” I said.

“Hell is always waiting,” said Caliban. “You need monsters, to fight monsters.”

“And to keep people under control,” I said.

“A world of science has to follow the rules,” said Caliban. “Unlike your companion. How much has she told you, about what’s really going on?”

“Enough,” I said.

“Do you know you’re not her first patsy?”

“She told me about Charles.”

“But did she tell you about me?”

I glanced at Amanda, but she had nothing to say. Caliban laughed softly.

“Did you never wonder exactly how history was rewritten? It all comes down to the book in your backpack. Oh yes, I know it’s there; I can feel its power and its presence. Amanda approached me long ago, to help her in her fight against the secret masters. Who were really nothing more than a bunch of scientists with ideas above their station. She thought I must hate science as much as she did, because of the part it played in my creation.”

I looked at Amanda. “What makes the book so important?”

“It’s the key to everything,” Amanda said calmly. “Older than humanity, older even than me, its contents shape and form to the world and everything in it.”

“How did that happen?” I said.

She shrugged. “It was decided where all the things that matter are decided: in the Courts of the Holy, on the shimmering plains.” She smiled suddenly. “Don’t look so shocked, Jack. You know Hell is real, so why not Heaven? The book tells the Story of all this is, or what should have been, before the secret masters got their hands on it.”

“They were all set to recreate the world according to their needs,” said Caliban. “But Amanda and I tracked them down.”

“And then you betrayed me,” said Amanda. “You killed them all, and used the book to rewrite the world according to your needs.”

“To keep us safe, from the madness of magic,” said Caliban. “Afterwards, I hid the book in the Department library. The only place with enough protections to keep you out. Until the Outsider helped you steal it.” He looked at me coldly. “I am the one who’s been pursuing you all this time, to take back what is mine. The book that makes anything possible. Because I’m damned if I’ll let you undo all of my good work.”

He smiled triumphantly at Amanda, only to break off as he realised she was smiling back at him.

“I knew what kind of trap this would have to be,” she said calmly. “For you to find enough courage to emerge from the shadows at last. But after everything you’ve done I needed to be here, to see you punished. Small of me, perhaps, but that’s what comes of living among people. You’re quite right, there isn’t a scrap of magic left in Stonehenge. That’s why Merlin is here.”

She gestured at the schoolboy, standing patiently to one side. Caliban looked at him, and Merlin bowed mockingly.

“Ta da!”

“What can you do, boy?” said Caliban.

“I draw power from the magical places of the world,” said Merlin. “And I’ve spent centuries visiting all the ones that remain, and draining their power.”

“The great sorcerer,” said Caliban. “Reduced to playing tourist, and grubbing after the dregs of magic. It doesn’t matter what you have. I brought insurance.”

He gestured sharply and two Men In Black hurried forward, carrying something heavy. They unrolled it to reveal Richard Dadd’s painting of “The Faerie War.”

Caliban gestured proudly at the canvas. “George gave orders for it to be destroyed, but I had Miriam intercept the painting on its way to the furnace. It still contains the terrible thing you saw in the Tate, Outsider, so it seemed only fitting that I should feed you to it.”

“The painting is here because that’s what I wanted,” said Amanda. “I went to a lot of trouble to put it into the Department’s hands, knowing you wouldn’t be able to resist using it. There never was any monster in the painting, Jack, just me, hiding behind one of my masks.” She saw the expression on my face, and shrugged apologetically. “No one was ever in any real danger.”

“You abducted and terrified innocent people!” I said. “You saw the state they were in, after I got them out of that painting!”

“Sometimes, I have to take the long view,” said Amanda. It was as close as she could come to an apology.

“But how could you be inside the painting, and in the Tate at the same time?” I paused, to glance at Caliban. “Yes, I know; you’re impatient to get started. But I would like to get some answers straight in my head before I get it shot off.”

“Be my guest,” said Caliban. “Don’t let me hurry you.”

“I was Richard Dadd’s muse,” said Amanda. “My power made his painting possible. Which meant I could store a small part of myself in the work he created, waiting to be set in motion at the right time.”

“You really do plan ahead,” I said.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” said Merlin.

“But what I saw in that painting was monstrous, hideous . . . ” I stared at Amanda, as a thought struck me. “Is that what you really look like?”

“Of course not,” said Amanda. “That was just a big spooky scarecrow, so I could get you moving and motivated.”

“You could just have asked for my help,” I said.

“I couldn’t risk you saying no.” Amanda turned back to Caliban. “I wanted the painting here, because I knew I’d need an army of my own to fight yours.”

She gestured at “The Faerie War,” and when we all looked the scene had changed. The fighting had stopped, and piles of elven dead lay scattered all across the broken ground. A dozen cold-eyed survivors stood together, staring out at us. Their War was finally over, and all it had cost them was everything.

“This was never meant to be just a painting,” said Amanda. “It was always a gateway to another place.”

“No wonder Marion thought she was the last of the Fae,” I said. “None of the War’s survivors came back, because you had them trapped inside the painting.”

“Hush, darling,” said Amanda. “Working.”

She gestured at Merlin, and he tapped his staff on the ground. Magical energies crackled on the air, and the elves strode out of the painting and into Stonehenge. The two Men In Black holding the canvas dropped it and fell back. Amanda smiled easily at the elves, and they bowed formally in return.

“We thank you, lady, for this release,” said one of the elves. “How may we repay you?”

Amanda gestured at Caliban. “Save the world, from this man and his army.”

“You think a handful of elves can stand against my forces?” said Caliban.

Amanda was still smiling. “The rest of my army hasn’t arrived yet.”

I looked at her. “There’s more?”

“Of course,” said Amanda. “You made some good friends on our journey through history, Jack. Friends with armies of their own. Why don’t you call them?”

I thought about that, and smiled. I took the athame out of my pack, and the blade glowed palely with the last of its stored energies. Magic enough, for a few small miracles. I concentrated my Sight through the blade, looking back into the past. And then I raised my voice, in the ancient amphitheatre of Stonehenge.

“Queen Boudicca! King Arthur! Robin Hood! Across the years I call to you, because I need your help. To save not just me and the woman I love, but the true path of history itself.”

And from across Time, they came. From the past that was, to the history that replaced them, came the armies of yesterday.

A tall warrior woman in leather armour, with a blue-painted face and hair packed with clay, strode out from between two standing stones as though they were a gateway, followed by a great host of her warriors. I nodded to Queen Boudicca, and she nodded cheerfully back.

“Thanks for coming,” I said.

Boudicca grinned. “What are friends for?”

“Exactly!” said a loud familiar voice. A large figure in steel armour strode out of another gateway, followed by every knight of the Round Table. King Arthur took off his helm, so he could smile at me.

“After everything you did for Camelot, how could I not be here, Sir Jack the Outsider.”

“Damn right!” said a merry voice, and Robin Hood appeared, backed by his entire band of outlaws.

I smiled and nodded to all of them, as though I didn’t have a care in the world now they were here, and then looked round at the Men In Black and the alien Greys, still covering us with a multitude of weapons.

“Numbers are fine,” I said quietly to Amanda, “But we are seriously out-gunned. Isn’t there anything you can do?”

She was shaking her head before I’d even finished speaking. And then she looked at me expectantly. I sighed, and didn’t even try to keep it internal.

“I am getting really tired of you always leaving it to me to save the day.”

“But that’s what you’re here for, Jack. And this is the very last time.”

“Promise?”

She shrugged. “If you don’t come up with an answer we won’t be here for another try.”

I looked at the athame in my hand. Its light was barely flickering, on the verge of going out.

“Enough magic for one last trick,” I said.

Caliban sneered at me. “But not enough to stop my forces, Outsider.”

I covered the distance between us in a moment and set the edge of my knife against his throat. I showed him a cold smile of my own.

“Sometimes, a knife is just a knife. Tell your people to drop their weapons.”

“If you harm me, my people will shoot you down.”

“You won’t be here to see it,” I said.

He glared at me with his mis-matched eyes, his perfect lips pressed together. I applied a little pressure, and a trickle of blood coursed down his throat as his skin parted under the knife’s edge. Caliban yelled to the Men In Black and Greys to drop their guns, and they did. I looked around to check all of them had obeyed, and Caliban seized the moment to step quickly back out of reach.

I turned to the friends who’d come so far to help me.

“See the bad guys, with the shabby suits and the Grey faces? Kill them all!”

Queen Boudicca raised her battle-axe and charged the Men In Black. Her warriors went streaming after her, howling their wolfish battle cries. They crossed the ground so quickly, advancing from a standing start to a full charge in just a few moments, that they were in and among the Men In Black before they had a chance to grab for their dropped guns. Swords and axes flashed brightly in the moonlight, as the warriors of the woad hacked their way through the Department homunculi. The Men In Black fought back with vicious strength and speed, but they had relied on those advantages for so long they had no thought of tactics. They went one on one, head to head, and didn’t even think to guard each other’s backs. Vicious claws tore through leather armour to savage the flesh beneath, but for every warrior that dropped there was an army waiting to avenge them. Boudicca’s wolves threw themselves at the Men In Black, howling like demons in the night.

The battle spread out to cover the whole of Stonehenge. Two armies that knew nothing of mercy slammed together, and keen-edged swords cut down Men In Black, while swinging axes stove in rib cages and sent severed heads rolling across the ground. Knots of struggling figures formed and reformed, and blood splashed across the standing stones. The warriors of the woad pressed forward, even as more of the spindly creatures came scrambling down the sides of the stones, or launched themselves from the crosspieces.

Boudicca led from the front, laughing out loud as her battle-axe split skull after skull. A group of Men In Black cut her off and swarmed around her, intent on dragging her down and butchering her in front of her people, to break their spirit. But the Queen of the Iceni would not fall. She stood her ground and howled defiant curses into their bony faces as she held them off long enough for her warriors to burst through the Men In Black, reach her side and force the enemy back.

It was a glorious slaughter, and Boudicca and her warriors of the woad filled the shadows of the stones with their battle cries as they delighted in their enemies’ destruction.

There was more than one front to the battle. A dozen elves went to war against an army of alien Greys, and didn’t give a damn about the odds. They were in and among their foes in a moment, cutting them down with brightly glowing blades. The Greys had their own claws, and were inhumanly fast and strong, but the elves moved gracefully among the alien figures as though they were dancing between raindrops in a thunderstorm. Elven blades sheared through alien flesh as though it was nothing more than mist or smoke, and no elf was ever there when clawed hands struck desperately back in retaliation. The elves flickered through the packed Greys like deadly notions, come and gone in a moment, leaving butchered alien dead in their wake, and not one drop of their own blood to show where they had been.

Survivors of an apocalyptic war, they had learned to be very hard to kill.

King Arthur and his knights also joined the battle, slicing through the Greys like farmers in a field of wheat. Heavy swords hammered the Greys to their knees and punched through alien flesh, while vicious claws skittered harmlessly across the knights’ armour. The Greys’ usual tactic of swarming and overwhelming the enemy proved useless as the knights stuck close together, guarding each other’s backs and blind spots. King Arthur had learned much from his clash on the field outside Camelot, and had taught his knights well.

Also believing that if they could just lop off the head the body would die, the Greys launched themselves at the king in wave after wave. Arthur stood his ground, his sword flashing brightly as he struck down Grey after Grey, but they forced their way close enough to grab hold of his arms. And while Arthur struggled to free himself, clawed hands prised at his helm. His knights fought desperately to get to him, but the Greys held them off through sheer weight of numbers.

Sir Brendan, the dead of knight, stepped back from the battle, and studied the scene dispassionately. He moved in beside a standing stone and put his shoulder against it. Steel boots dug deep into the ground as the empty suit of armour slowly forced the stone off balance and sent it toppling forward. The huge menhir came crashing down onto the main body of Greys attacking Arthur, and its awful weight hammered them to the ground. Shockwaves from the impact sent everyone staggering, and Arthur seized the moment to break away from his attackers. He nodded his thanks to Sir Brendan, and the empty suit of armour moved quickly forward to guard his king’s back. The two old friends went to war together, dealing out death and destruction to all who came against them.

Robin Hood and his outlaws worked their bows tirelessly, loosing shaft after shaft to strike down Men In Black and alien Greys. Body after body crashed to the ground with an arrow protruding from its eye-socket. Some of the homunculi broke away from the main fight to charge the archers, but a wall of pointed death struck them down long before they could get anywhere near Robin and his people. The outlaws soon ran out of arrows, and then they put aside their bows and drew their swords, and went to join the battle with merry hearts. After fighting the living dead in a burning Sherwood Forest, nothing was ever going to give them pause again.

Robin and Marion fought side by side, striking down their enemies with dashing style and elegant precision. Little John guarded their backs with his massive club, and sent crushed and shattered bodies flying in all directions. Friar Tuck guarded the giant’s blind spots, his long staff flashing out to crack the skull of any Grey foolish enough to see him as an easy target. He still murmured prayers for the dead with every blow, because that was his job.

I started forward to join the fighting the moment the battle began, but Amanda’s hand fell implacably on my arm, holding me where I was.

“You stay right where you are, Jack. Your friends can do this on their own, and I still need you to do the one thing they can’t. They can win the battle, but only you can win the day.”

I nodded unhappily, and threatened Caliban with my athame when he tried to get involved. And so we both stood our ground, and watched the tides of battle move this way and that.

It all ended quite suddenly. Trapped inside the standing stones and attacked from all sides at once, the last of the Men In Black and alien Greys fell to the armies of humanity, and a sudden hush fell across Stonehenge. Queen Boudicca, King Arthur, Robin and Marion, looked out over the piled up bodies of their fallen enemies, and sent up a great roar of triumph and celebration. They raised their swords to honour me, and I saluted them proudly.

Boudicca and Arthur gave quiet orders to gather up their fallen, and led their people back through the stone gateways, but Marion the Fae asked Robin to wait a moment. She walked over to where the twelve survivors of the Faerie War were standing quietly together, unhurt and unmoved by the slaughter, because they had known so much worse.

One of the elves bowed to Marion. “It is good to see you again, Princess.”

“I would have fought beside you in the War,” she said.

“We could not allow that. You were the last of the royal line.”

“I thought I was the last of my kind,” she said. “I have been alone for so long . . .  You have nowhere left to go; our homelands are lost forever. But you could come with me. To join Robin and his outlaws, in Sherwood.”

“Princess,” said the elf. “We would be honoured, to have a home again.”

Marion led the elves over to Robin, and he smiled easily.

“I always knew that some day I’d have to meet the in-laws.”

Robin and Marion, the outlaws and the elves, walked between the standing stones and were gone. Caliban stared out across Stonehenge, his perfect face full of shock and disbelief as he took in the utter destruction of his forces. Amanda moved in beside me.

“Jack, give me the book.”

“It’s about time,” I said.

“Yes,” said Amanda. “It is.”

I hauled the massive volume out of my backpack, and handed it to her. She leafed unhurriedly through the pages.

Things That Shouldn’t Exist,” she said. “The latest in a long line of titles, for the last book to list every magical thing still remaining in the world of science, everything left over from the world that was.” She closed the heavy volume with a snap. “Merlin, if you please? It’s time.”

“Of course, mother,” said Merlin. “Hello, I must be going.”

He raised his staff and hammered it on the ground, and the staff exploded in a burst of light. There was no heat or force, but when the light faded away Merlin was gone. And then I heard laughing overhead, and looked up to see Merlin soaring across the night sky. He rolled over onto his back, so he could wave down at me.

“Catch you on the flipside . . . ”

He disappeared into the darkness, and I turned to Amanda.

“What just happened?”

“All the magic Merlin collected has been set loose in Stonehenge,” said Amanda. “Not a lot, but enough to work with.”

Caliban turned suddenly, to hit us with his mismatched gaze. “I can still win the day, if both of you are dead.”

I moved quickly to stand between him and Amanda. “Really not going to happen.”

Caliban looked at the no longer glowing witch knife in my hand, and his smile had nothing of humour in it.

“That might have hurt me while it was a thing of power, but no ordinary weapon can stop me as long as I am driven by Hell’s energies.”

His eyes flickered away from me, and I looked round just in time to see one last Man In Black leap down at me from a standing stone. I threw myself to one side, and hit the ground so hard the witch knife went flying from my hand. The Man In Black crashed to earth right where I’d been standing, his long legs easily absorbing the impact. I scrambled up onto my feet and then stopped as I took in the long scar running around the figure’s throat, held together by innumerable stitches.

“Slender? Is that you?”

The Man In Black snarled briefly. “I kept myself apart from the fighting, because I always knew you were the real enemy. You’re going to die here, Outsider, at my hands, and your precious cause with you.”

I shook my head. “You always were a bad loser.”

Slender’s mouth stretched wide, to show off his pointed teeth. His long-fingered hands flexed hungrily. I glanced at my knife, but it had fallen well out of reach. So I looked down my nose at Slender and gestured haughtily, inviting him to do his worst. He launched himself at me, clawed hands straining for my face. I grabbed one out-stretched arm in a judo hold, turned sharply and used his own speed to slam him to the ground. Then all I had to do was twist the long arm against the joint, and use the pressure to hold him where he was. He thrashed helplessly, unable to break free.

“You were the one who told me the Outsider needed to know how to fight, as well as defuse bombs,” I said. “Or I might not last long enough to get to the defusing. So I took a few lessons.”

I released his arm, reached down and took his head in my hands. I planted one foot in the small of his back to give myself some leverage, and twisted his head right off. It came free in a stutter of snapping stitches, and I held it up before me so I could look the last Man In Black in the eye.

“Sorry, Slender. No more second chances.”

I threw the head to the ground, and stamped on it. The skull collapsed, and the headless body stopped moving.

Caliban started forward, but Amanda looked at him, and the force of her gaze was enough to send him flying backwards. He went skidding across the ground, and slammed up against the base of a standing stone. He shook his head, and lurched up onto his feet again.

“You can’t hurt me! Nothing can, while Hell’s strength burns within me!”

He started forward again, heading for Amanda. She glared at him, and he just kept coming. I moved quickly to intercept him, and punched him in the face with all my strength. My fist jarred painfully, but Caliban barely blinked. He lashed out at me, and I only just ducked a blow that would have taken my head clean off. I hit him again and again, but all I did was hurt my hand. Caliban didn’t even try to dodge my blows, absorbing the impacts as though they were nothing. I shrugged the backpack off my shoulder to grab for something useful, and Caliban snatched it away from me and threw it to one side.

I ducked inside his reach, and slammed a blow in under his sternum. It felt like punching a brick wall. I grabbed at Caliban’s arm, trying for a judo throw, but he grabbed the front of my jacket, lifted me into the air, and threw me all the way across the clearing. I hit the ground hard, and rolled painfully over onto my side. And only then realised that I’d landed right in front of Dadd’s painting, still standing upright. My witch knife was lying before me.

I didn’t glance at Amanda. If she had helped out, she’d never admit it. I gathered what was left of my strength, and forced myself up onto one knee, facing Caliban. His smile was a cold and malignant thing.

“I’m going to break your bones, one at a time,” he said. “And then leave you lying there, helpless, so you can watch as I take back my book and tear your precious love apart. I will thrust my hands deep into her guts, and savour her screams.”

“Well,” I said. “That makes this easier.” I grabbed up the witch knife, and showed him my smile. “There should be just enough magic left in it, to summon a few old friends of yours.”

I turned to Dadd’s painting, that had always been a doorway to another world, and thrust my knife into the canvas. A moment’s raising of my Sight, a last flicker of magic, and one portal became another. The painting disappeared, to be replaced by a very familiar door.

I scrambled to one side as it swung open, and a mess of leprous tentacles shot out, rotting and corrupt but full of hideous strength and purpose. They wrapped themselves around Caliban, pinning his arms to his sides. He fought the tentacles with all his unnatural strength, but it made no difference. Foot by foot, they dragged Caliban toward the door. Something in the darkness laughed happily, and I shuddered at the sound. Caliban looked back at me, but after everything he’d done and planned to do, I had no mercy left in me.

“Go to Hell,” I said.

The tentacles hauled Caliban through the doorway, and his last despairing scream was suddenly cut off. For a moment there was only darkness, and then a human skeleton stepped out, with Caliban’s face stapled to its skull. The colourless lips stretched slowly, in a smile that tore the skin.

“Hello again, Outsider. Thank you for the gift; we do so hate unfinished business. What do you wish of Hell, in return?”

“Not a damned thing,” I said steadily. “Were you really planning to invade our world?”

“Always,” said the demon. “But there’s no rush. All the best people come to us anyway.” Caliban’s torn-off face smiled briefly. “Be seeing you, Jack.”

The demon stepped back into the dark, and the door closed. I stabbed it with my athame and the door disappeared, taking the witch knife with it. I waited a moment, to be sure the door wouldn’t be coming back, and then turned to Amanda.

“I did feel a bit sorry for him, at the end.”

“Well,” said Amanda. “You’re only human. And now it’s time for you to bring back magic, and save the world.”

“But how am I supposed to do that?” I said. “How did Caliban rewrite history in the first place?”

“With this book,” said Amanda, holding it out to show me. “Caliban found the description of the world in this book, struck through the word magic and wrote science in its place. That was all it took. Now it’s your turn, Jack. Strike out the word science and write in magic, and all will be well again.”

“How can one word change everything?”

“Because intent is everything. Ownership of the book gives you the power to work the change.”

“Why?” I said.

“Because!” said Amanda. “Now get on with it.”

I took the book from Amanda, but couldn’t bring myself to open it.

“Do it, Jack,” she said. “The history you know is just a nightmare the world is waiting to wake up from.”

I lifted the front cover, and the book immediately cracked open to just the right place. Hundreds of carefully described items had been crossed through, in a variety of different inks. Generations of Outsiders at their work, not understanding what it was they were destroying. Some of it had been evil, like the box that killed my father, but . . . 

On the facing page was a description of the world, in a language I couldn’t read but immediately understand, because the book wanted me to. One word had been struck through, with the word science written in above it.

And it seemed to me that the world had been at war for too long, between the two opposing sides of Science and Magic. It was time for the war to end. So I took a pen from my pocket, and beside the word science I wrote and magic in a firm and steady hand. Because there had to be a better world than this.


Suddenly, it was a bright summer’s day. The sky was impossibly blue, like Amanda’s eyes, and wide-open grasslands blazed a brilliant green. The air was rich as champagne, and the sunlight felt like a blessing. The stones of Stonehenge were still there, the gaps between them now so many dimensional doorways, opening onto other realities. Fascinating and inviting, they looked like worlds you could spend a lifetime investigating, and never grow tired.

Wonderful creatures ran freely in the fields: unicorns and horses with wings, fauns and centaurs, talking animals and wee winged fairies. All kinds of old friends, lost but not forgotten because they lived on in the dreams humanity refused to give up. Off to one side stood a wonderful wood, where a boy and his bear would always be playing, and in the distance an emerald city shone like a precious jewel. And I just knew that somewhere there were islands, with pirates and treasures and lost civilisations, and all the other fairy tale lands of glamour and glory.

Magic had returned to the world, and it was marvellous.

The book was gone from my hands, its work done. I stared around me, drinking it all in, and Amanda laughed happily at the look on my face.

“Isn’t it amazing?” she said. “Isn’t it everything I promised you?”

“Yes,” I said, and turned to look at her. “But what kind of life can we have together? I’m mortal, and you’re not.”

“Such things might have mattered in the world that’s gone,” said Amanda. “But anything is possible, in this best of all worlds. So let’s just see what happens.”

I grinned at Amanda and opened my arms, and she ran into them.

We finally let go of each other when a shadow fell over us. I looked up, expecting dragons. But instead, the sky was full of flying cars, people with jet-packs, and superheroes in colourful costumes.

“This is the future that should have been,” said Amanda. “Where science has become magical. There is life on Mars, and dinosaurs roam the hollow earth, and everything you ever wished for is true! It’s a glorious world, Jack, and I can’t wait to share it with you.”

“It’s a shame Merlin isn’t here to see it,” I said.

“Oh, he’ll turn up,” said Amanda. “We’re going to have a baby, Jack. A boy named Merlin. Only here, he won’t have to age backwards.”

A rainbow slammed down out of the sky, its glorious colours thundering like a mighty waterfall, and Amanda took my hand and led me toward it. The world was back the way it should have been, where everything was magical, and good things happened every day.


And we all lived happily ever after.


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Framed