A shock-wave jolted through his whole body. Every nerve quivered and tingled with raw power.
The harp emitted a pure note of sound, as clear as crystal.
Arcs of energy leapt between the heartstone and the harp and the sword and all through him. It was as if, in a brief instant they had each become part of an enchanted whole.
The note strengthened and soared and he watched in amazement as– Kerry's fishing line and the fine braids of Hedda's hair – began to change colour and take on a gleaming hue. Each string was turning back to pure gold.
The power surged through him and he watched, oblivious to everything around him, as the harp healed itself.
The sound it made swelled: A single note in the clear, cold air, yet it soared like a heavenly choir; a magical symphony. It sounded like the world wakening. It grew louder and louder until Jack was caught within its vibrations. The world seemed to spin.
Then it emitted a surge of power like light and sound and energy and life combined.
The thick bank of cloud that had blanketed Eirinn for so long was blasted outward, a vast ebb-tide in the heavens. The clouds rolled away. They raced.
And for the first in a long time, they saw clear sky.
In the far west, it was deep cobalt blue of almost morning. In its depths the corona stars sparkled like diamonds on velvet, shimmering with their perfect light.
And in the east, the sun began to rise.
A ray of sunlight speared through a distant cleft between two tall mountains, a shaft of gold that lanced across the icy landscape in a burst of brilliance.
In that instant the harp was ablaze, bathed in the sunlight of this midsummer dawn.
And suddenly, within a pillar of light that soared to the sky, Jack saw her.
She stood, crowned in her own aurora, splashed with intense light, spangled with the sun and stars.
The Sky Queen.
She was the most beautiful vision he had ever seen. His heart seemed to stop dead in his chest and time stood still. It was as if everything wonderful and good had been condensed into light, made into female form. Golden hair, fine as silk, tumbled to her waist. A circlet of stars adorned her head. She turned her eyes on him and for a second he felt such vast power he thought he could die of it.
Then she reached towards him and touched his cheek with a hand as soft a summer breeze.
"My fair champion."
The music of the harp sounded in her voice. It was the voice of a mother. The voice of wisdom and beauty. The voice of life. Of all eternity.
She took the harp in both hands and lifted it above her head. Radiant beams pulsed from it as it sang.
Like a vast canvas, the land around Tara Hill began to change colour as the light of day washed over them.
The ice and snow melted away and the ground began to turn green again. The scent of flourish and new flowers wafted like honey on the air.
The green spread out, shading fields and hedgerows, meadows and marshes. Hosts of daffodils appeared in swathes of yellow.
And spring returned to Eirinn.
The lady of light turned and looked down from Tara Hill, still holding the harp high. Its light swept the slopes below like the beam of a searchlight and instantly the writhing mass of snakes began to lash and coil and then, in a black and yellow tide, they slithered fast down the far side of the hill.
In a matter of minutes, the hill was clear and a loathsome line of snakes was disappearing in the distance towards the western sea.
Fainn hovered over the cauldron from which shadowy shapes writhed up like fumes, taking grotesque form. They began to spill out, like the darkness that had oozed from the shadows on that Halloween night when they had stumbled through the first gate.
Inside the creeping darkness, they could see vile faces and yawning mouths, a mass of formless demons spreading out across the battlefield.
A ray of light shot from the golden harp into the blue sky. Jack heard a faint moan of wind as a sparkling cloud took form, like icy crystals in winter sun. It slowly spun, descending from the heavens, glittering in the magical light.
Over the harp's pure note he heard a soft whispering, as if many distant voices were trying to make themselves heard.
The gyrating sparkle came ever lower, still spinning, until it reached the horde of foul things still pouring out from the cauldron.
Then Jack saw the faces in the glistening haze. Faint and hazy, faces in gauze.
The circling apparitions spun faster, enveloping the foul entities that Fainn had summoned into being, pressing them back towards the cauldron. The dark things slobbered and howled, helpless against this force of light. And with them, Fainn was forced back, back, towards the cauldron's lip.
There was an unearthly sucking sound as the nightmare shapes were drawn back into its depths, to whichever hell had spawned them, and as they disappeared, a dozen thin, writhing arms, glistening like tar, reached from inside the cauldron and fastened around his neck.
He screamed one strangled cry and then the unearthly arms pulled him back and back and in and under. Fainn vanished into the darkness of his own creating. The great cauldron bubbled and heaved for a moment and then as if some tide in its depths began to swirl, it shuddered and rolled onto its side. It was empty.
Fainn was gone. The snakes were banished. And spring had come to Temair.
Jack felt a huge joy expand in his heart.
The end of the quest.
In that moment, he knew that for all the danger, and all the anguish, it had been worth it. He and Kerry and Corriwen and Connor had done it. They had won through.
* * *
"Fair champion," her voice came again.
"Heart of my heart," she whispered in his mind. "Soul of my soul. For me and for Eirinn you fought the good fight. As I knew you would."
Jack tried to open his mouth, but no words came. She placed a finger on his lips.
"You bear the key to all my worlds, and you bear it bravely and well. So young. So fine."
She smiled down at him and his heart did a low, lazy roll.
"My Journeyman. It is a heavy burden and unasked, but once taken up, it will not be put down again. But I will be with you in all worlds."
Suddenly Jack recalled what Hedda had said. The Sky Queen grants a favour to those who would do her work. Do not forget that.
He opened his mouth again. But before he could speak she smiled again and he heard that wondrous voice.
"The gift you seek," she said, touching both soft hands to the top of his head. "is here."
And Jack Flint remembered…