On Jack's chest, the heart-stone began to beat again. He could sense the presence, awake and now rousing. Kerry pointed to the sky and Jack raised his eyes.
"It's happening," Corriwen said, her knuckles white on the Redthorn hilt.
As they watched the storm sank lower and lower, speeding up as it descended on the Black Barrow.
Jack tried to turn, but the scene held his eyes in awful fascination.
As soon as the storm's base touched the black stones, the earth jolted. Even from this distance they could see a shock wave judder across the plain.
A deadly silence reigned.
"Jack," Kerry said urgently, plucking at his sleeve. "I really think we should…"
He didn't even get to finish the sentence.
The Black mound exploded.
The ground ruptured all around and molten rock sprewed up.
And in the centre of it all, something began to emerge.
Jack felt her searching mind before he saw the shape. It was like the touch of death.
She rose slowly, like a smoke haze, coiling, weaving, thickening all the time. Bolts of power arced up to a sky that had turned from the black of the storm to a sickly purple. No sun or stars shone.
The Morrigan turned her ghastly head towards them and then she laughed. A flock of roaks circled over its head. Her arms stretched wide, as if to embrace the whole world, became great black bat-wings that spread out on either side.
"Look away, Jack!" Kerry shouted. He grabbed the reins and hauled at Jack's horse. "Come on!"
Corriwen pulled him, forcing him to turn. As he did, Jack felt the awful connection between him and the monstrous thing part with a mental snap.
Corriwen kicked her horse and they were off, the howl of mad laughter ringing in their ears.
On the hillock, the bards joined their five staves together in an interlocking pattern, holding them up to the sky.
From that pentagram, a spear of white light met the darkness head on.
Jack risked a look over his shoulder.
The Morrigan was powering across the distance towards them.
"Faster," Jack yelled. The horses were at full tilt, leaping over the smoking crevasses that laced the plain.
Some awesome power came twisting out from the demon like a tornado. Jack caught the motion and instinctively wheeled his mount. The others turned with him, and an force shuddered past him, so close he felt the wave of black energy ripple through him. His vision wavered and a deathly cold ripped to his core, and then it was gone.
The bolt smashed into the rocks ahead of them and the earth cracked open. Brimstone gouted.
Jack's horse lost its footing and tumbled, slammed into Corriwen's mount. The other two steeds collided with the first and all the riders went down.
Jack rolled, grabbed Kerry's arm and dragged him to his feet. Corriwen was beside him, Declan had his sword drawn, but Jack knew no sword could have any effect on the raging thing that plummeted towards them.
"Run," he gasped. Boiling stone erupted from a churning crevasse. Jack leapt onto one of the heaving slabs, with Kerry and Corriwen beside him.
The Morrigan soared above them. Jack leapt from one tilting rock to another. The little leprechaun scampered across the big rocks to the far side.
The slab Jack reached spun under his weight. He felt his skin bake.
The stone cracked like thin ice and one part pulled away. Jack slipped to one knee. Corriwen gave a cry as the slab they were spun off. Declan stood up. He held the Redthorn Sword in his hands.
Jack got to his feet again. On his neck, the heartstone was pulsing as fast as his own. Above him, above the smoke and heat, the Morrigan wheeled and cackled. Jack turned to Declan and his heart almost stopped.
Declan dropped his saddlebag. Its contents spilled out. He turned his eyes on Jack and they were as dead and as empty as a corpse.
His fingers found Jack's neck and squeezed hard.
"Freedom in all worlds."
Jack heard the words, but the voice that spoke was not Declan's. It was the same voice that had invaded his mind in the depths of the Black Barrow.
Corriwen screamed a warning and tried to leap from her stone across a gap six feet wide. Kerry held her back.
"You lose, journeyman. Like your father."
In desperation, Jack fumbled at Declan's belt and managed to grab the knife. Declan raised the Redthorn sword high, and began to swing it down.
Jack thrust with the knife and took Declan under the swinging arm. The knife drove straight in. Declan faltered, just enough to let Jack dodge the blade edge. Jack twisted, grabbed Declan's saddle bag as the sword came down again and hit with such force it jarred his arms up to the shoulder. The little book fell out and in the heat the edges of its pages began to turn brown.
"Give it up," the Morrigan's voice spoke from Declan's mouth. "Fight me and you will suffer forever."
Declan grabbed for the heartstone on its chain. Jack flinched.
On the far side, the little leprechaun fixed its eyes on the book that had fallen open.
Jack rolled and almost tumbled into the searing flow. Declan caught his ankle and drew him back. He twisted, knocked the little book to the side and the pages fluttered open. Declan suddenly stopped hauling.
A scarlet rose was pressed to the page, still bright.
As Declan's empty eyes caught the image, the rose swelled up from the page. On the far side of the gash in the earth, the little leprechaun hunched, polished eyes fixed on the flower, muttering. The rose petals opened. Declan's death grip loosened abruptly. He dropped the Redthorn sword and Jack scrambled back to the edge of the slab.
He grabbed the sword in both hands.
Declan turned to him.
"Do it now," he hissed. "Finish me now before…"
Jack raised the sword.
Above them, in the smoke and fumes, the Morrigan screamed. A withering bolt of pure evil came blasting down and smashed into Declan whose fingers spasmed around the rose flower and crushed it to nothing. He looked up, lurched forwards.
"Now, boy. End it lest she…."
His mouth clammed shut and his face twisted in agony. The slab rocked alarmingly as Declan's hand found Jack's neck again.
The stone lurched and spilled Declan backwards towards the cauldron of melted rock.
His fingers found the chain around Jack's neck as he fell, dragging him to the edge and then without warning, the slab tilted. Declan's foot hit the molten rock and sizzled in a burst of steam. He screamed once and then the rock simply flicked over and smashed them both into the incandescent heat.