"Jack!"
Kerry's voice was faint and distant
Something shook him. He was too tired and hurt to rouse himself. His ears were ringing and the freezing cold still had him in an icy grip. Every inch of his body felt twisted and torn.
He took a breath. It hurt his throat and his lungs, but the air was cool.
"Come on, man. Wake yourself."
Kerry's face was just a blur. He shook Jack again.
"Rise and shine, man," Kerry said.
Jack groaned in protest, rolled on the stone, got half-way up. The world tilted and the great standing stones seemed to shift with it.
Kerry's face was a mass of bruises.
Jack slowly sat up. He closed his eyes, took another breath.
"Is she gone?"
"You bet she is," Kerry said. "You did it. But I thought you were a goner this time for sure."
"That's the way I feel. Did I close it? Did I close the gate?"
"You did something. I don't know what, but there's nothing there any more. And that monster went screaming down there."
"We're home then," Jack managed to say. "We're back. Back to Halloween."
Kerry groaned this time. Jack could see the bruise across his cheek. He had taken a hard blow, but his eyes were still bright and somehow fierce.
"We beat the bitch," he said.
"We did. And I think I got us back to before. I mean, before it all went crazy. Now I can ask the Major…"
He paused in mid sentence.
"Where is she?"
"I told you. She's gone."
"No," Jack said. "Where's Corriwen?"
They both turned round.
"She was…" Kerry started, then stopped. "I think she was here. I was running with that thing coming on like a train. Then I threw it to you and she hit me such a wallop I went ass for elbow."
"She was hit too," Jack said. His heart lurched. "She was hit. I saw it." He started to get up, ignoring the pain and they helped each other to their feet.
"She was hit really hard and she went flying." He took a slow step and then another in the direction Corriwen had tumbled when the Morrigan had flipped her away, all the time expecting to find her broken body against one of the standing stones. The final blow from the Morrigan must have been devastating.
He searched around, moving from one stone to the other before he saw it. There on the soft earth, was a small depression where she had landed and rolled, scuff marks in the thin grass.
They continued on, towards the space between two standing stones.
Then they vanished.
Jack looked at Kerry.
"She must have been thrown through," Kerry said. Regret and relief were struggling in his expression. "Back home to Temair."
Jack reached for his friend's arm. It was all coming back to him through a haze of hurt and numbness.
He shook his head. "No," he said. "That's not the gate to Temair. The Farward Gate. She was thrown through the wrong one. They were all open at the same time. I saw different places out there."
They locked eyes. "Kerry. I don't know where she's gone."
"Oh Jack ," Kerry whispered.
Jack picked up the amberhorn bow and his backpack. His jacket was in rags. One shoe was torn from sole to heel. The standing stones towered above them.
Beyond them, Cromwath Blackwood's trees crowded close. Beyond them, some distance away was the tall wall that was built to keep people out. Now he and Kerry knew the astonishing secret.
Beyond the wall was a world back to normal, he knew for sure. No creeping darkness, no whispering shade. No madness in the night.
Beyond the wall the Major's telescope would still be focussed on the woods.
Jack had so much to tell him, so much to ask him. All the answers about who he was, all the things he needed to know, lay beyond the wall.
He paused, heart aching with the hunger for that knowledge, to discover the whole truth about his father. He walked across the ring, to the space between the stones through which they had run, panicked, on that first night.
Jack leaned against the stone, utterly worn.
He had to get back. Had to speak with the Major and find out all he knew.
He took one step beyond the ring, aching with the need to find the whole truth about his father.
But Corriwen Redthorn had saved his life. She had helped both of them survive against all the odds and she had helped them get here after all they had been through.
The memory of their travels, their battles; her bravery. They all came back in a rush, and with them came the knowledge that he would have to act like the old heroes he had always admired.
They made sacrifices. Their word was more than their bond. It was their life.
And Jack Flint owed a debt of life to Corriwen Redthorn. A debt he would repay come what may, no matter the cost; no matter the sacrifice.
He turned back and faced across the capstone to the gateway through which Corriwen had disappeared.
Kerry's eyes followed him.
"What do you want to do?"
"Oh Kerry," Jack breathed.
Unsteadily, but very deliberately he limped across the ring of stones to the far side. He hurt all over and he felt he could sleep for a week.
"She's lost somewhere. Lost and alone. I don't know where, but I've got the key to open the gate."
He turned to face Kerry, looked him straight in the eye.
"I'm going to find her," he said.
Kerry nodded. Understanding was clear on his face. He clapped Jack on the back. They both winced.
"Not on your own, you're not."
"I can't ask you…" Jack began.
Kerry held up a hand.
"You're not. And you don't have to. We're not going to let a girl come between us, are we?"
"Cross my heart," Jack said.
And together they walked forward into the unknown.
THE END