33

"It begins," his mother said, barely more than a whisper. "And it ends here."

As if she had called out to him, Jack's father turned towards them. Their eyes met and held. Neither his mother nor father them spoke, but Jack saw the love and regret in his father's gaze.

He mouthed one word that was swallowed in the noise from the tide of grotesque creatures surging across the arena.

Lauralen.

Jonathan Flint looked at his son, and Jack felt that same love encompass him. His father nodded slowly, just once. But in that small gesture he managed to convey so much. Jack knew his father thanking him for bringing Lauralen Flint back. And he sensed the father and son bond that he had dreamt about since childhood. For the second time that day Jack's heart felt as if it would burst.

Kerry turned and when he saw the fair haired woman his eyes grew so wide they looked as if they might pop out.

"Wow!" It was all he could manage.

Corriwen just gazed at her as if Jack's mother was an apparition. Jack still wasn't sure she was not.

"The Great Lord of Darkness comes," Lauralen said.

"First we have to fight these beasties," Kerry finally found his tongue. Jack passed the glowing staff back to Rionna.

Jonathan Flint swept his gaze around them all.

"We stand here," he said. "I wish it were different. But such is fate." His voice was steady and calm.

"Always for the light," said Lauralen, just as calmly. She showed no fear. "Always for the right. It was ever thus."

Jack's father turned to face the approaching creatures. As he swung up the great sword Jack thought it fit his hand as if it were made for him.

The horde of sprites, slowed their advance. For a moment, all Jack could hear was the scratching of claws on stony ground. Corriwen readied her bow. Kerry was muttering something to himself. It took Jack a moment to recognise it was the poem that he had helped him learn at school. It was about Robert the Bruce at the battle of Bannockburn.

Now's the day and now's the hour, see the front of battle glower.

Kerry had his shortsword in one hand and swung the heavy bolas in the other.

Ready as I'm ever going to be, he breathed. But I'd rather be fishing any day of the week.

Lauralen Flint silently handed Megrin's staff to Rionna who gripped it tight.

Jack expected the creatures to come surging towards them at any moment, but they did not. Instead, they began to mill together, forming a tight pack.

"What are they doing?" Corriwen's voice was tight with tension.

They surged together, piling one on top of the other, forming a mound of arms and legs and claws and tails.

Jack's mother stood calmly. The heartstone gleamed at her neck, pulsing in time with the one Jack wore.

The heap of wriggling bodies began to change shape. All the hideous creatures merged together, sinking into each other until there was just a featureless shape in front of them.

"Is that it?" Kerry asked. "Are they dead?"

As if in reply, the mound gave an enormous shudder. Jack watched in horror as it expanded, growing upwards into a pillar until it towered above them.

A huge head swelled upon massive shoulders. Its toes grew into curved claws, two upon each foot. Fingers stretched into long, hooked talons. Horns grew on its head, spiralling and ridged like a monstrous ram.

A mouth opened, showing row upon row of jagged black teeth and from it boomed a mighty, triumphant laugh that echoed madly around the walls of the amphitheatre.

Jonathan Flint had turned to face it. Kerry looked at Jack and his eyes were bright with apprehension. Corriwen had drawn the bow, ready to shoot. Rionna had raised Megrin's staff.

Jack realised with dismay that neither he nor his mother were armed. They had nothing but the two heartstones. Jack felt his own heartstone beat stronger.

The beast laughed again, and the ground heaved. It raised its arms and spread them out on either side. Flames burst into life and raced up and down its body, twisting around its arms and legs.

It swung a vast arm around and pointed a claw at Jonathan Flint. A bolt of fire exploded out. Jack's father disappeared in gout of flame, and Jack cried out in alarm.

Then he saw him, twenty yards distant, unscathed.

Where he had stood, the rock was flowing white-hot. The reek of burning filled the air.

Jonathan Flint was moving fast.

His spear was at his shoulder. His back arched and he launched it straight at the fiery shape. Where it struck, tongues of flame gouted out and Jack saw the monster stagger.

It can be hurt, he thought.

Two clawed hands swung round and gripped the spear. Fire surged between the hands, but the great weapon did not burn. Grunting, it pulled the spear free. The puncture holes in its body spewed burning liquid and acrid fumes.

But Jonathan Flint was still moving, swinging the Scatha's sword in his right hand. Kerry and Corriwen, to Jack's amazement, were on his heels. He made to follow them, but his mother pressed on his shoulder.

"Wait," she said softly, and that word carried an enormous weight of command. Jack froze. Lauralen Flint placed her free hand on Rionna's head and together they stood, watching the deadly battle. Jack was jittering with the need to fight with his friends and at his father's back, but the hand on his shoulder made him stay.

Jack's father ducked under a mighty arm as it came sweeping down at him. The sword flashed, slashed, and a huge claw tumbled away and landed with a thump. Kerry had been veering to the left and the claw missed him by a whisker.

Corriwen raised her bow. She was moving fast, a red-headed streak. One arrow shot out and stabbed between the jagged teeth. Foul steam billowed and it roared again.

It swung at her and a sizzling jolt traced her as she dashed away, scoring the ground in puffs of vapour.

Kerry jinked past the twitching claw. Without warning it flipped over scuttled after him, a nightmare on four claws and a hooked thumb, moving with spider-like speed.

He let out a yell of fright and ran as the thing scrabbled after him, trailing blood that sizzled as it hit the ground. Corriwen launched another arrow, again high on the monster's body, just as Kerry blundered between its legs. Briefly distracted, it missed a slashing grab for him. Instinctively Kerry jabbed and the sword turned pink then flopped like a wilted leaf. A vast hoof raised over his head and stamped down again. For a second, Jack saw Kerry disappear in a cloud of fumes and then he was out the other side, ducking and rolling as it stamped again, so hard that the whole dark world trembled.

Jack watched with pride as his friends and his father fought the monstrosity. He was desperate to run in and help them, to do something other than watch, but his mother's hand stayed firmly on his shoulder.

Corriwen launched another arrow and another, shooting and reloading fast. They spiked around its hideous face, but the beast brushed them off and came at her. She leapt aside and Jonathan Flint strode in again with the great sword. It seemed to blaze with light as he slashed right and left, tearing huge gouges in the monster's thighs, gouges that formed mouths with jagged teeth that gnashed in fury.

Kerry found Jonathan Flint's spear. It looked much too big for him but he managed it nonetheless. Jack's father was up close and slashing madly. Everywhere he cut, another mouth opened to scream at him. Kerry ran to his side, with the spear raised up. Jack's father stabbed hard and the beast faltered, giving Kerry the chance to put all his strength into one hard lunge.

It staggered, bellowing. Jack watched in amazement as it rocked back and then began to tumble forward. It happened as if in slow motion. Jonathan Flint grabbed Kerry's hood and hauled him back just as the behemoth toppled and hit the ground with enormous force.

"Is it dead," Rionna asked.

"No," Lauralen said. "The great beast can never die, for he is not alive as we know it. He is the sum of all the evil he has gathered to himself."

Now Jonathan Flint, Corriwen and Kerry were backing off. The beast was on all fours, scoring gouges in the ground. It seemed to curl into itself. The hand that had chased Kerry crawled towards it, clawed its way up and sank back into its warty skin.

Before their eyes, the arms and legs shrank back into the main body until all they could see was a twitching mass.

"It's changing again," Rionna said.

"Stand by me," Lauralen told. "Now we play our part. We have two heartstones and you have more power than you know. We will need all of it."

Jack saw the surface of the mass rip wide open and what emerged made his stomach clench. At first it was a writhing mass of worms, wriggling and looping and slimy, like branched tentacles, except that each one ended in a head that was grotesquely human. It uncoiled, still swelling and the tentacles hardened into jointed limbs. The head, on a long, segmented neck, reminded Jack of a preying mantis. Great wings opened and beat the air.

A voice spoke in Jack's head.

Lost forever, mortal. The voice was like rot and sickness. He felt it deep inside him and he shuddered. Your pain will be eternal. I will burn you for all time and feast on your anguish.

Jack clapped his hands to his head, staggering under the mental assault.

His mother laid a soft hand on his head and the sensation faded until he could open his eyes once more. The heartstones thrummed together in powerful harmony.

"Begone." Her voice was clear. "You will never have him."

Give me what I will have. Give it now and he will suffer less. The Mailachan Mhor commands.

"You are no Great Lord," she said. Jack could hear the words but couldn't see her lips move. "You are the king of nothingness."

I will bring perpetual night and pain. I will ravage! I will cover all in darkness.

The great wings whooped in the air. Its neck stretched out towards them, head swelling and contorting, bent to the ground.

Jack watched in horror as a great eye began to open. He could see fire swirling under the scaly eyelid. His mother made no move.

The eye creaked open. Rionna let out a small cry. Jack saw the ground shrivel under the power of the gaze.

Something thudded at Jack's side. His hand found the satchel. His other hand went to the heartstone and its throbbing rippled through him. His fingers opened the bag and touched the Book of Ways. Before he knew it, it was in his hand.

His mother reached and grasped Megrin's staff with one hand on top of Rionna's. In her other, she raised the crystal heartstone. Instinctively Jack imitated her. He held his own heartstone up before him. The Book twisted in his hand.

The awful head came up and as it swung towards them, Jack got a glimpse of the eternal evil in that gaze. He thought he might fall down and die.

His mother stepped in front of Rionna and the eye turned to follow her. It was almost completely open, as red as boiling lava. Rocks burst asunder as it began to focus.

Jonathan Flint ran in, sword raised. The eye swivelled towards him.

Megrin's staff suddenly blazed with incandescent white light. A jolt of power blasted out from the monster's eye, a beam of pure night. Every nerve in Jack's body shrivelled, and an intense cold shuddered through his bones.

Megrin's light met the creature's dead-light head on. Lauralen Flint held the staff in a firm grip, eyes wide, concentrating. The Book of Ways twisted again in Jack's hand. A strange, juddering sound throbbed where the two lights met. Darkness tried to engulf Megrin's light, but Jack's mother held firm.

Lauralen Flint held up her heartstone.

And Megrin's light winked out. The monstrous beast roared in triumph.

Jack's heart lurched. But suddenly the Book of Ways opened in his numbed hand, just as the beast's glare blasted straight at his mother.

A blast struck the crystal heartstone with such force that the air about them seemed to rip to shreds.

The heartstone glowed. It beat once, twice. And the deathly blast leapt from her stone to Jack's in a beam of blue. He felt it strike, amazed that he was not instantly incinerated.

The heartstone turned the light yet again. A beam stabbed down and hit the open book. Pure copper on the page turned to gold and the darklight, now a line of brilliant white was hurled back in the direction it had come.

It struck the beast right in the glaring eye.

Then the devil got a taste of his own. The light from the Copperplates melted the eye in its socket. The great beast juddered and its wings froze in mid-beat. Its foul head bent backwards and the mouth gaped like a cave-mouth. A deep, hollow rumble rolled over them and then the mouth closed with a crash.

Jack's mother stood watching, heartstone in her hand.

The beast swayed on its horny feet, and Jack watched in fascination as its movement began to slow until it was almost still.

A sudden wind whipped up the sand around them, swirling around the monster. As the grains struck it. The wind gained strength, but they stood firm, holding on to one another as the creature swayed in the blast and then toppled backwards and crashed to the ground….

It shattered into a million fragments that instantlycrumbled to dust which was swept away by the gale. The wind died as quickly as it had begun and they stood, six of them together, in a land scoured clean.

All around them was emptiness, no rocks, no stone, no amphitheatre, nothing.

Jack's mother let out a long sigh and took his hand in hers.

Jonathan Flint came up beside them, wrapped his arms around both of them.

"You came back," Lauralen said.