The leading bear spoke quickly to theothers. They parted to let Tam through, butescorted him closely as he marched acrossthe scree. Lucy trotted on close behind,still with Tam’s shirt across her mouth.
They found Avrel sitting on a patch ofclear ground, his head low down in hisbright white chest. He heard the crunch ofpebbles and raised his gaze. Again Tamshowed his palms. “Avrel. My name is Tam Farrell. I am a friend of Ingavar. Heblessed me with your image.”
“I know who you are,” said the Tellerof Ways.
“He’s in the heart of the island. I can
take you to him.”
Avrel nodded. A slight breeze picked at
the fur around his ears.
“Commander!” a distant voice called.
Tam heard it and said, “These men youare guarding are no danger to you now. Something has reverted the Shadow in us. Let them take arms. They will help youfight Voss.”
Avrel glanced at the men, the sleeklines of his jaw so sharp against the sky. “The fight is over.”
Tam peered across the sea. He couldstill see darklings wheeling in the sky,albeit some distance away. “Voss isdead?”
Avrel shook his head. “His darklings
have multiplied in number and the Shadow has absorbed enough of our auma to begin an inversion of our species. We cannot fight any more.”
Lucy prodded Tam’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”
Avrel turned his brown-eyed gaze on her. “You must take the girl away. Any child of the dragon is bound to suffer.”
“Hey, did he speak to me then?”
“Why?” said Tam, ignoring her. “What’s happened?”
“Voss was seen with the flying girl.”
“Alexa’s out there?” Tam spoke this aloud.
“Alexa?!” Lucy shoved Tam aside and put herself in front of Avrel. “Where? Where is A-lex-a? You-have-to-find-
her.”
Tam translated her outburst, adding, “You have to fight, Avrel. Ingavar willlead you, with Kailar at his side.”
Avrel tipped his snout into the wind. “Look at the water, Tam Farrell.”
Tam looked and saw the tide was
rolling in. In his haste to bring Lucy down to the shore he hadn’t noticed that the sea
was fluid again. His heart sank when he
saw a wide slick of blood.
“For us, the battle is done,” said Avrel.
“Kailar is dead.”
17. Opening the Lock
All David could do was stand and stare. It
was her, from the beautiful hips to the snaking hair. With no ugly adornments from the Shadow. Human again. His Earth love.
Zanna.
She looked at the dragon, her bangles,her arm. Her fingers settled lightly overher scars. From that, she seemed to learneverything at once. “Oh my God… ” shewhispered. “Rosa. Oh my God… ”
The first of the judders Tam and Lucywould feel on the slopes of the mountainhappened at that point. Gawain flappedhis wings and spiralled round the pool. A
single point of flame went rocketing past him on its way to the dome of the island.
“Something’s happening,” said Zanna. “Gwilanna’s reporting waves of energy emerging from the other side of the core.”
“I have to go,” David muttered, shaking his head. “There are bears. They’ll be looking for me.” He backed away.
“Wait,” she commanded. Her devastating green eyes pierced his heart. “You know that Rosa would want you here.”
Now he could only hold his face. Steepling his fingers around his nose, hetried to staunch the threat of tears. “Can
you feel her?”
“Of course I can.” The words were
softly spoken. Zanna placed her fingers in
the scars again. They began to glow blue. “Your antidote’s working. It’s spreading through the matrix the Ix created to control the humans. Gwilanna was right. The energy from the paradox was enough to force the change. Rosa has saved a lot of lives. But it won’t revert any of the darklings – or Voss. Only a dragon could take him down.”
“That’s why I need to go,” said David.
Another rumble. He felt it throughout his whole body.
“No,” she said. Once more he paused. “When Gwilanna messed with the timeline
she got the added bonus of screwing up your connection to Grockle. You can’t call him. You’re out of phase. I can give you some of your old strength back but it
won’t protect you against Voss’s magicks.”
“Then take down this barrier and give me Gawain.”
The dragon was following thisconversation like a confused but faithful
dog.
“I can’t. Voss set it.”
David whirled away, driving a handthrough his hair in frustration. “This isridiculous. I can’t just hang aroundwaiting for this lump of rock to explode.” As he spoke, shale was cracking off thewalls. “There must be
something
I can
do? ”
“There is. They were right about Alexa.
She’s close.”
“How close? Where is she?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“But you can feel her?”
“Yes. The dragons, too. The Pennykettle dragons. She must have moved them here, through time.”
“What’s she
doing
? If you can sense her, Voss must be able to. She might as well have painted him a ‘look here’ sign.”
Zanna nodded, grim-faced. “I have a horrible feeling she intends exactly that.”
David rubbed his fingers against his temples. “You said I could do something. What did you mean?”
“Call them. Call the dragons here. Your links to them overrule Alexa’s. If we get them away from her, Voss might go off the scent – and we’ll have a chance of freeing Gawain.”
David gave a hopeful nod. There werevery few problems in the known universethat couldn’t be solved by Liz’s creations. So he closed his eyes and pictured Gadzooks. Straightaway, he saw thewriting dragon in Alexa’s hands. Gadzooks felt the auma wave and sat bolt
upright. He put away his pad.
“Come on-nn,” muttered David, “look
this way.”
Gadzooks frowned and turned his head.
“Good boy. Come to Daddy… ”
The dragon blew a puff of smoke and
shook his head.
Hrrr
.
Typical
, thought David. Heconcentrated on G’reth instead. To his
surprise, he saw Gadzooks morph into the wisher. “She’s combined them,” he said.
“How’s she done that?”
“Stay focused,” said Zanna. “Just get them here.” She came to him and put her hand to his heart. “Gawain is the key. Concentrate.”
There was a fizzle of light, andsuddenly G’reth had materialised beforethem.
For a third time, an ominous rumbleshook the island. Gawain beat his wingsand bellowed a warning. The lava poolopened in the shape of a crown and beganto spit white-hot rocks into the air.
“Quickly,” Zanna said, “before Alexacalls them back. We need to get Gwilannaout of there.”
“How? What should I do?”
“What you always do when you want to
crack a nut.”
“Use a sledgehammer?”
“No, you idiot. You ask Gollygosh.”
The healing dragon. The moment David thought of him, he’d taken G’reth’s place. “There, look. What’s with the morphing thing?”
“I don’t know,” said Zanna. “But in case you hadn’t noticed, this whole island is about to go up. Ask him what he can do about the force-field.”
David dented it so Gollygosh could seethe problem.
And the dragon did what he always did. He put down his toolbox. It opened and anasterisk of light zipped out. The toolboxclosed. Gollygosh disappeared. But justwhen David was thinking they had failed,
the asterisk exploded into a shape.
And suddenly, the answer to the problem was obvious.
Only one thing in the universe could pass through a construct. A firebird.
Gideon had come.
18. Never Born Human
Tam Farrell burst in with Lucy at his side.
“David? Zanna?”
Lucy ran to David and threw her armsaround him. “They’ve got Alexa,” shewhispered.
David met Tam’s gaze. “Is this true?”
Tam nodded and gave him a very quickrundown, pausing on the difficult newsabout Kailar. “He was last seen protecting Alexa. Voss attacked him with a jet ofdark fire. It blasted a huge hole in thesurface, destroying the freezing spell inthe process. Kailar… didn’t come up. Anybears that survived the early battles mustbe in the water by now. I’m not sure what
we can do for them. It gets worse, David. Voss is gathering darklings way out at sea. According to Avrel’s best reports they’ve already tripled in number.”
“Why aren’t they attacking the island?” asked Zanna.
David looked at Gawain and said, “They’re waiting to see what happens toit.”
Tam nodded in agreement. “We shouldget to the mainland. It’s safer there.”
“What about Alexa?”
“I’m guessing Voss has her.”
“I doubt it,” said a voice.
Everyone turned to see a shimmering boy sitting on the rock where Gideon had been.
“Who are
you
?” said Lucy, in her usual
semi-scornful way.
The boy raised his angelic face to her. “I’m Joseph Henry, your brother.”
Zanna plucked at David’s arm. Despite her considerable sibyl strengths, she was struggling to take this in. It didn’t help that the boy was the image of David – or how David might have been when he was twelve.
Likewise, Lucy tottered a little, notquite able to believe what she was seeing. “But you’re… ”
“Dead?” He shook his mop of hair. “No, just never born human. It’sdifferent.”
“Then you’re a spirit?” said Tam.
“Who’s moving through time as a firebird,” David added.
Joseph lifted his shoulders. The whiterobe he was wearing rippled like silk. “I ‘am’ what everyone imagines me to be. It’s easier for you to see me this way. Easier than talking to Gideon, anyway.”
“Where’s Gwillan, Joseph?”
The boy tapped his immaculate fingerstogether. “You sound disapproving, David.”
“I just want to be sure we’re all working in harmony. The last time I saw you, you’d taken his form – and stolen powers from the other dragons.”
Joseph smiled and imagineered a conker, as if that might somehow help his cause. “Gwillan is safe. He’s with my mother.”
“I remember,” Lucy interjected
suddenly, recalling echoes of the previous timeline. “Mum was ill. The dark fire was
in her. I had to leave her and go to Scuffenbury with Tam.”
“Is Liz all right?” Tam asked.
“I was looking after her,” Zanna muttered, as the memories began to come back to her, too.
“But you were at Scuffenbury with us,” said Tam.
Zanna nodded. “I left her in Agatha
Bacon’s care.”
“That was not Agatha Bacon,” said Joseph.
Behind him, Gawain gave a pitiful roar.
David put two and two together at once. “You,” he said darkly. He was looking at Gawain, but from the tone of his voice
addressing Gwilanna. “What have you done to Liz? If you’ve harmed her, I’ll find a way to drag you out of those scales and I’ll kill you and everyone here can be my witness.”
“Killing Gwilanna will not change anything,” said Joseph. “Unless the timeline changes, what happens to my mother and Arthur is fixed.”
“Can we change the timeline back?”
asked Tam.
Joseph took a moment before replying.
“Yes, but Gwilanna must agree to it.”
“
Gwilanna?
” Zanna stared at him in
shock. For the last few moments, she’d been trying to commingle with the sibyl, whose silence was only compounding her guilt.
“She began this, she has to end it,” he
said.
The chamber juddered again and thewhole bedrock of the island moved.
Gawain, by now, was swimming in aconstant stream of fire.
“I hate to break this party up,” said Tam. “But we have
got
to get off this island.” He took Lucy’s hand and pulled her a little closer to the entrance. She
needed no persuading.
“The core is reached,” Joseph said. “Alexa must be brought here. Only she can control the gateway.”
“Then she’s alive?” Zanna pressed forward in hope.
“Yes, but in danger. You are all in danger.”
“How do we fight them?” Tam Farrell
asked.