‘The Abomination and her kind, you mean,’ Amenamon spat.
Lord Colgath climbed back to his feet. ‘Yes, I mean the Queen of Dreams. Taggie.’ He beckoned.
Taggie walked over to the Grand Lord, aching in every limb and desperately weary from the magic she’d cast. ‘Lord Amenamon,’ she bowed.
The Grand Lord simply glowered.
‘This is my friend, brother,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘She has saved my life many times.’
‘As your brother has saved mine,’ Taggie said. ‘I am proud to call him my friend.’
‘The reason – the only reason – we found Mirlyn’s Gate where so many have failed before is the trust and respect we have for each other,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘Our father wished that, and together with the old War Emperor, made that possible. Only when there was peace and agreement between the two of us was the hiding place revealed. Our father knew we would have to make peace with the people of this Universe in order to make progress.’
‘There is much to tell you, Grand Lord,’ Taggie said. ‘I would be honoured to be the one to explain what has happened, if you would agree to it.’
Amenamon looked round. Behind him, his own people were watching him intently, and he was very aware that the keenest of all were those who belonged to the Congress of Lords and Ladies. Beyond Mirlyn’s Gate, he could see the War Emperor standing waiting at the head of his army. ‘I will hear what you say, Queen of Dreams,’ he said. And the joyful cheering started on both sides.
The armies waited for an hour while Taggie and Lord Colgath talked to the Grand Lord. Then the War Emperor was invited to join them. Nicola and Lantic were summoned soon after.
‘What about us?’ Sophie asked. ‘Don’t we get to tell our story?’
‘In time,’ Felix assured her.
Three hours after the battle, a tenuous accord was reached. In a poignant echo of what had happened once before at Rothgarnal, the War Emperor and the Grand Lord took each other’s hand, pledging to honour their ancestors and end hostilities.
Four giants righted Mirlyn’s Gate using hefty poles, tipping it up vertical and propping it in place. The War Emperor and the Grand Lord stood directly in front of it. Taggie and Lantic and Sophie and Jemima and Felix and Lord Colgath formed a line behind them. Next, a few metres back, was a semi-circle of the Light Guards and the khatu legion formed up like a solid wall. Behind them were the strongest sorceresses (under Nicola’s command) and Karrak lore masters. Behind them, two armies were spread out over the battlefield, holding their weapons ready.
The circling serpent bonds slithered and slipped around the surface of Mirlyn’s Gate as they had done for ten centuries. Every now and then, their gleaming purple eyes would flick a contemptuous glance at the colossal military force arrayed round them.
The War Emperor and the Grand Lord lifted their arms. Their rings glowed with power, and they grasped each other’s hand. Together they began incanting, sending spell after spell into the writhing bonds. One by one, the fluid serpents slithered down and wiggled their way into the frozen soil until none were left.
Everyone watched the circle of naked stone. A juddering sigh filled the air, a gasp of breath for lungs that hadn’t been filled for a thousand years.
‘I am the anointed War Emperor of the Realms.’
‘I am the Grand Lord, proclaimed by the Congress of Lords and Ladies.’
‘How long?’ asked an ancient voice rich with anguish. As it rumbled across Rothgarnal many were reduced to helpless tears from the residue of suffering it carried.
‘Ten centuries,’ the Grand Lord said.
‘I saw nothing. I heard nothing. Now I am back in this place. Is there peace now?’
The Grand Lord and War Emperor looked at each other. ‘There is,’ they said as one.
The sigh came again, one of profound relief this time.
‘Mirlyn, we bid you open to the other Universe,’ the two leaders said.
‘That is what I do,’ Mirlyn said. ‘It is what I am.’ The little stones which made up the circle began to move, exposing a hole in the centre. It grew larger until it was wide enough for two people to step through side by side. A pale mist glimmered in the gap.
The armies held their breath. And the War Emperor and Grand Lord stepped through together.
Taggie looked at Lantic, then at Lord Colgath. When she checked with Jemima, her sister shrugged. ‘Come on then,’ she said.
Mirlyn’s Gate grew wider as they approached, the little stones shuffling about busily. Taggie stepped into the Dark Universe.
The light was green. That was the first thing she noticed. Then the cold struck her. She’d borrowed a fur coat, but it seemed to have no effect at all. Her breath was coming out in white streamers, and she shivered.
It wasn’t such a different place, the Dark Universe. It had a sun, like any realm. Except this one was huge, floating in the sky at least five times the size of the Outer Realm’s moon. And the light it shone across the land was green-tinged. And cold. Holding her hand up to it, Taggie could feel no warmth at all.
A headache was starting as she took in the landscape. There was no snow or ice as there would be during winter in her home Universe. Yet this wasn’t winter, not here. The waving grass was dark and spongy. And the trees were in full bloom. Taggie regarded them in admiration. The long valley where this side of Mirlyn’s Gate emerged was planted with thousands upon thousands of trees. They were tall and thick, with leaves that were an elegant bright pink. Small silver flowers twinkled amid the boughs as if someone had sprinkled them with stardust.
‘I like it,’ she said. Her hand went to her stomach as she felt an unpleasant burst of nausea. ‘It’s strange, but kind of beautiful, too.’
‘Thank you,’ Lord Colgath said.
‘I think I’m going to be sick,’ Jemima said. ‘I’ve eaten something bad.’
‘No,’ Lantic said. ‘It’s not that. I feel dreadful, too.’
‘This is how you felt in our Universe, isn’t it?’ Taggie asked Lord Colgath in dismay. Her headache was getting worse.
‘It is gone,’ he murmured in amazement. ‘The pain, the suffering. So long we lived with it. I had forgotten what it was to exist without misery.’
When Taggie looked over at the Grand Lord and War Emperor, she saw Amenamon’s smoke cloak was abandoning its blackness to grow translucent.
‘Brother,’ Lord Colgath said.
‘Brother.’
They embraced.
Taggie had to wipe a tear from her cheek. Must be from the headache, she told herself.
‘You were right,’ Grand Lord Amenamon said. ‘This is victory. The most precious victory of all: peace.’
‘Your victory,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘You made it happen, brother. You saw what had to be done, and you did not hesitate.’
‘I think you played a part.’
Taggie and Sophie gave each other an incredulous look. They were listening to Karraks laughing. A harsh snarling sound, of course, but still . . . laughter!
‘So what happened here?’ the War Emperor asked as his gaze travelled round the beautiful valley.
‘There was a battle,’ Grand Lord Amenamon said. ‘I remember it well.’
‘Just as bad as Rothgarnal,’ Lord Colgath confirmed.
‘So . . . who won?’ Lantic asked.
‘Ask him,’ Jemima said, and pointed.
Taggie saw a figure in a fur coat curled up on the grass to one side of Mirlyn’s Gate. She went over and peered down curiously. An ancient-looking man was asleep, curled up around a spear. He was snoring softly. ‘Who is he?’
‘Mr Stimpson,’ Jemima told her. ‘He’s been here a long time.’
‘Excuse me,’ Taggie tapped Mr Stimpson’s shoulder. He snuffled and curled up tighter. ‘Excuse me!’
‘Eh?’ his eyes opened, and he coughed. Then he scrambled to his feet, surprisingly fast for someone so old. His spear was pointed at Taggie, and he screwed up his face to squint, which added
even more wrinkles. ‘Who’s that? Who goes there?’
‘My name is Taggie, I’ve come through Mirlyn’s Gate.’
‘You came through what?’
‘We’re from the Light Universe. We opened Mirlyn’s Gate.’
Mr Stimpson gulped and spun round. The spear fell from his gloved hands. ‘It’s open!’
‘Yes,’ Taggie said, smiling. ‘It’s open.’
‘Eighty-three years I’ve stood guard here,’ the old man said. ‘Like my father, and his father before him, and . . . and all my family going back to the war. It’s what us Stimpsons do. We promised everybody we would, you see, and a promise like that cannot be broken. Not by people who have standards, and without standards . . . why, you have nothing.’ He lifted a tarnished brass and copper horn from his belt. ‘A prince gave this to my family, it’s a homecoming horn, he said, and everybody from the Light Universe would hear its call when it’s blown. That way they’ll know the time has come to return.’
‘What happened?’ Taggie asked. ‘With the war, I mean. How did it all end?’
‘The War of Peace? It ended as soon as Mirlyn’s Gate was shut and bound. Why wouldn’t it? What was the point of carrying on?’
‘Yes,’ Taggie said with a sigh. ‘What would be the point?’
‘The Princes and Princesses and the Lords and Ladies, they all sat round a table and made agreements that’ve held to this day. Then all the soldiers that remained, they buried their dead, and planted a cyarda tree on each grave.’ Mr Stimpson’s arm swept round the valley. ‘Every one of those trees grew and flourished, see. An omen, everyone called it. People still make pilgrimage here, you know. They come to remind themselves about the past, so they don’t make the same mistakes again.’
‘So, nobody here wants to invade the Light Universe?’ the War Emperor asked.
Mr Stimpson chortled. ‘Invade? Naaah. I wouldn’t mind going for a look, mind. That was a big part of the old agreement, see, that we would go back when the Gate opened again. It hurts for us to live here, you know. But you get used to it. Mustn’t complain.’
‘Well, Mr Stimpson,’ Taggie said. ‘I think it’s finally time for you to blow your homecoming horn. Then I’d like to show you the realms of the Light Universe.’
‘Very kind I’m sure, young lady. So is it peaceful over there?’
‘Yes,’ Taggie promised. ‘It is peaceful in the realms. Now.’
PARTY TIME
The party had taken three weeks to plan. Mr Anatole had been disturbed by the extravagance and the always rising cost, but Taggie had insisted. People didn’t argue with her so much now – apart from Mum and Dad, of course, but even they’d agreed to this. There was to be the main party in the palace – now the scaffolding was finally down in the banqueting hall. There were also street parties planned right across Lorothain. Then simultaneous parties in every town and village of the First Realm.
After all, the Queen of Dreams was only going to be fourteen once.
But it was so much more than a simple birthday party. There was also a celebration to be had. Now, a month after Mirlyn’s Gate had opened, the Karrak Lords and Ladies and those who had come with them were almost all gone, returned to the Dark Universe. And after Mr Stimpson blew his horn, people originally from the Light Universe were coming home.
Taggie woke early and immediately ran over to the window to fling the curtains back and check it was sunny outside. That was the best thing about being able to magically control the weather for an entire Realm – you could always make sure it was a sunny day when you wanted it to be.
She pulled on jeans and a T-shirt ready to go down to breakfast with her friends. But strangely, her mood wasn’t right, not for her birthday. She felt pensive for some reason. She sat back down at her dressing table and gave herself a brooding look in the mirror.
‘Come on,’ she told the reflection. ‘You know what the matter is.’ With a sigh she put her hand on the dresser’s secret compartment and muttered the opening enchantment. The hidden drawer slid open.
The Trakal lay inside. Lord Colgath had given it to her last night.
‘We will have no use for it,’ he explained. ‘Not back in the Dark Universe. And there is no one I trust with it more than you.’
‘I’d almost forgotten about it,’ she admitted.
‘It was clasped in my father’s hand in the Lady Silvaris.’
‘I’m sorry we couldn’t bring him back as well.’
‘He rests with people of immense honour. There is no greater dignity that that.’
‘You’re right, of course. They all gave so much so that we could eventually find peace.’
‘Which we very nearly didn’t.’
‘But in the end we did.’ She grinned up at him. ‘It was close, mind you.’
‘That it was, Queen of Dreams, that it was.’
Taggie pulled a face. ‘My own aunt!’
‘Indeed. My brother asked me to tell you, he had agreed a bloodbond with Queen Judith.’
‘We suspected as much. What was the deal?’
‘For her help instigating the war, and eventual victory, Amenamon had agreed to give her the enchantment which assists us Karrak Lords to live for a long time.’
For a moment Taggie was speechless. ‘Wow. He must have been desperate. He was going to make Queen Judith immortal? Her reign really would have lasted forever.’
‘Would you like that enchantment, Queen of Dreams?’
‘We live the lives we’re supposed to,’ she replied. ‘I believe in that.’
Lord Colgath smiled, which even after all this time still wasn’t exactly a comforting sight. She wondered if she’d ever lose her old prejudice about the appearance of the Karrak people. ‘I am almost sad to be leaving,’ he said. ‘I think the First Realm is due to experience its next golden age.’
‘You’re very kind. I’m glad you are bringing your wife to the party. I’ve wanted to meet her ever since you told me you were married.’
‘I must admit, she was also curious to meet you. But then, most of my people are.’
‘What about you and her?’ Taggie asked. She blushed. ‘I’m sorry, that’s personal.’
‘We have been apart for a long time. But we were together for a lot longer before that. And now we are to start a new life together in a different universe. I believe that is a good omen for us.’
Taggie grinned. ‘A happy ending. We had to have one. It’s nice that it’s yours.’
‘I would like you to have the same opportunity. So . . .’ His cold hand closed around hers, pressing the Trakal into her palm. ‘Use it wisely.’
So now, sitting on her dresser, she held it up and examined it properly in the morning sunlight. The Trakal hung on a chain, a simple disc of some burnished metal, with a ring of small runes written into its edge. It didn’t seem much, yet she could feel the malignant power coiled up inside. Lord Colgath had given her the trigger spell, too.
She knew she’d never use it. But if a new threat were ever to arise and endanger the realms, then the First Realm could be sealed off and made secure by a descendant.
‘No,’ she said to herself. Isolation was never the answer. Besides, she’d made a promise, and a true royal didn’t ignore inconveniences like that. She shoved the Trakal into her pocket and went out into the big corridor, just in time to hear a commotion in Jemima’s room. Her charmsward bands slid round smoothly.
Jemima’s bedroom door swung open, and a boy came stumbling out backwards, not quite fully wrapped in a sheet. He was about fifteen years old, with long white hair dangling down his back. Taggie gave him a startled look. ‘Felix?’
Jemima was shouting something angrily. She appeared in the doorway, holding a sword that was almost as big as her. It wobbled about unsteadily.
‘Majesty?’ Felix tried to bow, and made a hurried snatch at the sheet as it slipped.
‘Felix, you’re you,’ Taggie gasped.
‘Felix?’ Jemima let the sword tip drop to th
e floor, where it gouged several tiny flakes from the flagstones. ‘I woke up and thought an assassin was in my room.’ Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. ‘You were creeping around in the dark.’
‘I was trying to get out!’ Felix said in a pleading voice. ‘I went to sleep in your suite’s lounge like I always do, then when I woke up, this had happened.’
Mum was striding down the corridor, dressed in her full Third Realm sorceress robes. Lantic was peering out of his room, struggling with his glasses. Sophie was framed by the doorway of her guest suite, licking her lips in enjoyment at everyone’s consternation.
‘Is it your birthday?’ Mum asked sharply.
‘Er, no,’ Felix said. ‘That was a while back.’
‘When snow falls on oak,’ Lantic said. He walked over to Felix and put on a pair of purple-lens revealor glasses to examine him closely, as if the boy was some kind of specimen in his study. ‘That was your curse, wasn’t it?’
‘For each day outside my birthday and while snow falls on oak,’ Felix said as if the words were a physical pain.
‘And the curse on your family was made in the Fourth Realm, was it not?’ Lantic persisted.
‘Yes.’
‘The Karraks have all but left the Fourth Realm,’ Mum said. ‘The King in Exile has already established his new court there.’
‘The thousand-year winter is ending, Felix,’ Taggie said kindly. ‘Snow is no longer falling on oak. Not in the Fourth Realm. Spring is finally on its way.’
Felix held his hand up to his face as if he’d never seen its like before. ‘It’s over?’ he whispered incredulously. ‘The curse is finally over?’
‘Yes.’
Felix sank to his knees, still staring at his hand. ‘Oh sweet heavens!’ He looked round at his friends in bewilderment, his eyes watering. ‘What will I do?’ he asked plaintively.
‘You silly thing,’ Jemima said, dragging the sword along as she went over to him. ‘You can do whatever you want. You said you hoped your job would become less difficult once we found Mirlyn’s Gate. Well, that just happened. What was next on the list?’