Lear rose in the saddle of the dead Faerie horse and threw a ball of fire in through the open doors of the pub. A moment later the whole of the front erupted in a rolling pall of oily, fiery black smoke.

The World’s End.

Laughing still, Lear loosed another ball of flame, this time into the tall white stone face of the bank on the far side of the junction. But the fire sputtered and failed, breaking up in mid-flight and cascading down in a rain of dying sparks.

Lear reeled in the saddle as though some invisible force had struck him.

Edric!

Again Tania urged her horse forward, eating up the yards between them, her sword ready in her fist.

Lear crashed down in the saddle, all laughter quenched as he rolled groaning from side-to-side. The flames that surrounded them began to falter, as though their fires were fueled by Lear—as though they would fail if he failed.

Don’t hesitate! Strike hard and swift! Edric’s voice in her head.

Lear’s head was turning as though he was trying to seek out the source of his power loss. He gave a shout, his arm stretched out, his fingers pointing.

Edric was there—crouching in a doorway, blue fire flickering at his fingertips.

“Not dead, boy?” Lear cried. “Then die now, and be rid of you!”

Lear roared with anger, red flames licking along his outstretched arm.

Tania was almost upon him.

At last, he became aware of her. He spun around, snarling, his eyes blazing with anger.

She lifted her sword, but as she brought her arm down, the vicious features changed and she saw Oberon’s face under her blade.

“Wouldst you strike me down, daughter?”

With a choking cry Tania managed to deflect her blow.

A fist of fire burst from Lear’s fingers, punching into her chest, driving her backward out of the saddle as her horse galloped on. She went crashing down onto the roadway with bone-breaking force, knowing she had failed—knowing Oberon’s face had been no more than a trick to make her hesitate. . . .

The sword rang on the road, jarred from her fingers.

She heard Edric’s voice calling. “Tania!”

She saw crimson fire arc through the air. She saw Edric smashed to the ground, his blue fire smothered. The fires leaped up again all around them. She heard Lear roaring with laughter.

He turned his horse and walked it slowly toward where she lay, her whole body hurting, her soul in torment. He dismounted and stood over her.

I’ve failed.

“You would kill your uncle, child?” he asked. “’Tis most naughty of you! I must find a punishment to fit so heinous a crime!” He held out his hand, and Tania saw a small amber ball on his palm. “I shall not end you, Tania. No, indeed. You will be with me for all eternity.” He smiled. “You will outlive the stars, Tania—trapped forever in amber.”

The amber ball lifted from his palm and floated down toward her.

But before it reached her, she heard a strange, growing, rushing sound. A darkness like a huge black arrowhead moved into the corner of her eye. She heard a shrill chattering noise.

A flock of starlings hurtled between her and Lear, smashing the amber ball aside, so that it cracked and burst on the tarmac. Lear bridled back from the rush of birds, his face livid. But more birds came: pigeons mobbing him, pecking him and beating at him with their wings.

Tania scrambled away, struggling to master the agony in her body, fighting to get to her feet.

Lear’s arms burst through the birds, sending many of them spinning through the air or crumpling to the ground.

He turned his head, glaring past Tania to where Cordelia stood calling in a strange, high-pitched voice.

“Birds of the air you’d set upon me, child?” Lear raged. “Fool! All shall burn!”

Tania tottered to her feet, seeking her fallen sword. But the ground all around her was alive and moving. Rats were swarming from all corners, rats in the thousands, running forward like a flood of black oil, making for Lear.

He shouted in anger as the multitude of rats swarmed over his feet and clawed their way up his legs.

And even as he stumbled and fell back under the assault, Rathina and Titus and Jade came running forward with swords raised.

“Be gone!” howled Lear, standing firm, his body wreathed in red fire. The rats were blasted away from him, many screaming and in flames. The birds sped up into the sky, crying out and screeching as they fled the rising fires.

Rathina launched herself on him, sword whirling. A thrust of his hand sent a wall of fire at her, taking her off her feet and throwing her back.

“Rathina!” Titus shouted as she struck hard against the side of a car and slid to the ground. He snarled, eyes blazing as he threw himself at Lear. “You shall die for that!”

Jade was with him, moving with a silken grace as she bounded forward, her sword poised at shoulder height, its point at Lear’s throat.

She lunged at him, but his arm came up with deadly speed, striking the sword from her hand. She swiveled on one leg, her foot raised for a kick. He snatched at her ankle, pulling her off balance, tossing her to the ground.

A scream was torn from Tania’s throat. “Jade!”

Titus struck next, but his blade kindled to flame and spun away from him as Lear’s fires poured down over him and drove him to his knees.

An eerie trilling sound was coming from Cordelia’s lips. The sky had begun to brighten at the end of the eclipse, but it darkened again now as fast-moving clouds of small flying creatures came pouring down over the rooftops. Tania felt herself battered and beaten as the insects careened past her. She saw bees and wasps and flies in the throng, beetles and butterflies and moths and dragonflies—all moving with a single purpose, all congregating on Lear.

The air was rank with the stench of scorched feathers and burning fur, but for the moment Lear’s fires were being swamped by the deluge of insects that Cordelia had called down upon him.

Tania was aware of other fights still being waged around them as the Red Knights battled savagely with the men of Weir. But it was not the horsemen of Gralach Hern who wielded the true power here. It was Lear who had to be beaten.

She could hear distant police sirens. More people coming to be killed by Lear—more fuel for his hellish fires.

Tania heard a sharp bark behind her. She turned. A fox stood staring at her. Lying by its feet was her lost sword.

“Thank you,” she said, gasping and grabbing the sword up.

The fox stared into her eyes for a moment, then loped off to join the attack on Lear. More foxes were streaking along the roads—and there were cats with them, too, and running dogs, their jaws gaping and tongues lolling. It was as though every animal within a mile of this place had heeded Cordelia’s desperate call.

“Now, Tania! Do it now!” Edric’s voice in her head. Weak but alive!

“Yes!”

She ran forward into the swarming insects.

Lear was at the heart of the storm of fizzing and droning wings, his arms flailing, his fingers clawing insects out of his eyes.

He turned, seeing Tania—seeing her sword slicing toward him.

His face morphed once more and became the gentle, kindly face of Clive Palmer.

“Please, sweetheart—don’t do it!”

“No!” Tania shouted. “Enough of your tricks! Enough!”

Using all her strength and all her willpower, she plunged the sword into his chest.

He fell without a sound, but all around her she heard wailing and screaming as the knights of Gralach Hern burst into living flames and were consumed and turned to smoke and ash.

The armies of insects drew off and the clamor of the other animals ceased. Tania stared around herself in a daze. Lear lay dead at her feet, his face old and gray and twisted with evil, blood oozing from his chest, staining his dark clothes. His fires shrank. A breeze blew the smoke away over the rooftops.

Above her the sun was already more than half free of the moon’s dark embrace.

The Pure Eclipse was done, and a great and powerful evil had been destroyed.

Titus helped Rathina to her feet. Cordelia was knee-deep in dogs and cats and foxes and rats, her shoulders and arms covered in birds, insects in her hair and more of them perching on her fingers with wings buzzing.

Jade was sitting up, her eyes glassy but her face split by a wide grin as she looked up at Tania.

“You beat him!” she said. “But that was awful! Fighting for real is nothing like tai chi class!”

“I don’t imagine it is.” Tania helped her to her feet.

From across the junction, Edric came, limping and battered, but with a bright light in his wide brown eyes.

Tania dropped her sword and ran into his arms.

“You did it!” He gasped as they embraced.

“We did it!” she said, clinging tight. “We all did it!”

* * *

Tania and Edric stood hand-in-hand by the Quellstone Spire. All the riders of Weir were with them on the canal towpath, the wounded tended by their comrades, the dead lying over the saddles of their horses. Cordelia was there also, and Titus and Rathina.

Jade stood in front of Tania. “Will you be safe?” she asked.

“I think so,” said Tania. She smiled tiredly. “I’m sure we will. I’m going to use the Spire to give me enough power to get us all back to Faerie. As to what happens after that . . . I really don’t know.”

Jade looked at Edric. “You look after her, okay?” she said. “Or you’ll have me to answer to.”

“We’ll look after each other,” said Edric.

The sound of sirens was growing louder.

“You’d better get out of here before the cops arrive,” Jade said. She smiled at Tania. “I’ll go straight to your place, right? I’ll let your folks know what’s happened, and that you’re okay.”

“And tell them I’ll find a way to get back to them,” Tania added. “I don’t know how right now, but I will find a way!”

Rathina rested her hand on Jade’s shoulder. “You are most welcome to come with us and dwell in Faerie, Mistress Jade,” she said solemnly. “Songs shall be sung of your warrior’s heart.”

Jade smiled. “Trust me, I’m tempted. It’d save having to explain to my folks where I’ve been for the past week! But I can’t come—sorry. There’s no way I can live without my iPod and my computer and my mobile phone.” She stepped back. “But you guys are welcome to visit anytime you like. Just try not to land in my mum’s pond next time, all right?”

“We shall come if fate allows,” said Cordelia. She turned to Tania. “Let’s be gone, sister—I’d know how things fare in our homeland now that Lear is dead.”

“Yes.” Tania looked fondly at Jade. “I’ll be seeing you, okay?”

“You bet!”

A burst of emotion sent Tania surging forward, and the two friends hugged tightly. After a few precious moments Jade backed off and made for the stone steps up to the bridge.

Tania swallowed hard, turning to Edric. “I wish people hadn’t died. . . .” she said.

“Every death is a fearsome loss,” said Rathina. “But without you the toll could have been very much higher.”

“Sister?” said Cordelia. “Quickly now!”

Tania pressed her palm against the Quellstone Spire. She felt the power flowing. She concentrated.

The world rippled around her, and the ways between the worlds opened.