8

An animal was breathing on him, bathing his face in warm foul air. He shuddered into wakefulness; the animal retreated. Tom could smell its fear of him. Now it was hours later: the moon was gone. He could see only the white oval of Del's face, ten feet away. But though he could see nothing, he felt around him the presence of a hundred alien lives - animal lives. In the invisible trees was a drumfire of wingbeats. 'No,' he whispered. He closed his eyes. 'Go away.' Something rustled toward him. No fear came from it, only a cold self-possession. In the invisible trees, the hundreds of birds moved.

You know what you are, boy.

Tom shook his head, clamped his eyes shut.

There are treasures within you.

He tried to stop his ears.

What is the first law of magic?

The snake waited patiently for him to answer. He would not.

We have no doubts about you, boy.

Tom shook his head so hard his neck hurt.

You will learn everything you need to know.

Then something else approached, some animal he could not identify. The snake-furled rapidly away, and Tom clamped his eyes shut even more firmly. He did not at all want to see it - the same searching, grasping feeling came from it as from the little figure down on Mesa Lane, back at the start of everything. This animal had about it an air of irredeemable wickedness; not cool and insinuating and impersonal like the snake, it was deeply evil. But it spoke in a thin and graceful voice which hid a hint of a chuckle. It was a mad voice, and the animal was no animal, but whatever the man with the sword had been pretending to be.

You will betray Del.

'No.'

You will stay here forever, and drive Del away.

'No.'

You are welcomed, boy.

At once all the birds left the trees. The noise was huge and rushing, almost oceanic. Tom covered his face: he thought of them falling on him, picking him to ribbons of flesh. Del sobbed in his sleep. Then the birds were gone.

Tom rocked himself down into his bag.