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Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

For Edward

A preview of Book II Magnus and the Lady of the Mountain

Chapter 1

The day that everything changed started just like any other day in the life of Magnus Tincomarus, aged eight and three days. It started with breakfast in the rambling old house on the hill above the town. The house was a dilapidated red brick villa that had been built before the war and it was covered with ivy and Virginia creeper. It was also home to a family of bats and some swifts that swooped over the garden from May to September. The bats were sleeping that morning as the sweltering sun rose over the distant horizon. The island of Britain was currently going through a heatwave and temperatures were over thirty degrees during the day and not much less during the night.

“Serves them right,” grumbled Marlo, Magnus’ old tutor, as he tucked into three eggs, two slices of bacon, some baked beans and a delicious kipper that Magnus’ grandmother, Thomasina, had filleted specially for him because the bones tended to stick in his beard. There was nothing worse than a beard that stank of week-old kipper, his grandmother claimed, as she had carefully combed the fish for bones in the hot kitchen with the door wide open.

“Serves who right?” asked Grandad Arthur, his old face calm and serene as he tried to extract a dead fly’s husk with some eyebrow tweezers from his enormous Venus flytrap that lived on the windowsill.

“This lot,” replied Marlo. “Bunch of idiots.” Magnus’ grandad nodded grimly, as if he knew who ‘this lot’ were, but Magnus didn’t. He looked around at his loved ones with large blue eyes and wondered, not for the first time that day, what they were on about.

“Now then, Magnus,” said his grandmother kindly, “I think you should pack a little bag because I have a feeling we are going on a trip later today and we might not be back for a long time.”

“Really?” Magnus dropped his spoon in surprise. He had been happily bashing in the top of his boiled egg when his grandmother had made this astonishing announcement. He usually liked carefully peeling off the shell before eating it, but today he just stared into space. They had never gone anywhere in his short life, well, except into the town to the library or to the small corner shop if it was necessary, but that wasn’t a trip that needed a suitcase.

Magnus wondered if he even had a suitcase.

“I have put a suitcase on your bed,” said his grandmother. Magnus frowned. It was as if she had read his mind. She guessed his thoughts a lot and he didn’t like it when it happened. It made him feel nervous. Magnus had very little private time as it was. Every waking hour was filled with learning Latin, and Greek, and Gaelic, and old German, and lots of other long-dead languages, because his grandad said he had a natural gift for languages; especially dead ones. The other days were filled with learning maths, or science and botany. He did get some days off from time to time, but they were few and far between. Marlo always said it was best to press on with school work because they didn’t have much time, but Magnus wondered what he meant because he had only just turned eight and that was quite young as far as he was concerned.

“Where are we going?” asked Magnus finally.

“Not us, dear; just you and Marlo, if we can fit him in after all that breakfast.”

“In what?”

“Best to wait, dear,” said his grandmother. “It’s too difficult to explain and we haven’t much time.”

So that was that.

“What should I pack?” Magnus stood up, his egg forgotten in all the excitement.

“Toothbrush, pyjamas, things like that, but not too much; it could get heavy and you need some room for this,” said Marlo, as he picked up an ancient book from the shelf that contained his grandmother’s recipe books. It was about the size of an average paperback, but it had an unusual jewelled cover and an intricate lock. Many of Magnus’ school books had unusual covers and locks, so he didn’t pay it much attention and hurried upstairs to pack.

Magnus’ bedroom was just like the bedrooms of many eight-year-old boys across many countries all around the world: it was very untidy. However, it was also interesting. He had some dinosaur posters on his walls; and dinosaur mobiles hanging from his ceiling; and plastic lizards, of all different colours and sizes, just strewn all over the floor. He had science books about crystals and insects, and lots of Lego; which was also Marlo’s favourite toy in the whole world, and so they had spent long, wet days making things and then not had the heart to destroy them.

Magnus looked at his bed and, sure enough, there was a small, shiny red suitcase sitting there looking quite at home. It was one of those ones with a hard case and wheels that you pulled along with a retractable handle. He liked it immediately, but he secretly wished it was yellow. Never mind, he thought happily, he was going on a trip. He wondered where he was going as he packed his toothbrush, his favourite toy dinosaurs, his favourite book about dinosaurs, some stretchy lizards, a large yellow crystal that seemed to glow, his small fluffy rabbit called Wongy that he’d had forever, and his pyjamas.

Magnus wondered if he was going to London. He’d always wanted to go to London because he could visit the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum and go on the underground train, because he really liked the idea of that. Speeding through tunnels and under the River Thames sounded fantastic to Magnus, who had never been anywhere exciting in his entire life.

It was only after a moment’s reflection that he realised he probably needed a couple of pairs of underpants, some socks and a change of clothes, so he stuffed them into the small space that was left. He decided his Latin book that Marlo wanted him to pack would fit in down the side, and then he closed the suitcase and went downstairs.

“Ready,” he exclaimed to the adults downstairs, but no one heard him. They were all staring at a red-faced police officer who was standing perspiring heavily in their kitchen and waving his arms in a particularly agitated manner.

“What do you mean you aren’t leaving?” he shouted. “You can’t stay here, you silly old duffers. Didn’t you hear what I said?” He opened his mouth wide and enunciated his words slowly as if the occupants of the red brick house at the top of the hill were imbeciles. “There’s a tornado on its way and you have to evacuate, by order of the government.”

Chapter 2

“As if I would listen to any order given by that bunch of clowns,” came his grandmother’s retort after a few uncomfortable minutes of silence. “We are not going anywhere.”

“Yes, you are,” spluttered the officer, who suddenly noticed Magnus and he stared at the boy, in shock. “You have a child here?”

“Yes, he’s our grandson.”

“Well, you will definitely have to leave now.”

“No, we won’t,” said Marlo grimly.

The officer couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing, and who were this odd bunch of characters and why was there a kid with them? It didn’t feel right, in his opinion. He noticed some jars on the windowsill and they were filled with strange creatures pickled in some clear liquid, and there were other jars too, filled with colourful unidentifiable powders and the like, and copper pots and strangely shaped bottles were littered all over the kitchen, mainly on the many shelves and on the large wooden table in the centre of the room. Something that smelled decidedly pungent was bubbling in a large pan on top of the ancient stove in the corner.

The officer regarded Magnus, who looked quite normal when compared with the three elderly eccentrics who were glaring at him and making him feel very uncomfortable. He was a tall, slim and healthy-looking boy, with dark hair that stuck up here and there, blue-green eyes and suntanned skin. The boy was dressed like other boys of his age, which the officer guessed was about eight or nine, in a yellow T-shirt with a picture of a snake on it, beige shorts and sandals.

The officer couldn’t understand what the boy was doing alone in a house with these assorted cranks, especially on a school day. The elderly people were dressed oddly, especially the old guy, who had long white hair and a blue tunic that was tied in the middle with a piece of rope. The old woman had long grey hair too, but her’s was curly and she had lots of it. The old man stood blinking behind thick glasses and he was holding some tweezers in a threatening manner.

No, no, thought the officer; he had a job to do and do it he would. Well, he would try to save the lad at least; the three old people could fend for themselves if they so wished.

The officer started to walk towards Magnus and made as if to grab him, but Magnus was swift and he dodged out of the way and ran behind Marlo who stood up and pulled out a large, knobbled wooden stick from under the table and then he skilfully and swiftly bonked the police officer on the top of his head. The policeman stared for a moment and then fell forwards like a tree in a forest. Luckily, Marlo caught him before he hit his face on the grey stone floor.

“Sorry about that,” muttered Marlo under his breath and he proceeded to carry the unconscious man down the stairs and locked him in the cellar.

“You knocked out a policeman!” yelled Magnus when he found his voice. “You’ll have to go to prison!”

“No he won’t, dear. When he wakes up, I will make sure he doesn’t remember anything,” soothed his grandmother. “Now, you’d better go or you’ll miss it.”

“Miss what?”

“Our… er… transportation,” muttered Marlo sheepishly. Magnus noticed he was carrying his little red suitcase. Marlo opened it and popped in his little jewelled book and closed it again. “Come on then, Magnus. Say goodbye and we’ll be off.”

It was only then that Magnus realised he was leaving his grandparents. Tears welled up in his eyes as he hugged and kissed them.

“Good luck, Magnus,” whispered his grandfather, and Magnus saw tears in his eyes too. “You will be great, I’m sure.” Magnus said nothing, because he couldn’t speak, and before he had the chance to burst into tears he was swept out of the door by Marlo and they were walking quickly along the dusty path that led from the red brick house on the hill that had been his home for eight years and three days.

They appeared to be walking towards a large black cloud in the western sky. The cloud was heading their way and Marlo didn’t seem to be perturbed by this fact.

“Erm, Marlo, I think that’s the tornado the officer mentioned,” said Magnus lightly, but deep down he was feeling somewhat nervous.

“Yes, we need to be on Crossthwaite Hill in ten minutes or we’ll be too late and that would be a disaster because we’d have to wait for quite a while before the travel tube returns and we haven’t time for that.”

“Travel tube?”

“Come on, Magnus. Keep up.”

Magnus looked at the cloud and then at Marlo and he wondered if the old man really was crazy. Maybe the police officer was right and perhaps he should run away.

“You stay right by me,” ordered Marlo, as if he too could read his thoughts. “I have lots to tell you and you need to listen carefully. I would have told you before, but I was worried you might let the cat out of the bag or something and we’d all be stuck in a hospital for the deranged. This lot are so stupid they just don’t understand anything any more. It wasn’t always that way, though, Magnus, you know.” Marlo looked wistful for a moment, but then he set his mouth into a determined line and they pressed on.

Magnus noticed that it was becoming difficult to walk against the wind and he saw fork lightning spit from the huge black cloud. The clap of thunder was so loud he pressed his hands over his ears and they both jumped.

“Come on, Magnus. We’re nearly there.”

Magnus tripped and skidded over dry stones and pebbles as he walked and half-ran the long, worn path up to Crossthwaite Hill. It was a famous local landmark, said to date back to Neolithic times, with a beautiful ancient marker stone adorned with faded markings whose meanings had long since been lost to time. Scientists and historians had studied it, stuck electrical devices of all description onto it, even x-rayed it, but the stone had refused to offer any explanation as to its origins and its meaning.

“Here we are,” cried Marlo and he opened the suitcase and took out the small jewelled book. He carefully opened the lock with a key that hung on a chain round his neck and the lock sprung open. The book opened and Magnus saw that the strange markings on the pages matched those on the stone.

“Hmm… now then, I think it is page 72, but it’s been a little while since I used this one,” muttered Marlo as the pages of the book fluttered and flapped in the increasing wind. Magnus grabbed hold of Marlo’s tunic and braced himself. As he did so, he looked up and that’s when he saw the tall funnel of wind approaching. It was swirling and black and menacing.

“Argh!” he cried in horror. “We’re going to die; we’re going to die!”

“No we aren’t,” scoffed Marlo with a chuckle. “Ah, yes; here we go, page 72. I was right, my memory is still there. That’s good to know.”

“Marlo,” shrieked Magnus, “hurry up!”

“Oh, yes, now then…” Marlo peered at the stone, his hair streaming out behind him like a long flag on a tall ship, and he pressed the page against the stone.

Immediately everything around them was still. Magnus stared in amazement as they stood in a small, calm bubble and watched the tornado approach. Outside the small protected zone by the Crossthwaite marker stone, everything was a jumble of chaos. Bits of trees and small animals flew by. Parts of houses, roof tiles and even a red plastic bucket shot past at about two hundred miles an hour, and then, while Magnus gripped Marlo’s hand more tightly than he had ever gripped anything in his life, the tornado was upon them.

What happened next was so peculiar and so bizarre that afterwards Magnus wasn’t really sure what he had experienced. He felt as if a thousand hands were squeezing him and this made him breathless. His head swam and he felt quite sick, and then a split second later he was standing in the bright sunshine on the grass, in the same place, right by the Crossthwaite Stone at the top of the hill, and there was no tornado to be seen. It was a pleasant day and there was a light breeze. Two blue butterflies fluttered past happily, and Magnus looked around him in silence. Something had happened, but he wasn’t quite sure at that moment what it was.

Chapter 3

“Right,” said Marlo briskly, “everything still works. I don’t know why I worry so much. I’ve been doing that for many, many years and everything always works. The Jewelled Book of the Universe sees to that. Thank goodness the humans have a fondness and respect for history and leave the Cross Stones alone.”

“The humans?”

“Yes, you’ve probably guessed right now that we aren’t like them?”

“Well… er… I think so…” Magnus was puzzled. If he wasn’t human, what was he?

“I suppose I’d better fill you in,” Marlo grinned. “Come on, the village we want is about three miles in that direction, so we’d better hurry up.”

Magnus felt disappointed. He was going to a plain old village. His dreams of London faded away abruptly, but then he noticed something peering at him from behind a tree. It had large, bright eyes and an intelligent face and it reminded him of something he’d seen before, but he couldn’t remember where.

“What’s that?” he pointed, and Marlo squinted in the sun. He glanced at Magnus hurriedly and coughed.

“It’s a Troodon.”

“A Troodon!” Magnus stood stock still. “Where are we? Have we gone back in time?”

“No, not really,” sighed Marlo. “Let me explain. But we’d better hurry. There are other dinosaurs of different types in this area and some aren’t as friendly and tame as that one.” Magnus heard a bloodcurdling roar coming from the west and he picked up his pace as he scanned the horizon. The sick feeling he had experienced when they were in the tornado returned and he felt dizzy too. It had been rather a dramatic hour in the life of a boy who hadn’t really experienced anything exciting in his entire life until today.

“So, well, erm, where should I start?” muttered Marlo to himself, rather than to the boy at his side, who had gone rather pale in spite of his tan. “I suppose the beginning is the best place. Right, well, I’ll start at the beginning.

“We are Deruweld. And we can travel between worlds, thanks to the Jewelled Book of the Universe and the Cross Stones and some vortices that occur from time to time in different places, like the one we used just now. I thought it was about time I brought you back home to our world. A much better one than we just left, I have to say. Do you notice something?”

Magnus looked around. The landscape looked familiar, but there was no large town where a town should be, and no busy motorway either; and it was silent, apart from the sound of birdsong and the warm breeze.

Even the air smelled fresher and there were thousands of butterflies and bees darting in and out of the tall flowers and grasses along the dusty track: the only sign that feet had travelled there at all.

“I think it looks like where we’ve just been, but a bit different,” said Magnus, eventually.

“Yes, yes, you are right. It’s the same Earth, but in a parallel universe, and this is one of a very large number and it’s one of the best.”

“Have you visited many?” Magnus asked curiously.

“Yes, about fifty thousand so far. This one and the last one were two we liked the most, but the last one has pretty much had it. We tried to help it, but it began to sow the seeds of its destruction many years ago. We warned them of what would happen, but would they listen? No. So I think we will just have to let that one go, I’m afraid.”

Magnus looked at Marlo. “What about my grandparents?”

“Well, they will keep going, of course. They will leave when the time is right. Don’t worry, Magnus. They will try to help the innocent ones who have done nothing wrong and maybe they still have a slight chance to reverse the damage. However, they are now at the mercy of the Manges, and they are well established and hell-bent on destroying everything good and lovely on that planet.”

“The Manges?”

“Yes, they are like us, but not like us, if you understand.”

“What are we?”

“We are a form of human, but we are not fully human. For instance, you hatched out of an egg.”

“What!”

“Yes, it was a lovely, shiny yellow one. We have kept it in the Egg Museum with all the other important eggshells from the other important Deruweld who have hatched over the millennia. There aren’t many. There’s mine which is a soft orange colour, and some other notables who I’ve forgotten now, and your yellow one and, well, that’s it.”

“I’m important?” Magnus cried out, incredulously. “I am an ordinary boy and I have led a very uninteresting life so far, so how can I be important?”

“Learning languages, maths and science is very important!” snapped Marlo, and he sniffed. “Well, your life is about to become more interesting, so hold that thought.”

He walked stiffly and Magnus could tell he had hurt the old man’s feelings. Magnus was quite a sensitive boy and he was fond of Marlo, so he squeezed his tutor’s hand and whispered an apology.

“Right, where was I?” went on Marlo, as if nothing had happened. Magnus noticed that the Troodon was following him and he kept an eye on it. Troodons were carnivorous and one of the cleverest dinosaurs, or so the paleontologists claimed.

“The Manges are almost human too, but they are very different from us Deruweld. They are rather fond of the good life and they just go from one Earth to another, opening shops and large banks and mines and factories, and teach the humans bad ways and they make lots of money and live on small islands; and when they have destroyed the planet and used all its resources, they move on. They need humans to work and make things for them to sell, so they have never bothered with this one. Humans haven’t evolved here yet, thank goodness, so they stay away and leave us alone. The leader of the Manges is a particularly nasty character called Murdamond. He has twenty-seven large houses dotted all over the world, a large boat that never docks, and he owns most of the factories, banks and television stations on the other Earth. He owns countries too, because he’s good at making things that humans like and he takes their money and eventually he owns them and their governments. It’s a long, sad story. It’s happened on many other Earths, but I had hoped we’d save that one. But then they started polluting everything, and the bees started to die and we knew that time was running out, so we had to get you back here; we all decided your grandparents could try for another hundred years or so and then take the travel tube if things began to go even more pear-shaped.”

He stopped suddenly and pointed at a small rodent-like creature with a long tail and a face like a meerkat. “Do you see that?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Well, if there had been an exploding comet here like the one on the other Earth that killed off the dinosaurs, that creature there would have evolved into a human. As it is, it’s just stayed like that and, after the disaster humans have made of the many Earths I have visited, that’s a blessing as far as we’re concerned. They always listen to the Manges, and stop listening to us, well, me mainly,” Marlo grumbled. “We Deruweld believe everything should be free. We don’t use money and we live simply and we barter and only use what we need. We don’t dig out the earth or build smelly factories and cars, but simply use what we find scattered on the surface, and we walk everywhere. There’s a lot to be found if you look hard enough when you are walking. The Earth is more than generous.”

Suddenly the strange pre-human rodent stood on its hind legs and made a noise like a squirrel. Magnus chuckled and thought it looked quite sweet. That was right before the Troodon pounced on it and ate it, head first, right in front of his eyes.

“Oh,” said Magnus, not quite believing what had just happened. He swallowed and carried on walking. Marlo continued with his tale.

“The moment you hatched, we all knew you were special and destined to take over from me when my last heart stops.”

“Last heart?”

“Yes, we Deruweld have many hearts. When one heart grows old and tired it just stops and another one takes over. I have been alive for one million earth years, and I think I’m on my last one, but I really haven’t the faintest idea. I’m just guessing. I could have hundreds yet.

“So, anyway, your mother and father…”

“I have a mother and a father?” Magnus suddenly felt very dizzy. His head swam and he had to grab Marlo to steady himself.

“Oh yes, they live in that village there,” continued Marlo airily, as if just finding out you had a mother and a father at aged eight and three days was an everyday occurrence. “The village of Caredigrwydd. All being well, they will be working in the garden and they will be very excited to see you.”

“They just let you take me away from them?” Magnus was shocked and a little upset.

“Oh yes, it’s what we do and have done for thousands of years. The promising Deruweld are taken for instruction and the ordinary Deruweld carry on with their lives living simply, protecting our Earth and its animals and plants. However, I had this other Earth to try and save and I kept popping back to see how they were doing; but after Arthur died, things started to go wrong. They just stopped listening and said I was mad, and then their little markets became big shops, the people started to ruin the Earth by digging out its insides, and then Murdamond set up the first bank in a small village in Italy, and after that, things went from bad to worse.”

“Have the Manges ruined all the other Earths that have humans on them?” Magnus asked, wondering if Marlo was referring to the Arthur he’d heard about; but that couldn’t be possible, could it?

“No, not all, there are many that have perished from other factors. Some of them from super-volcanoes and various other natural disasters, and some from diseases that the humans couldn’t cure. Some Earths have no life at all and they are pretty grim, and some have poisoned air, and I know of at least two hundred that have evolved with no land at all, just sea.”

“How strange,” said Magnus, “I would like to see them.”

“Well, I wouldn’t waste your time with those,” said Marlo. “We High Deruweld need to look after the Earths worth saving and that means we need to use all our intelligence and cleverness. Even with all that, it’s mighty difficult. Money and treasures and material things are just too difficult for the humans to resist.

“Every now and again we get a good one, like Francesco, the one from Assisi; and Jacques Cousteau; and David Attenborough of the other Earth, but mainly they are just thoughtless and greedy. They don’t start like that. The little humans are usually sensible, but it all changes when they grow up. Not always. There are some good ones.”

They were approaching the village. Magnus could see that it was not like the villages on the other Earth. These houses were small and painted white and they had straw roofs and small windows. Outside each house was a tidy vegetable garden. Magnus could see some strange plants growing with wonderful flowers like nothing he had ever seen before on the other Earth.

“We grow them for the bees.” Marlo spotted that he was looking at them curiously. “Without the bees we are nothing. It’s very quiet, isn’t it?” he added, looking around. “I wonder where everyone is. And what is that strange sound I can hear?” They walked through the silent streets towards the noise and then came into a busy market square, filled with people laughing and chatting. There were brightly-coloured stalls filled with lots of curious objects, clothes, bags, shoes, crystals, small wooden toys and jewellery. Magnus caught sight of something small and silver being put into a leather pouch.

“But I thought you said Deruweld don’t use mon…” He stopped when he saw the expression on Marlo’s face.

Marlo stood perfectly still. His face had become dark, and his grey eyebrows were lowered over his piercing green eyes. Magnus felt a wave of energy flow through his body and it chilled him to the bone; he saw it move through the village, rippling the awnings of the market stalls and across the land, bending trees in its path. The people stopped chatting and laughing and gaped at Marlo; the birds stopped singing and the Troodon that had been following them ran away silently into the back streets.

“What in the name…!” Marlo exclaimed eventually. Magnus followed his gaze to see what had upset him so much and there, to his astonishment, he saw a tall grey building that was nothing like the others in the village. It had a shiny sign above the door and there were two words written in three languages. One of them Magnus knew straight away. It was the word Bank.

Chapter 4

“What is going on here?” roared Marlo. “I go away for seven years and I come back and you have built a bank!”

The people in the town stood very still and everyone looked sheepishly at each other, but no one said a word. Magnus stood beside his tutor and tried to take in the enormity of the situation. Marlo strode up the steps of the bank and went inside, only to emerge five minutes later, ushering the people who worked there outside. He stood at the top of the steps and looked at the crowd below.

“Tell me what happened. Now!” Marlo ordered.

There was silence for a long time and then some people shuffled nervously, holding their bags and purchases tightly, their eyes wide with fear.

“It was Janna’s fault really,” came a voice eventually.

“No it wasn’t!” came a high-pitched female voice. “How dare you!”

“Well, you wanted the jewellery and that handbag.”

“It was a very nice handbag,” came the female voice again.

Marlo stared at this exchange without a word, but Magnus knew that his old tutor was close to boiling point.

“Someone, anyone, please tell me what happened,” Marlo begged. Magnus saw tears in the old man’s eyes. He looked around the market place and eventually a young girl came over. She had long, dark hair and large blue eyes and she walked lightly up the steps and stood bravely in front of Marlo.

My name is Sylvana,” she said, “and you must be Marlo, our Chief, and most respected High Deruweld. Welcome home,” she said and bowed.

Marlo waved his hand impatiently.

“Thank you, Sylvana. Please now, tell all.”

“It happened exactly seven years ago. A stranger came with a cart filled with the finest leather handbags and jewellery we had ever seen. He refused to trade, saying that for such fine articles he would only accept gold or silver. We had neither of these things, well, not enough anyway, so we were about to leave when he said that he would accept a small piece of land to the north of here in exchange for the wares on his cart.

“After some discussion we agreed and we gave him the land. He gave us the handbags and jewellery and he left the next day. Imagine our surprise when he returned a few days later with more of the same kind of things, but these were even more fine and tempting. He said if we wanted these we had to work in the mine…”

“Mine!” roared Marlo.

“Yes.” The girl faltered when she saw how angry Marlo had become, but she steadied herself and continued. “The man said he had found gold in the ground in the land we had given him and if we helped him mine it, we could be paid with money and we could buy the things he made in the market.”

Marlo slapped his hand to his face. “You fell for it. You fell for his oldest and most successful trick.”

“Whose?” asked Sylvana.

“Murdamond,” replied Marlo.

“No!” cried the crowd, aghast. “It’s not him. It’s just a stranger.”

“It’s him all right,” muttered Marlo. “What next?”

“Well, we had to look after the vegetables in our gardens so we said no.”

“Good,” said Marlo. Then he looked around the market. “Where are all the chicks? It’s very quiet. What have you done with the children?”

The crowd looked very guilty at this point.

“They were idle,” cried someone. Magnus couldn’t see his face among the crowd that had gathered around him.

“They were stealing my apples,” cried another.

“They were catching little dinosaurs and putting them in our beds,” cried an old woman near to Magnus, whom he noted had a rather nice handbag.

There was silence for a minute. Then Marlo began to wail. It was a haunting sound and Magnus wished he’d stop.

“You sent the children down the mine, didn’t you?” he cried.

“Not just the mine, he needed people for the factory too.”

“You put the children in the mine and the factory!” Marlo had to hold on to the fence to stop himself from falling over. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Don’t worry,” said someone in the front row. “They are fine. It is keeping them busy.”

“How did you fall for this so easily?” Marlo asked. “You have no idea what you have done.”

“We were bored,” came one response at the front of the crowd. “We wanted some lovely things. The market is exciting. Our houses are filled with beautiful, colourful, charming things and we are happier now.”

“You wait till that factory clogs up your air with smoke and your bees and butterflies die and you start to find it hard to breathe,” said Magnus. He was worried now. As much as he liked humans, this Earth had dinosaurs and he didn’t want them dying out or choking on fumes.

“And who might you be?” asked a tall man in a very fine tunic, who strolled up to him.

“I am Magnus.”

“Ah, the Great One, or so they say,” said a hushed voice in the crowd.

“What smoke? What do you mean ‘hard to breathe’? ” asked a woman nearby.

“On the Earth… erm, the planet that we have just left, in some countries the people have to wear masks because their air has been filled with poisonous gas from the factories. Their seas are filled with a sticky black substance called oil and they may have lovely things, but their world is dying,” he said calmly, and the people around him began to chatter worriedly among themselves.

“Factories are very dangerous places too,” he added. “And mines are extremely dangerous. I can’t believe you let the children go down there. They should be in school.”

“School? What is this school?” the woman asked.

“A place where children learn to read and write and discover facts and information,” replied Magnus. He looked at Marlo, who was listening intently, his face red with anger.

“The bank building would be a good place for a school,” Magnus went on. “I’d close the factory if I were you, and the mine, until we can find a safe way to extract the gold and a way to make the jewellery that doesn’t involve smoke.”

“We will not close the mine,” came a cry from the crowd.

“I like my new earrings,” shouted the woman with the lovely handbag, indignantly.

Suddenly there was a loud noise, like a hooter or an alarm, and some children ran into the market place. They were crying and extremely upset. “The roof has collapsed in the mine and Finlo is under it,” one of them cried. There was a scream and a shout and some people hurried from the market place, following the children as they ran back to the mine.

“I think you are right, Magnus,” said the man in the expensive tunic. “If what you say is true we must do as you suggest. I wish Marlo had told us about the bad air, the danger and the oily water. We might have thought twice if we’d known that. He just flies into one of his rages and tells us off as if we are children.”

“They are just facts,” said Magnus, with a smile. “I like facts.” He wondered why Marlo hadn’t told the people the facts. He looked up and saw Marlo walking towards him, and he wasn’t smiling.

Chapter 5

“You can’t tell them facts,” said Marlo through gritted teeth. “They can’t cope with facts. You just have to tell them they can’t do it.” They were sitting on a wall in the sunshine by the bank. Someone had brought them a cold drink and some vegetable paste sandwiches.

“I am amazed you have managed to get away with it for so long. You taught me facts, why not them?” Magnus was staggered. The people were like children. No wonder that at the first sign of something interesting, they fell for it. “Is that what you did on the other Earth, just shouted at the humans?” he asked.

“Well, yes, at first; but then I realised things were out of control so I suggested recycling and clean energy, but things happened faster than I could cope with. If I was in England and there was an invention in Italy, by the time I got there it was too late. Look at here, for instance. They have put the children in the mines already. It took the other Earth a lot longer to do that.”

“Maybe that’s your problem,” Magnus suggested.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you saw how much they liked their handbags and their shiny things; they aren’t going to give them up now. Maybe, before things get out of hand, you should start them off with technology that will ensure the planet isn’t spoiled. The next thing they will want is some kind of vehicle. If I were you, I’d suggest a bicycle. For long distance travel what about a hot air balloon?” Magnus folded his arms and looked at the old man’s puzzled and hurt face and let his wise words sink in. “I know you feel they have let you down, but tending vegetables day in, day out must be very boring after a while. I have to agree with them there. And new inventions are exciting. Remember when you came home with your new computer? We couldn’t get you off it for six weeks.”

There was silence for a few moments and then Marlo smiled.

“Maybe you are right. My method has certainly been a failure. It wouldn’t do any harm to find a compromise. How are we going to power these electric bikes?”

Magnus shrugged. “What about making some generators and rechargeable batteries? What about building some wind or water turbines?”

Marlo jumped up, enraged again. “I will not have those vile things spoiling the countryside!”

“Well, you have to make a compromise somewhere,” said Magnus. “Birds, bees and butterflies; or windmills. It’s up to you.”

They were disturbed by the arrival of a recently extracted Finlo on a stretcher. The crowd brought him straight to Marlo, who looked him over and prescribed bed rest, herbal tea, a few plasters, and no more mining. The small child was carried home by his anxious parents, who, Magnus noted, were wearing some lovely new shoes.

A large man, wearing a gold trimmed tunic, came over to Marlo and introduced himself. “My name is Figus. I am the manager of the mine. I believe you told these people to shut it down. I am afraid that is not going to happen.”

Marlo, who was in no mood to be spoken to by a jumped-up servant of the Manges, took out his knobbled stick and bonked Figus smartly on the head. The unconscious man was removed from the dusty floor and Marlo ordered the people to close the mine directly, because there were other ways to extract gold that didn’t involve children, and he would call a meeting tomorrow morning and give them instructions on how they could have their lovely new things and look after the planet as well.

This pleased the people of the town very much and they drifted away, chattering in groups and showing off their new purchases with renewed enthusiasm. Out of the corner of his eye, Magnus spotted the Troodon lurking in the bushes nearby. He threw a few pieces of sandwich in its direction and it gobbled them up enthusiastically, only to spit them out again immediately with a disgusted snort. Then it wriggled into a small hole under the bushes and went to sleep.

“They are quite tame,” said Marlo, who noticed what he had done. “I think you have a friend for life.” Marlo stood up. “I have to get that sign down. Come on, Magnus, help me. That word is an insult to my old eyes.” Magnus bent over and let Marlo use his back as a step. Marlo climbed up the wall of the bank and started bashing the sign with his knobbled stick. It fell off eventually and broke into three pieces.

“I feel better already,” he said.

“I wonder where my parents are,” said Magnus, who looked around sadly. He had hoped they would have heard he was here by now.

“Hmm, yes, it is puzzling,” said Marlo, dropping down and brushing building dust off his tunic. “It’s not like them. Come on, let’s go and see if we can find them.”

They walked in a southerly direction along the straight main road and stopped at a small house with an overgrown garden. It looked neglected and abandoned.

“How strange,” muttered Marlo, and then he spied a neighbour weeding his vegetable patch and went over to find out what had happened.

“They weren’t happy with the mine and the factory. After a year or so they left. They said they were going to find the stranger who came that day and try to stop him before he did any more damage.” The old neighbour leaned on the fence, trowel in hand, and chatted happily. “Are you their son? My, haven’t you grown up. You were just a chick when I last saw you. You used to chase butterflies in my garden and once you caught a lizard and carried it home by its tail to your mum. I heard the screams.” The neighbour chuckled and Magnus smiled.

Magnus couldn’t remember, but he did feel a warm pride that his parents had left to try and stop Murdamond. He wished he could remember.

“We will find them. Don’t worry, Magnus,” Marlo said gently. “Just as soon as we have sorted out this mess, we will go ourselves and stop this once and for all.”

Magnus nodded, but he still felt sad.

Marlo went through the little gate and into the overgrown garden and wandered around, kicking stones and muttering to himself.

“What are you doing?” Magnus asked. “Please don’t do that to my garden.”

“Ah! Here it is!” cried Marlo, and he picked up a long bronze key. “Come on, let’s go inside. We have nowhere else to stay. I am sure your parents wouldn’t mind.”

Magnus suddenly felt excited. They would be going into his home. The one where he was hatched.

He started to walk towards Marlo when he was interrupted by a shout. A group of agitated men came rushing over. They stopped in front of the gate.

“We think you should come quickly; there has been a disaster. We have found three dead Spinosauruses and we think it has been done on purpose.”

“Where?” asked Marlo.

“To the west of here. And someone says there is news of a great building plan to the far north. There is activity in the Telux region, by the sea. They say someone is building a huge house, with a swimming pool. All the dinosaurs have been cleared from the area. They have either been moved or killed,” one of the younger men said. His words were hurried and he was clearly distressed.

“Well, that is terrible news,” said Marlo. He sat on a large rock outside Magnus’ house. “It looks like Murdamond is here to stay. The Telux region is at least two months’ walk from here and winter will soon be upon us. We can’t risk going north till the spring. However, we will come and look at these poor dinosaurs. Come on, Magnus,” Marlo urged him. “I think you might be interested in this.”

Magnus was very interested; however, he was also very unhappy. The Spinosaurus was his favourite dinosaur. He wanted to see living ones, not dead ones. And it looked like these ones had been murdered. Magnus was starting to dislike this Murdamond character with all his heart.

Chapter 6

It took Marlo, Magnus and three others half an hour to walk to the place where the three dead Spinosauruses lay. It was the saddest sight that Magnus had seen in his short life.

The dinosaurs lay in a meadow filled with colourful wild flowers and very tall trees. Butterflies danced over the carcasses of two adults and a baby. Whoever the killer was had wiped out a whole family. Magnus felt sick with disgust. He walked over to the larger of the two adults and saw the brightly-coloured frill and the long beak-like snout filled with small, sharp teeth. There was a small wound near the dinosaur’s eye and it looked suspiciously like a bullet hole. Magnus stroked its hard, cold skin and two large tears welled up in his blue-green eyes. He was angry too and it felt difficult to hold in the rage, but he tried because he knew it wouldn’t do any good to let it out. The beasts were dead and nothing could bring them back to life.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw the little dinosaur move. It was ever so slight, but he ran over to look. Yes! It was definitely moving slightly. He bravely laid his head on the baby’s chest and there, ever so faintly, he felt the soft tick tick tick of a tiny heartbeat.

“Quick! Marlo, the baby is alive!”

The men sprang into action. Marlo, who had brought his medicine bag, set to work and looked the baby over. “I think it is just stunned. Maybe the mother knocked it as she fell. Look at the bump on its head, there.” Marlo pointed, and sure enough Magnus could see a large red swelling above the baby’s eye.

“We need to get it back to the village,” Magnus said. “Can we carry it?”

The other men looked concerned. “What if it wakes up? Even the babies have a wicked bite.” None of them seemed keen to go near it, never mind pick it up.

Magnus had an idea. He took some tourniquet cloth from Marlo’s bag and tied up the small beak so if the dinosaur awoke it wouldn’t nip them. Then he asked the men to help him make a stretcher out of two large branches and a huge leaf he found on the floor that had dropped from the very tall trees that grew in the area. The leaf was so big the little dinosaur could easily fit on it, with room to spare.

The stretcher took a little while to make, and while it was being completed, Marlo and Magnus went for a walk to try and find clues to what had happened.

“They look like they have been shot with a gun,” Magnus said grimly.

“Yes, it looks like it could be the work of a Mange. They must be about, but there won’t be many and he or she will be well hidden. They don’t like to come out into the open unless they are in large groups, for protection, you see?”

“You mean they could be watching us now?”

“Very probably.”

Suddenly out of the bushes swarmed some large bird-like dinosaurs that Magnus didn’t recognise, a huge flock of them, and they waddled downhill into some bushes, making honking noises as they went.

“There must be a lake through there. The Spinosauruses are fish eaters,” said Magnus.

Marlo nodded.

“Yes, it is Lake Marlo. They named it after me,” he grinned. “Come on, let’s get the patient back to the hospital. We have a special place in the village where we care for all sorts of injured animals. We’re used to this sort of work.”

They carried the baby Spinosaurus back along the track, every one of them nervously keeping an eye out for large predatory dinosaurs. Marlo said that the lake area was the most dangerous place to be. All the dinosaurs of every type congregated there because all the dinosaurs needed a drink from time to time.

The baby dinosaur stirred occasionally and made low, sad whimpering noises, but it didn’t open its eyes. Magnus stroked its head and whispered soothing words of comfort, and the baby seemed to calm down when he did that. He was thrilled that the baby was alive.

At the hospital there was great concern. The three surgeons set about helping it straight away. “It’s a male,” said Luna, the chief surgeon. “Look at his crest; it’s starting to change colour. Baby Spinosauruses have downy grey frills and then the little feathers drop off to reveal the colours underneath. This is an especially beautiful pattern. It looks like a moth’s wing.”

“So, that’s made up my mind. I will name him Moth,” said Magnus.

“We don’t usually give them names,” said Luna, “but as he’s an orphan you can give him a name if you like. I hope we’ll have him back at the lake after the winter. We will need to keep him warm and safe until he is fully recovered.”

Suddenly the little dinosaur opened one eye and the surgeons stepped back in fright, but Magnus was not afraid. He stroked the Spinosaurus and it didn’t bite him, or even try to nip him. It actually licked him and nuzzled Magnus’s arm with its snout.

“Well, I never!” said Luna. “I don’t think I have ever seen anything like that before.”

“Didn’t you know?” said Marlo softly. “The boy is a Trancer. That’s how we knew he was special.”

Magnus didn’t know what a Trancer was, but he knew something: he loved this baby Spinosaurus and the Spinosaurus rather liked him too.

When they finally left the hospital it was growing dark and Magnus’s stomach gave a low growl.

“Oops, someone’s hungry,” laughed Marlo. Magnus realised he hadn’t eaten anything since the sandwiches earlier that morning. Pattering feet and a short squeak alerted him to the fact that they were being followed. The little Troodon was back and he bounded near to Magnus. It started to jump and flick its tail.

Magnus laughed. “Come on, Frolic,” he said. “Let’s go and find something to eat.”

Marlo smiled. “Do you know what a Trancer is, Magnus?” Magnus shook his head. “It means that no animal will harm you. They are yours to command. It is quite a gift and I only know of two. Francesco from Assisi, and yourself. Use it well, Magnus. It is an amazing power to have.”

“And quite useful too,” Magnus added, his eyes shining, “in a land filled with man-eating dinosaurs.”

They both laughed.

“Come with me,” said Marlo. “Before I take you back to your house, I will take you to a good, friendly place that serves hot, tasty food.” That was just what Magnus wanted. The two friends, followed by the small dinosaur leaping and snapping at passing butterflies, wandered along the small road and back into the village.

They did not see the tall, dark-haired stranger, with the scar on his left cheek, hidden beneath a silver cloak in the bushes behind them. Neither did they see him place a short message into a small tube and tie it to a little Pterodactyl’s leg. “Fly fast and swift to the Master,” he whispered. “I think he needs to know about this boy and his unusual powers without delay.”

The Pterodactyl made no sound. It had been trained well. Silently, on its thin, leathery wings, it soared into the evening sky and headed northwards. The stranger in the silvery cloak slipped away into the forest and disappeared.

Chapter 7

Magnus woke up in a small bed still wearing his clothes and covered in a faded grey blanket. He had no idea how he got there. The night before was a blur. He vaguely remembered eating a hot, tasty vegetable stew and baked potatoes in a noisy room filled with laughing people. It seemed as if the day had caught up with him and he had nodded off at the table, because he couldn’t remember anything else.

He heard clattering and banging in another room somewhere, so he stretched and climbed out of bed and looked around. A slender crack in the shutters allowed the morning sunlight to ooze into the room, so he could just see that he was in a small, tidy bedroom. Reaching up, he opened the shutters and he was momentarily blinded, but as his eyes adjusted he saw that the room was a child’s bedroom. The walls were painted a soft yellow and there was a little wooden chest of drawers and a homemade dinosaur mobile dangled from the ceiling.

Magnus had a feeling that this, at one time, had been his room.

He found Marlo in a little kitchen, frying the breakfast vegetables in a pan on top of a little stove. Magnus saw that the old man was frowning.

“I miss fried hens’ eggs,” he muttered. “Even though eating an egg took some getting used to.”

“Is there nothing we can eat other than vegetables and fruit?” asked Magnus, equally as unhappy with a plate full of fried beans. “What about fish?”

“I suppose there are fish in the lake, but fishing there is a dangerous pursuit. You could be gobbled up at any minute.”

Magnus hadn’t thought about that.

“No small mammals?”

“Only that squirrel rodent thing that the Troodon ate.” Marlo cast a glance at Magnus, who shuddered at the thought.

He went to look around his house. His breakfast of fried vegetables and rice could wait.

It was a small cottage, with a couple of wooden chairs in the living room, plus a few vases, a couple of jars and trinkets on the windowsills and a colourful handmade rug laid on the floor in front of a little fireplace. He noticed some pictures on the wall. They were sketched in a type of thick black pencil. One was of a smiling baby with a cheeky face and hair that stuck up. He wondered who had drawn them, his mother or his father and, not for the first time, he wondered what they were like. He also wondered where they were. He really hoped they were safe.

He found a larger bedroom with a double bed and a little bathroom and that was it. So he wandered back to the kitchen and found Marlo deep in thought studying the Jewelled Book of the Universe which he held up open in his left hand while he ate his vegetables with his right.

For the first time Magnus took a proper look at the book. It was an exquisite cover. There were jewels of every description covering every spare bit of it. They sparkled in the morning sunlight and cast coloured lights on the ceiling and the window.

“Who wrote the Jewelled Book of the Universe?” Magnus asked. “And what’s it about?”

Marlo was jolted out of his thoughts suddenly. He closed the book and handed it to Magnus.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “No one knows who made it, or what it says. I was studying it then, to see if I could decipher it. I think it is more of a key than a book of information, as such. It seems to do the right thing at the right time, if you understand me.” Marlo smiled and watched the boy study the jewels. Magnus was fascinated. “The cover holds every jewel that can be found in the universe. The stones are impossible to remove. The book can’t be burned or lost or stolen. It turns up in the right place with its keeper when required. At the moment I am its keeper, but I sense my time is nearly up. I think it rather likes you.”

The book did seem to sparkle more magnificently and Magnus felt it growing warmer in his hands. It seemed to hum contentedly like a purring cat who loves its owner. It was as if the book was alive. He opened the pages and looked at the peculiar markings. There were odd shapes, squiggles, baffling lines and symbols that he had never seen before. He couldn’t fathom out the words at all, but he felt stronger when he held the book. He felt its goodness. Nothing bad or harmful was contained within the book. Its kindness overwhelmed him for a moment and he felt a tear start in the corner of his eye. Magnus wasn’t really a crying sort of boy. He was quite brave and had only cried a couple of times; once when he had cracked his head on a cupboard aged five. So he was surprised and embarrassed by the tear. It dropped onto the page of the book and he was worried it would smudge the writing, but it didn’t. He closed the book suddenly, trapping the teardrop inside.

He was distracted for a moment by Frolic, the Troodon, who was chasing a dragonfly in the garden outside. He watched as the little dinosaur deftly caught it and chomped happily on his freshly caught breakfast. No fried vegetables for him.

The Jewelled Book of the Universe was startled by the cold liquid that had fallen from the boy’s eye and it made the book think. It had watched life pass by for countless millennia, but it had never felt the tickle of a little boy’s tear before. The book quite liked this little boy and it felt sorry for him for a moment. Then the book had an idea and it decided that the time had come for a change. While the tear continued to stir the book’s wise heart, the idea grew and the book made a decision. It let its cover sparkle more brightly at the cleverness of the idea and it started to form a plan.

Chapter 8

The next few weeks passed quickly in the village. Throughout the rest of the summer and well into the autumn, Marlo and Magnus helped the village adapt to its new-found technology. Recycle bins popped up on street corners and the people were shown how to use them. Marlo designed some waterwheels and he even consented to a large wind turbine, but a flock of Pterodactyls flew into it one day, and there were so many casualties the villagers took it down the very next day.

Marlo, who had a head filled with plans for this and ideas for that, encouraged the people to take up a skill and build an extra room on their house rather than a factory, where they could make jewellery, or glass beads, or handbags out of cloth. The fine leather ones, they had discovered, had been made out of a type of dinosaur skin. And though the owners were horrified, they carried on using them, much to Marlo’s disgust.

The people enjoyed being busy for the first time in their lives, doing something other than growing vegetables and flowers and helping sick animals.

They turned the bank into a school and the children were taught subjects like arithmetic and science and technology. They rather liked learning to read books and listening to stories, especially when Marlo told them his stories about the other Earth.

The place sounded thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. They loved hearing about the huge ships and the fast trains, the aeroplanes, and the strange talking picture box that sat in the corner of everyone’s living room. They sat wide-eyed when Marlo told them stories about the Ancient Greeks and the Romans, and about a king he once knew called Arthur, who had a round table and a beautiful sword covered with jewels that he’d pulled out of a stone.

He told them of heroes and heroines, and wonderful inventions, and artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo; and of Pompeii, a city buried under the ash of a massive volcano. He told them about the delicious food they ate on the other Earth, and the animals, like elephants, tigers, foxes, bats and birds. He told them too of the Great Wars, and terror, and fear, and smogs that suffocated the people of the other Earth. And the children of the village sat entranced and silent.

Then they drew pictures and wrote stories and played games in the yard outside. The people of the village were glad to see the children happy and busy. No one had their apples stolen that autumn, but a few people still found small dinosaurs in their beds at night. “Well,” Marlo said, “you can’t have everything.” And the people accepted that he was right and children were just children, after all.

Magnus visited Moth in the hospital and fed him some strange, colourful fish they kept in a small pond at the hospital. When he told Marlo about the fishpond, his old tutor told the villagers to construct a larger pond and fill that with fish too. He showed them how to make fish, chips and mushy peas, and the people loved this new food and they queued along the street to try it.

There was a problem with Moth, the surgeons told him. The bump on his head had stopped his growth, so he would always be a small Spinosaurus. He could never go back into the wild like that or he would be eaten up in five minutes flat. So, a week before the autumn equinox, Magnus took his little Spinosaurus home, and it slept at the end of his bed and the Troodon slept on the floor next to him.

Magnus was quite happy with his new little family, but he was quite unprepared for the shock that greeted him the morning after they celebrated the festival of the full moon.

Everyone congregated in the village, eating fish and chips by the light of many candles. Marlo spoke the words of their ancestors by the ancient village marker stone, and they sent their good wishes to the sun, which they hoped would return in the spring, and then they danced to music provided by the village Drum and Flute Band. Then they all trooped home at half past midnight, ready for a long sleep and a long lie-in the next morning. It had been a lovely evening and Magnus felt that the magic was stronger than usual. It had flowed through the trees, the flowers and the people in the market square. He felt the electricity spark through his fingertips and through the hairs on his head. It had been a special night, but he had no idea how special till the next morning.

Magnus was awoken by Moth gently nibbling his nose, but when he went into the kitchen he stood still in shocked surprise. Marlo was cooking breakfast as normal, but he wasn’t alone. Sitting at the table was a young girl about the same age as Magnus. She turned and smiled as he stood, rooted to the spot in the doorway. The girl had very long silvery blonde hair that sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight; eyes like glittering emeralds; and full lips, the colour of red rubies. Her skin was clear and glistened like opals, and her dress was sapphire blue silk and it shimmered when she moved. She was very beautiful and Magnus stared and stared.

“Ah,” said Marlo, putting a plate of fried vegetables in front of her. “I found her asleep on a chair in the living room. She can’t talk, and I have no idea why, but I think she’s here to stay.”

Magnus stared at the girl and the girl stared at Magnus. He knew who she was and the girl smiled because she knew he understood. A soft, clear voice tinkled in his brain.

Hello, Magnus, it said. You can call me Em, for that is my name.

And the Jewelled Book of the Universe thought its plan had got off to rather a good start, all things considered.

Chapter 9

In a half-finished castle, far in the north, on a cliff overlooking the sea, Murdamond was in his grand hall gazing at himself in a large mirror with a golden frame encrusted with diamonds and rubies. He was wearing his new hat made with a mass of colourful Archaeopteryx feathers and Utahraptor claws. He decided that the hat needed a few more feathers, and he told the hat maker, who stood quivering nervously at his side, to hurry along and slaughter at least six more Archaeopteryxes quickly because he needed the hat for tomorrow morning. The milliner fled, after wrapping up the hat carefully, and Murdamond was all alone in the large room.

It was growing chilly in the castle so he had ordered a large fire to be built in the massive carved stone fireplace. Murdamond sat down in his fine gold chair and drummed his fingers on the golden arms, deep in thought. Suddenly he was bored and decided it was time to give out some orders: his second favourite pastime after shopping, which was his all-time favourite. He pulled on a rope beside him, which rang a bell that summoned his personal assistant.

After a few seconds, a tall, thin man in a black tunic slid into the room. His long grey hair looked lank and unwashed, and his thin mouth was in a tighter line than usual. The assistant wondered what his master could possibly want now. He had everything it was possible to have, but he always seemed to have a new list every morning.

“Ah, Viper, there you are. I have an idea,” said Murdamond, standing up. His long tunic, made from golden thread and tiny diamonds, glittered, and his long white hair was brushed till it shone and tied with a gold ribbon, and he had threaded some tiny diamonds into his beard, so that sparkled too.

“You are looking wonderful today, Master,” complimented Viper dutifully. It was always important to start the day with a compliment. Viper had been Murdamond’s personal assistant for many hundreds of years and he knew his master well.

“Before I start, I need an update on how the building is proceeding. The fifteenth bathroom – is it finished? I was wondering if maybe I needed sixteen, because, as you know, you can never have too many bathrooms, and have you changed the taps to golden ones? That blithering idiot who put the silver taps in will be punished, I can tell you! Silver! How common!”

Viper sighed; he had no idea how the silver taps had slipped past the foreman, but everyone’s ears were still ringing from the shrieking and yelling that had ensued when his master had spotted them. He was sure that a mistake like that would not be repeated again.

“Well, Master, the swimming pool has been put on hold until the spring because the builders want to put all their energy into the castle and have it finished before the first frost…”

“No!”

“…I am sorry; I don’t quite understand…”

“Get some of those pathetic vegetable-eating locals to finish the pool. I want a warm bathe on Midwinter’s Day. I always have a warm bathe on Midwinter’s Day. It’s my one treat. I want that pool finished and I want golden mosaic tiles fitted. I don’t like the blue ones.”

“But, but, taking up the tiles will put us back even further…”

“Well, work during the night if you have to. I want my warm bathe on Midwinter’s Day. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master.”

Viper knew it was no use arguing with Murdamond; he didn’t know why he’d even bothered. Murdamond always got his own way in the end. Viper made a note on his To Do List that he had on a clipboard.

“I will be conducting another walkaround tomorrow,” Murdamond went on, “and I will be wearing my new hat, so please tell the builders to be complimentary.” Murdamond felt better giving out instructions. He poured himself a refreshing drink of cold, fizzy white wine into a gold goblet covered with precious stones and pearls.

“Now,” Murdamond said with a big sigh, “look at that wall there, above the fireplace. Do you know what I think would look lovely on that wall?”

“A painting of you?”

“No, guess again.”

“A statue of you?”

“No,” Murdamond giggled. “I like this game. Keep guessing.” He sipped his wine and smiled, showing perfectly white teeth.

“A gold mosaic picture of you.”

“No, but I like that idea. I think we’ll have a gold mosaic picture of me on the wall by the swimming pool. Go on, guess again.”

“A frieze of you wearing your new hat?”

“No.”

Half an hour later and Viper was still guessing.His feet were tired from standing there, but he dutifully obeyed his old master because it was his job and he liked his new rooms that Murdamond had built for him in the west wing of the castle.

“Another jewelled mirror, so you can admire yourself even more?”

“No. Do you give up?”

“Yes.”

“All right, I’ll tell you. I would like a huge T. Rex head, stuffed and mounted on a golden plaque.”

“Oh, Master. What a fabulous idea! I would never have thought of that. Only a great mind would come up with such a wonderful idea.” Viper was very relieved. Maybe now, he could go and give the builders the bad news about the swimming pool tiles.

“Rightio, Viper. Have Helwyr find me a huge one and send it north before the winter migration.”

“Very well, Master.” Viper slid his forefinger across his thin lips and coughed. “Speaking of Helwyr, Master…”

“Yes; what about him? Is he still in the south? What has he discovered?”

Murdamond opened his jewellery box and started trying on his large collection of rings. They were huge, mainly gold, with enormous precious stones, and they glittered on his slender manicured fingers.

“Yes, he has found out a great deal. Marlo is back in Caredigrwydd and he has made some… er… changes.”

“What changes? That old man is useless. I am not worried about him.” Murdamond closed his jewellery box and started looking at his collection of bracelets.

“He has brought someone with him. A boy. He is called Magnus, and the boy appears to have encouraged the vegetable-eating ones to close the bank and open a school, and he has also closed the factory and the mine. Figus is in a dungeon and they won’t let him out.”

“What!” Murdamond shrieked. “My gold mine?”

“Yes, but there’s more bad news I’m afraid.”

Murdamond sat down.

“The boy is a Trancer and he has also encouraged the villagers to use clean energy.”

“Clean energy! Clean energy! Why? This boy sounds like trouble. Have Helwyr kill him at once.”

“Ah, but I think that could go against The Agreement. The boy is a member of the High Deruweld.”

At this news, Murdamond started smacking his golden table with his hands and shrieking with rage.

“Yes, it is very annoying,” went on Viper, while Murdamond started kicking the table leg. “He has two pets, Master. One is a Spinosaurus.”

“Really?” Murdamond stopped kicked the table leg and stood still. Suddenly he felt extremely jealous. He’d never had a pet like that. He’d had tigers, lions, and even a giraffe on the other Earth, but never anything as grand as a Spinosaurus.

“I want one!” he yelled.

“They are quite dangerous, Master.”

“I don’t care! I want one!” Murdamond shouted. “See to it, at once!”

Viper sighed.

“Yes, Master.” Viper waited for Murdamond to calm down. “There is more news, Master.”

“What is it?” Murdamond snapped.

“We have intercepted a couple: a man and a woman, from Caredigrwydd, or so they say, who have been travelling on foot to all the villages hereabouts and warning them not to listen to you.”

“Really?”

“Shall I have them fed to the Allosauruses?”

“Yes… no… wait. They could come in useful. From Caredigrwydd, you say? Hmm… Put them in a dungeon. We could use them to bargain with later on. Now, we need Helwyr to get me my T. Rex head and maybe to bring me that boy, Magnus, is that his name? I want him here before he causes more damage. I want Figus released and that mine opened as soon as possible. We can’t have our gold supply interrupted, now can we?”

“Shall I send a group of our best Persuaders?”

“Indeed. Maybe in the spring, they are not as swift as Helwyr and they will only be delayed when the first snow falls. It can wait. My T. Rex is more important at the moment. Maybe Helwyr can try to release Figus and snatch the boy.”

“Indeed, he can only try,” Viper smiled, and nodded. “Is there anything I can get you, Master?”

“Yes, I’m hungry. I’d like some more of those roasted Velociraptor legs. They were delicious. Yum, yum, yummy.”

“Right away, Master.” Viper excused himself and left, before Murdamond had any more ideas.

Chapter 10

When Helwyr the hunter received the message from Murdamond, attached to the leg of a Pterodactyl, he decided to go that very day to find the boy and the T. Rex and get the jobs done as soon as possible, so he could travel north before the cold weather set in and the dinosaurs started their long walk further south for the winter.

He had caught sight of a large male T. Rex the week before, hunting on the far side of the lake. They were solitary beasts who ate whatever they found, even if it was already dead; the lake was a good place to pick off a young thirsty Triceratops or a few bird-like dinosaurs that had fallen in by mistake.

He picked up his bag and his handmade wooden gun, and he put three small silver bullets in a little pouch and wrapped a warm cloak tightly around his shoulders. The autumn mornings were growing chillier and there was a light frost covering the grass and the blackberry bushes along the path that snaked from his cottage in the forest to the lake.

As he approached the lake, he lay down so as to be out of sight and wriggled his way up a slight hill to his vantage point with a clear view over the plain where the dinosaurs congregated for a drink, and he settled down for what could be a very long wait in the cold, wet grass.

At almost the same time, Magnus, his two dinosaurs and Em walked to the lake that morning as normal. They went most mornings because Magnus liked to play in the climbing trees and watch all his favourite dinosaurs arrive at the lake for a drink.

It was always a slow walk to the climbing trees, due to Em’s need to touch things she had never touched before, and smell things she had never smelled before, and taste the ripening berries and fruits on the trees along the way. The girl’s inquisitiveness compensated for her silence, and she had very little fear, which Magnus thought was a little bit puzzling and worrying.

The first thing she did when she arrived at the climbing trees was to hang upside down from a branch and throw blackberries at Frolic the Troodon, who chased them and ran in circles making them laugh. Moth the Spinosaurus really wanted to climb the tree as well and be with Magnus, so he spent most of the time trying to climb up the rough bark with his two little front legs. This was both funny and a little sad at the same time, because there was no way the dinosaur could get even a small way up the tree. He never gave up, though, which Magnus thought showed character.

Em hung upside down from the tree and Magnus sat on the branch and watched the wading dinosaurs and predators like Baryonix arrive for their morning fish. There was a species of Iguanadon that spent most of the time walking in the water like a dinosaur version of a hippo, and a type of small fast-swimming dinosaur fish with a pointy snout that jumped out and caught flies. Magnus had no idea what it was.

He liked to watch the brightly-coloured Triceratops herds with their babies, and the Velociraptors trying, but always failing, to bite the ankles of the baby Brachiosaurs whose parents made the ground shake as they wandered over for a long drink. It was strange to see all the dinosaurs together. There didn’t seem to have been any extinctions on this Earth, so Spinosauruses mixed with T. Rexes and Allosauruses. It took some getting used to, but Marlo said that probably the Deruweld had kept the dinosaurs alive by rescuing them and feeding them, when on the other Earth they had died out for various reasons that had never happened on this Earth.

Em watched too, her face filled with happiness. She never grew tired of this new experience. She loved the animals too. Today, though, something felt wrong. She swung back up onto the branch and watched. There was something on the wind and it wasn’t good. It tickled her insides and squirmed into her brain and made her heart beat faster than normal.

Out of the bushes to the north she heard a terrifying roar followed by the crushing of branches and the skittering noise of lots of dinosaurs running very fast. Eventually, out of the bushes ahead blundered a huge male T. Rex. He was tormenting a staggering juvenile Triceratops who was badly wounded from a bite on its front left leg.

Magnus sat up. He didn’t really like watching the dinosaurs being eaten and he swallowed and stared. It made him feel a bit queasy.

Em, on the other hand, stared open-mouthed, and then she did something quite unexpected. She climbed down from the tree and started walking towards the T. Rex.

Moth and Frolic stopped and stared, but they sensibly didn’t move and watched the T. Rex with wide, frightened eyes.

Magnus nearly fell out of the tree in shock.

“Come back,” he shouted.

She didn’t appear to hear him and carried on waking towards the huge, raging T. Rex and the squealing Triceratops. The other dinosaurs had retreated to a safe distance, their leisurely drink interrupted for now.

Magnus realised he couldn’t let her go alone, so he clambered down too and raced after her. He noticed that she was looking intently towards the top of a little hill and not at the T. Rex. He followed her gaze, but all he could see were some bushes on top of a hill. The squeals of the young Triceratops to his right were distressing, but he couldn’t look. For Magnus, the idea that big dinosaurs ate little dinosaurs was something he would rather just know about and not actually watch. Triceratops was one of his favourites too.

So he watched Em, who did a very strange thing. She started to run towards the T. Rex, flapping her arms and jumping in the air. The T. Rex half stopped and glared at her with his beady eyes, its mouth red with the little Triceratops’ blood. Magnus could see its massive teeth, and they were green and red and not very pleasant at all. He didn’t want Em to be the T. Rex’s dessert. He was just about to command the T. Rex to go away when a quite extraordinary event occurred.

The ground began to shake violently as if there was an earthquake, and then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw an immense cloud of dust emerging from the east. The T. Rex had turned its attention back on to the Triceratops who was moaning and thrashing below, but it stopped when it heard the noise.

Em saw it too and smiled. She grabbed Magnus’s hand and they sped up the little hill, making it to safety just in time. A huge herd of angry Triceratops hurtled towards the T. Rex at top speed.

The chaos that ensued was something that Magnus knew he would never forget in a long time. The T. Rex started to run in the other direction on its great lumbering hind legs. It was the T. Rex’s turn to be terrified now. The herd of Triceratops were quite swift for such large and bulky beasts and they chased the T. Rex, waving their sharp horns and shaking their massive heads and snorting, their thundering feet making a deafening sound.

At one point the T. Rex was cornered and Magnus heard it roar with pain as the horn of a Triceratops connected with its rear, but it escaped through a narrow gap in the rocks and disappeared with the herd hot on its heels.

Magnus and Em laughed, but they soon stopped when out of the bushes came a man, and in his hand he held a gun. He didn’t look very happy.

Em said nothing as the hunter shouted at her, telling her she had done a very stupid thing and she could have been killed. Magnus saw that the hunter had tears in his eyes. He dropped the gun and fell to his knees. When the gun hit the ground, Magnus watched it melt away into dust, and he looked at Em, who was smiling at the hunter.

The moment that Helwyr had spotted the children, he had thought he could steal the boy and kill the T. Rex all on the same day, saving him time, but then he had noticed the girl, with her silvery blonde hair and mysterious emerald eyes. There was something about her that distracted him from his murderous intention. Maybe she reminded him of his long-lost daughter, or maybe she pushed the darkness out of his soul, because he had lowered his gun and watched her bravely try to warn the T. Rex. She had known he was there and that he was there to kill.

The girl was more than human; he knew it now. And when he came out of the bushes and down the hill towards her and the boy, the last piece of darkness left him and he felt just like the young man he had once been many, many years ago, before Murdamond had set him on his evil course.

He felt better. He dropped his dinosaur gun and gave up his profession on the spot. Helwyr decided to serve the girl and the boy, not the greedy old man in a castle far away.

The girl put her hand on top of his silvery head and he jumped. Goodness flowed into him, filling the gaps the darkness had left behind. Everything will be fine now, he heard a voice say in his head. Well done, Helwyr.

How did she know his name? wondered Helwyr. What sort of girl was she?

“Help me,” came a shout and they both turned to see Magnus with the juvenile Triceratops. “Help me get this Trike to the hospital. I think we can save his leg.”

“It’s a she,” said Helwyr. “I will help,” he said to the startled and worried boy. “I am your servant now. My name is Helwyr.”

“Good,” said Magnus. “Come on, Helwyr. We haven’t a moment to lose.”

Chapter 11

It was impossible for one man and two children to move a badly wounded juvenile Triceratops, so Magnus ran back for help. The dinosaur ambulance, a large trailer on wheels pulled by six people, arrived eventually and they slid the little Triceratops onto the well-worn boards. Magnus sat with it and stroked its massive head all the way back to the village. It made rumbling noises but seemed to be soothed by Magnus’s presence.

Marlo took one look at the dinosaur when he arrived at the hospital and was quite firm. “That is not sleeping in your bedroom,” he said.

“There’s room,” protested Magnus.

“No.”

“Why not?” Magnus wasn’t happy.

Suddenly the Triceratops let out a horrendously loud noise from its bottom. The Triceratops gave everyone an apologetic look and sunk its snout into the straw. The smell was overpowering. Magnus ran to the window and gasped for air.

“That’s why,” chuckled Marlo. “They eat so much green stuff they windypop all night.”

“Okay,” Magnus reluctantly agreed. “What about the front room?”

“No,” said Marlo. “We’ll find her a shed.”

Magnus felt a little bit better. Then Marlo noticed Helwyr.

“We have a Mange in our midst,” he said. “A famous hunter as well. Why is he here?”

“Yes,” replied Magnus. “He’s a goodie now. Em did her… er… thing,” he waved his hands about, “you know, woo woo, that sort of thing, and now he’s with us.”

Em grinned.

Marlo wasn’t so sure. He looked at the hunter through narrowed eyes.

“Tell me what you know,” he said softly.

Helwyr had heard of Marlo and he regarded the old wizard respectfully.

“Murdamond is building a castle to the north of here and he means to stay. He has the boy’s parents.”

Magnus sat up, his eyes wide with horror. “What? Really? Oh no!”

“Don’t worry,” Helwyr went on. “He hasn’t fed them to the Allosauruses yet. They are in the dungeon.”

Magus felt sick with worry. He hated Murdamond. Em touched his arm reassuringly and he felt her goodness oozing into him. The hate was pushed away and he sat down.

Em didn’t like to see Magnus unhappy. She saw some water in his eyes and she remembered the cold, wet blob that had fallen on her pages. So that’s what she had felt. Em was sad. It was the first time she had ever felt sadness and she didn’t like it. She decided to send Murdamond something that would make him feel sad so he would know what sad felt like too. She closed her eyes and sent a little present through the air. It sped off, flying at high speed across the countryside, and reached Murdamond in the middle of the night.

When Murdamond woke up the next day, he stretched and asked for his slippers. The slave placed his jewelled slippers at his feet, and when he looked at Murdamond he gave a loud gasp.

“What?” cried Murdamond. “Tell me, you stupid boy.”

The slave said nothing. He ran away to get Viper. Viper could be the bearer of this bad news.

Viper arrived to the sound of wailing and screaming from Murdamond’s bedroom. He opened the door and found the old man in front of one of his large mirrors. Viper could clearly see a huge, swollen red boil on the man’s cheek. It was a bad one. It had green pus oozing from its centre. It was quite revolting. Viper suppressed a chuckle and set his face into a look of worried concern.

“I will send for the doctor,” he said and silently closed the bedroom door. The screaming went on for hours and all the slaves and servants hid themselves away. Murdamond was difficult on a good day, but on a day like this it was best to keep out of sight as much as possible.

Magnus stayed with the Triceratops, whom he named Trumper, all through the night while the doctor tried to save her leg. The next morning the dinosaur was given the all clear and the doctor said that there would be a terrible scar, but the leg would heal. Magnus was so relieved. He gave Trumper a kiss and the dinosaur rumbled a friendly, but sleepy, reply and he left the hospital.

He went home and ate some breakfast and then went to bed. He didn’t even need to be told.

Marlo sat with Helwyr and they drank fruit juice and eyed each other suspiciously. Marlo wasn’t sure if the hunter was honest. Helwyr had heard that the old wizard was mad, so he kept his distance.

“Do you know his plans?” asked Marlo eventually, curiosity getting the better of him.

Helwyr stretched and sighed.

“Some of them,” he replied eventually. “But then his plans tend to be the same everywhere he goes,” answered Helwyr. “He will try to discredit you, and then he will build more factories, introduce more technology and dig for jewels and gold and have a wonderful life dressed from head to foot in gold and jewels.”

Marlo felt glum. He wondered how Murdamond would discredit him this time. He didn’t have long to find out. When he walked into the village later that day, he found a huge billboard had been stuck up by the school. There was a picture of a smiling Marlo on it and underneath it said, ‘This man tells lies’. A few people in the village gazed at him suspiciously. They were holding leaflets that had been dropped by a flock of Pterodacytls earlier that day.

‘Marlo is a Liar. Factories are Healthy!’ it said on some of them. On others it said, ‘Technology makes you happy. Buy things and enjoy life. Don’t miss out like Misery Marlo!’ There was a smiling picture of Marlo above the writing. Marlo sat down and dejectedly he began to rip up every piece of paper he could find.

Worse news greeted him later that day. Figus had escaped from prison and he had reopened the mine and the factory. He had paid guards this time and they were instructed to prevent Marlo and his knobbled stick from coming anywhere near him.

Chapter 12

“Don’t worry, Marlo,” Magnus comforted the old man later that afternoon as they sat together drinking lemonade on a wall outside the house. It was an unseasonably warm autumn day. “I’ll think of something to stop Figus and Murdamond.”

However, Helwyr had said that snow was on its way and soon they would go to the climbing trees and watch the dinosaur migration, which was a sight to behold, apparently. They were building a shed for Trumper, who was coming home in a week or so. Her leg was doing well considering it had nearly been bitten off by a T. Rex, but the doctors said she would have a slight limp for the rest of her life.

At least the children were still in school and not in the mine or in the factory. Figus had put the wages up and this had tempted some of the men away from their vegetable gardens. They were producing a steady amount of gold and it was piling up nicely in a heavily guarded warehouse, awaiting the arrival of Murdamond’s Mange Gold Transport in the spring.

Magnus was fascinated by some little brightly-coloured feathered dinosaurs that were scuttling around him, digging in the soft earth and in the rocks around Marlo and Em as they sat in the shade. They were definitely a type of raptor, because they had little, sharp claws which they used to scrape the ground for worms and bugs, and sometimes they scooped up truffles that Marlo pounced on and placed in a little pouch to grate on his soup that evening. As he watched them, he had an idea. Their scraping claws were sharp and tough. They pulled up rocks and tossed them aside as if they were nothing.

Magnus looked at Em, who was doing forward rolls on the grass over and over again. Any chance you could fix up a little earthquake next week? he said in his head. Em stopped doing forward rolls and sat up, a dizzy expression on her face; she had clumps of grass in her hair. She looked at Magnus and smiled. She came and sat by him and tried to steal his lemonade.

“Do these dinosaurs migrate?” he asked Marlo, in between fighting off Em. “Ow! Get off! Get your own.”

“What, these ones, these Doogers? No, they hang around and beg scraps from the people. We throw them leftovers and put bits on a kind of garden table for the ones that stay. They are quite tame. I found one asleep in my sock drawer once.” Magnus passed Em her own lemonade and she left Magnus alone and made rude slurping noises as she drank.

“I think I have an idea,” Magnus said. “Don’t worry, Marlo; leave it with me.”

Marlo felt old. He looked at the world around him. All he wanted to do was protect it, but after thousands of exhausting years he was close to giving up. Em stopped slurping her drink and stared at Marlo. In his head he heard a tinkling voice whisper: Good will win.

I hope so, he thought. I really do.

The next morning was cold and there was a thick frost. Magnus planned his attack on the mine and visited Trumper with a basket filled with leaves. Frolic and Moth skipped along behind him. They had become quite good friends now that Moth had stopped trying to nip Frolic’s bottom when he wasn’t looking. The little Troodon even rode on the Spinosaurus’ back from time to time.

Magnus saw a man coming out of the mine pushing a wheelbarrow filled with gold ore. He watched as the huge tubs of rock were wheeled to a large locked warehouse.

His two pet dinosaurs played nearby on a grassy outcrop. The land stretched out, green and pleasant in all directions. Aside from the ugly mine, here were no roads or factories to spoil the view. Moth darted forward and tried to nip one of the small digging dinosaurs who was rummaging nearby. It was about to run away, but Magnus asked it to stay. He had discovered that if he raised his hand and gazed deeply into the eyes of the dinosaur he wished to trance, it would meekly obey any instruction he could think of. He had tried it out on a small bird-like dinosaur and he had managed to get it to stand on one leg. He had even tried to get it to fly backwards, much to Em’s delight. She had shrieked with silent laughter at the sight.

Now the Dooger stared at him, blinking in the autumn light.

“I may need you and all your friends tonight. Will you help?”

The dinosaur blinked and started strutting about, clucking like a chicken. Magnus knew immediately that the dinosaur was replying that it was only too happy to help.

Moth looked at the little dinosaur with disgust. He thought Magnus was mad to be talking to earth scratchers and he plodded off to annoy the Troodon. He lifted him up in his large jaws, much to Frolic’s horror, and threw him in the air. The Troodon landed with a bump and glared at the small Spinosaurus; blobs of drool dropped from his head.

“Come on, you two,” ordered Magnus. “Let’s see if there’s another way into this mine.”

They scampered over the grass and rocks to the rear of the mine. A few Hadrosaur dinosaurs lifted their heads from grazing, but seeing that it was Magnus, they calmly carried on chomping peacefully. A large male kept his eye on Moth who was pretending to be scared of Frolic as he launched himself in a revenge attack and clung to the Spinosaurus’ frill, flapping there like an angry feathered flag.

In the corner of the rocks there was a small crack. Magnus peeped in and saw the workers wandering down with their torches. It was a shallow mine, but quite wide like a large underground room. A few of the workers were chipping away at the rock and the soil, but they didn’t see Magnus. There was a precarious-looking ladder going down from the cavern. Magnus didn’t like the look of it.

Magnus gazed around. There was a deep pool that Marlo called the Bottomless Lake and as he gazed at it, a perfect plan entered his mind. On the ground he spotted a small nugget of gold. He picked it up and put it in his pocket, then he called to his two dinosaur friends. The Troodon stopped growling and let go of Moth’s frill. He dropped to the floor with a thump and grinned. That had been so much fun.

They walked back. Magnus was deep in thought. He found Em sitting on the ground outside his house looking at a snail, deep in concentration. Magnus handed her the gold nugget and told her that this little piece of shiny rock was what all the fuss was about.

Marlo was making mint tea and plum biscuits in the kitchen and as he came out he spotted Magnus.

“Ah, there you are. I was starting to worry,” he said.

“I have a plan,” said Magnus and looked at Em, who was studying the gold nugget carefully. “All I need is a small, shallow earthquake.”

Em grinned at him and passed him the gold nugget. Except it wasn’t a rock any more. Em had formed it into a beautiful star pendant with six points. It glistened in his hand. He was thrilled. She passed him a leather strap like a shoelace and he threaded it through a small hole in the gold star and tied it around his neck. She winked at him as he smiled at her gratefully.

They tucked into the warm plum biscuits. “You should have been a chef, Marlo,” Magnus said as he wiped the crumbs from his clothes.

“Well, I was for a while,” said Marlo gruffly. “I was the Wizard Chef. I sold seventy million copies of my recipe book worldwide.”

“Really? What was the book called?”

“Environmental Cooking with the Wizard Chef. They gave it five stars in the Guardian,” Marlo answered brightly.

Chapter 13

In the night the earthquake came. It rattled the windows and knocked the containers and boxes off the shelves in the kitchen. The growl of the earth grew louder and then it tipped from side to side, knocking Marlo out of bed.

The Troodon fell on the Spinosaurus, who was cowering in the corner.

Em sat in her bed, eyes shining, thrilling with the wonder of it all.

Magnus felt the shakes and dips as he tried to stand by his bed.

And then it was silent.

“They’ve closed the mine till the tremors have ceased,” said Marlo triumphantly the next morning. “Luckily, everyone escaped and no one was hurt.”

“Good,” said Magnus sheepishly. Em just grinned.

“The factory was damaged, though,” Marlo continued brightly. “The roof fell in. Luckily, it was during the night so no one was there. Thank goodness there were no children in there at the time.”

It was snowing lightly as Magnus, Em, and the two dinosaurs walked up to the mine, and Magnus noticed immediately that the small crack had widened slightly. Em looked at the crack and then at Magnus and smiled as if she knew his idea. Magnus called out to the Doogers.

They arrived from the depths of the bushes one by one, bright eyes gleaming in the cold air. Magnus noticed that their feathers were turning white and thickening in anticipation of the colder weather to come. There were suddenly hundreds of them, and they stood, keenly waiting for their instructions. He indicated towards the crack in the rock and he told them his plan. The Doogers clucked and strutted, unaware as to why they had been given this task, but they set to work and began to slip silently through the crack in the rock.

In the distance they heard Marlo calling them from the top of a hill overlooking the village. Magnus and Em left the Doogers, who were already hard at work chomping small insects and worms that emerged as they dug. They scampered up the hill to find out why Marlo had called to them. When they arrived, they found Marlo looking at the lake and the plain below.

They looked through the snowflakes as they started to fall and Magnus saw long lines of dinosaurs marching south. He made out the long- necked Brachiosauruses protecting their young. T. Rexes, Allosauruses, and many other types walked along, snapping at the heels of the giants who flicked their giant whipping tails and remained unmolested.

Magnus heard the sound of honking Hadrosaurs and snorting Diplodocuses; the growls of the predators roared above the deep rumblings of the larger herbivores. Even the Spinosauruses were marching.

As he watched, he was struck by a question he had been meaning to ask Marlo.

“How does Murdamond travel between worlds?”

Marlo was transfixed by the sight of the dinosaurs below, but he shook himself and looked at Magnus.

“Oh, well, of course he has a method, but it is different from ours. He uses the stones in a different way, I think. He has his own book.

“There is an ancient agreement not to tamper with the stones and even the humans leave them alone. They even help sometimes by putting the stones back up if they fall down. Stonehenge, for instance, a place of immense power, was destroyed long before we were around, but they’ve put it back. Anything could happen now.”

“Really?” Magnus was suddenly anxious. “Stonehenge was destroyed on purpose?”

“Yes.”

“By whom or what?”

“I have no idea and neither does Murdamond. There’s a henge like that on every Earth I have visited and they have all been destroyed, except the one on Earth. They have no idea what they are playing with, those humans.” Magnus thought for a while and stared at the dinosaurs. Who and what could have done that? And why would they need to be destroyed?

The children returned to the Doogers who were still scampering in and out through the crack in the rock. Those emerging were clutching nuggets of gold as they staggered to the Bottomless Lake and dropped each one into it with a satisfying splash. The small dinosaurs continued well into the night and then disappeared into the forest for a sleep. For two weeks they worked endlessly at the same task, quietly and efficiently.

On one occasion they struggled with a particularly large lump of gold. Magnus stared at it as it gleamed and shone. Magnus imagined a large golden throne with jewels and stones of all description, but he shook his head and cleared it of the image.

Em stroked the rock and it changed and morphed under her hands. Like liquid, it swirled and rippled into a cube of solid gold.

“We’ll keep that,” Magnus decided. “It might be useful one day.”

After lunch on the sixteenth day, the Doogers began to emerge with less and less ore. By dinner time the rocks were merely crumbs and dust. Magnus went over to gaze into the Bottomless Lake. It was black and silent, dark and brooding; the secret horde safe in its depths.

He thanked the Doogers, who clucked and strutted, now slightly plumper than they had been, thanks to the abundance of grubs hidden beneath the soil and rocks in the mine. They turned and waddled contentedly into the forest, their task complete.

Magnus and Em went home, the two dinosaurs frolicking happily behind them. They were chilled to the bone, so it was with great pleasure that they tucked into warm mince pies and hot mint tea to celebrate the execution of their most excellent plan.

Chapter 14

It was one month till the winter solstice and there was little to do in the village. Snow piled up around the small houses, the people inside all trying to keep warm. Marlo cooked and told them stories from his long and incredible life.

Magnus found out that Marlo had met many famous characters from history, but not many had left a lasting impression on him. Except for Julius Caesar, who, according to Marlo, had enjoyed his cooking immensely.

He’d stayed away from Henry VIII because the man was “too handy with the axe” and had once boiled a chef alive for giving everyone food poisoning.

“Boiled alive!”

“Yes, it’s true. Caesar was more forgiving when the cakes came out wrong.”

“Who else did you like?” asked Magnus, intrigued.

“John Lennon was a jolly fellow. He liked my jube jubes. He mentioned them in one of his wonderful songs.”

“What are jube jubes?”

“Sort of little cakes with sugar on them.” Marlo started looking through his boxes and pots. “I’ll make you some if you like.” Magnus nodded.

“I talked to him a lot in his music studio and we changed a few sounds here and there. He put some of our discussions into a song. Imagine, I think he called it.”

“I know that one! It’s very famous.” Magnus stared at Marlo, not quite sure whether to believe that the old man in front of him had been the man behind the lyrics to Imagine.

A few days later the mine reopened and Magnus heard very quickly that his trick had been discovered. Finlo had raged and shrieked, but he had no idea how all the gold had been extracted, and so quickly too. How could he tell Murdamond that his best gold mine for thousands of miles had been emptied almost overnight? Then a thought crossed his mind. That boy, what was his name? Magnus, that was it, was probably responsible, but how was a mystery.

Worse than that, the villagers didn’t seem that bothered about the missing gold. The earthquake had made them nervous to venture underground and Marlo’s new idea of a hot air balloon was far more thrilling.

Magnus sat with his friends in the village square and tickled Moth behind his frill. The mine was closed and the factory was being dismantled. He felt like he had won a small battle, but he knew that far across to the north his parents were locked in an icy dungeon, freezing and terrified.

As soon as the spring arrived, he and his friends, including the Triceratops, would have to face the villain Murdamond, and who knew what adventures they would have to face along the way…

A preview of Book II Magnus and the Lady of the Mountain

Chapter 1

On the day of the winter solstice Marlo followed the ancient ritual of his ancestors and he cut the mistletoe from the sacred oak with his golden scythe. The villagers caught the precious pieces before they fell on the dirty ground and lost their powers. Magnus and Em carried home their own sprig and they put it up on the front door to protect them from fire and malicious woodland spirits.

“It’s all nonsense, though, isn’t it?” Magnus asked Marlo later as they sat by the fire, trying to warm up. The old wizard promptly turned red and choked on his dried plum cake, crumbs flying out, his eyes popping with rage.

“What do you mean; nonsense!” he exclaimed. “There is nothing nonsensical about this ancient ritual.”

“But mistletoe is just a parasitic plant,” said Magnus. “It’s been proved. And there are no goblins or witches or fairies, are there?”

“That’s what you think,” Marlo muttered, picking crumbs out of his beard and flicking them off the sleeping Moth, who was curled up on the floor with Frolic in front of the fire. The Triceratops was snuffling around Magnus, nudging him with her nose for a few bits of cake.

It seemed only a few days, not months, since Magnus had been transported, via a tornado, with Marlo to the other Earth somewhere in the universe. At first, he had been just another boy who lived with his grandparents in an ordinary red brick house, but they had hidden the truth from him. He was part of something ancient and mysterious. He was part of the Deruweld and he and Marlo were protectors of the other Earths and they had a mission to accomplish. The old Earth was on the verge of destruction, thanks to Murdamond and his evil Manges and their pursuit of money, wealth and fame. And now Murdamond had moved on and sought to corrupt another Earth. He had already started by building a mine and a factory — a plan that Magnus had managed to thwart, but Murdamond would not give up easily. Worse than that, Murdamond had captured his parents and they were in a freezing dungeon, unaware that their son had returned. Magnus knew that when the spring came, they would have to travel north to find Murdamond’s castle, stop the evildoer, and rescue them.

Magnus had grown fond of the village filled with the strange simple Deruweld folk, who patiently grew vegetables and looked after their world with tender care. And he loved his new dinosaur friends too. The catastrophic event that had killed the dinosaurs on the other Earth hadn’t happened on this one, so the dinosaurs continued happily, looked after by the Deruweld. Spinosauruses existed alongside T. Rexes. Thanks to a feeding and care programme, there had been no extinctions. For a boy who loved dinosaurs, this world was the best place to be, and Magnus was determined that Murdamond and his Manges would not spoil it.

Meanwhile, far away in a castle that was now two- thirds built, Murdamond could have been reading Magnus’s mind. He stood gazing at his favourite thing in all the universe: himself. Or rather, his own reflection in a beautiful jewelled mirror by a window that looked out on the cold grey sea. Today his long hair was pulled up into a tall point that had the effect of making him appear much taller than he was. He looked rather like a candle because he had dyed his hair bright yellow, and his long white robes looked like melting wax as they flowed and rippled down to the floor.

Into his yellow pointed hair Murdamond had threaded sparkling yellow crystals and they twinkled and glistened as he admired himself from all angles, grinning through his sparkly yellow beard; he’d dyed that as well, showing his little white teeth. Murdamond was happy with his new look and decided to summon Viper, who arrived almost immediately from his small office where he was doing the most important job of the day: counting Murdamond’s money and placing it into little bags made out of dinosaur skin.

“Yes, Master,” Viper said, grovelling in his dirty clothes; his slicked back hair looked more greasy than usual.

“Summon Wretched and get him to bring that pathetic couple from the dungeon. Also, summon Vile and Vicious. I have a job for them. Have you sent the Persuaders?”

“Yes, Master, but they had to return. It was too cold for them.”

“Whaaaaaaat!” Murdamond spun around, momentarily distracted from his beautiful image. “Too cold! Too cold! What are they? Persuaders or milk sops? Give them some coats and send them again. My mission will not fail. That gold mine is the best in the area. I will have that gold!”

“Erm… about the gold.” Viper had been putting off the moment, but he knew he would have to tell Murdamond eventually.

“What? What about my gold? Have those stupid leaf-eaters done something?”

“Maybe, we don’t know. It’s very strange, but Figus says that the gold is all gone. He suspects the boy and the old man might have something to do with it, and the girl. There’s a girl, an odd character. Figus thinks she…” Viper stopped mid-sentence. He realised that Murdamond’s face was red and he looked like he was about to explode.

“My gold has disappeared!” Murdamond spluttered, shaking with fury. All this bad news was seriously ruining what had started out to be a rather good day. Even his yellow pointed hair started to droop and he looked less like a candle and more like a custard-coloured question mark.

“Get me Vile and Vicious, now! That group of meddling salad-munchers will be planning to rescue the drips I have incarcerated in my dungeon. I know it. That’s it! The gloves are off!” Murdamond raged and stamped and thumped the wall, his hair flopping from side to side.

Viper was only too happy to leave. Five minutes later he pushed the two suspicious-looking Manges into Murdamond’s chamber.

“Be careful what you say,” Viper warned them. “Agree to any of his demands. He’s in a terrible mood. He fed his cook to the Velociraptors last week because his cakes had blue icing and no one had told Pestle he had moved into a yellow phase.”

Vile and Vicious grunted and shuffled into the large yellow room and faced Murdamond, who sat on his shining yellow throne decorated with dragons, unicorns and griffins, trying to straighten his hair, but it just flopped over. It didn’t help his mood, which was turning very black indeed.

Murdamond glared at his trusted henchmen. Vile stood quite straight, his long, thin white face expressionless. He was tall, very thin and bony, but apart from that he was pretty ordinary looking with long, lank black hair and bright blue eyes. Vicious was short and stocky. He had a tuft of wiry blond hair and he appeared to be chewing gum. Murdamond let that pass; he had to get down to business.

“I need you for a special mission. I need you to go incognito…”

“Where’s that?” Viper suddenly looked interested.

“It’s not a place, it’s a…” Murdamond began.

“Is it a new kind of travelling machine?”

“Don’t interrupt!” Murdamond’s voice became shrill and high. “It means undercover, you know, in disguise.”

“Oh,” chorused the two villains, slightly disappointed. Vicious resumed chewing. For some reason it really annoyed Murdamond and he picked up his golden staff and whacked Vicious smartly on the head. Sparks darted around for a few seconds and a startled Vicious opened his mouth; the piece of chewing gum slipped out over his drool-covered lips and fell on the floor.

“I want you to befriend the boy, Magnus, and his stupid grass-chomping pal, Marlo, and accompany them as they travel north to rescue the useless pair I have chained up in my prison. It will be a challenging task. I believe the veggie-brained duo have a new powerful accomplice. Here, put these on. They will protect you from the deep power they emit. I don’t want them turning you into carrot-eating morons.” He handed them two gold pendants. A strange symbol was pressed into the flat gold discs.

“Take your staffs; I’ve had them strengthened. But remember, you aren’t there to kill them, just to make life difficult for them.” The two ruffians nodded and picked up their staffs from the floor where they lay. They felt them throb with new-found energy and they looked impressed. Then the two men put the pendants on and grinned at each other.

“Mission understood,” Vile said, finally. “But how do we get there? There’s snow out there deeper than a T. Rex in places. There’s no way we can travel overland.”

“Hmm…” Murdamond pondered for a moment. His long fingers, covered in rings with jewels of every description, tapped the sleek golden arm of his splendid throne.

“I will send you via my own mode of ancient transportation. You will need to befriend them quickly; the moment you arrive, to be exact, or you might freeze to death.”

Vile and Vicious nodded. They were used to their master’s way. They just did their job and took their reward. There was no job too hard for Vile and Vicious, Manges of the Highest Order.

“Come over here.” Murdamond led them to a curtained room and the three of them stepped inside. The brightly painted walls were adorned with odd gold-leafed symbols that were mysterious even to Vicious and Vile. On the floor in the centre of the room Murdamond drew a strange five-sided shape. He went to a special glass case and took out a book. Its cover was black as night and it shimmered green and purple in the grey winter’s light.

“Step into the pentagon,” he ordered. The men obligingly did as they were told. “Good luck,” Murdamond said; his cold, hard, white face did not flicker with any emotion. Then he muttered some odd words and waved his staff. When he closed the book the men disappeared.

“Master,” came a croaky voice from the chamber beyond. “Here is Wretched and he has the boy’s parents with him.”

Aha! thought Murdamond, a small, spiteful smile appearing in the corner of his thin-lipped mouth. Tormenting them will cheer me up a little bit. And he put the book carefully back into its case and then slipped through the curtain like a yellow python slithering through the long grass towards its prey.

Chapter 2

Marlo ushered them all out into the cold.

“Why do we have to go out?” grumbled Magnus, who’d just got warm for the first time in three days.

“A hatching. The parents want me there in case something goes wrong. I thought you’d like to see it.”

“Ooh, what sort of dinosaur?” Magnus asked, suddenly excited.

“Not a dinosaur,” chuckled Marlo. “One of us.”

“Oh.” Magnus was very excited. He and Em followed Marlo, stumbling and slipping in the ice and frozen snow that seemed to have been there forever. He couldn’t wait for the spring. They could make a start north, fight Murdamond, release his parents and save the worlds.

Marlo took them to a nearby house. Em appeared to be excited too. She skipped from one foot to the other and grinned at him with shining eyes. Everything thrilled Em. Flowers, trees, snow; she’d even been fascinated when Magnus had done an exceptionally loud burp after dinner one day. She had sat in front of him pressing his stomach, trying to make air rush out so she could hear it again. Then she had spent an hour trying to burp herself, to no avail.

The worried parents ushered them into their front room. A soft purple-coloured egg, the size of a beach ball, lay on a bed of soft feathers in front of the fire. It was rocking from side to side and emitting a curious gurgling sound.

“Ah, this is perfectly normal; don’t worry,” Marlo soothed the mother gently. “Watch carefully; it won’t be long now.”

The egg rolled a little more vigorously. It disappeared under the kitchen table, much to the consternation of the father who tried to retrieve it and put it back on the feather nest.

“Leave it,” Marlo said. “The egg knows what it’s doing.”

It rolled again, this time out into the back kitchen, and bashed itself hard against the wall. A slender crack appeared across the full width of the egg and Magnus saw a bright blue eye peeking through. It rolled again, but this time towards his foot, and then it stopped and the eye blinked up at him. The gurgling sound became louder.

“Ooh, look; I think it likes you,” Marlo said to him with a theatrical wink. And then the egg rolled off again and slammed itself against the wall. This time the egg broke open and Em jumped into the air, her eyes wide with the wonder of it all. Magnus was surprised to see a fully-formed baby lying in the shell. Bits of shell were in the baby’s hair. It was clearly a girl.

The mother shrieked and picked up her baby girl and clutched her to her in a tight cuddle. It was a wonderful moment. The baby snuggled into her mother’s warmth and the parents stared at their baby with joy; pure happiness seemed to seep from them. Magnus felt a little tear form in his eye. He thought of his own mum, far away; a prisoner in a cold dungeon. He couldn’t even remember what a cuddle from his mum felt like.

Marlo, Em and Magnus left the parents, who were now oblivious to anything except their new offspring, and went back out into the snow.

“Well, that was interesting,” Magnus said. He still felt melancholy. “I want it to be the spring,” he said to Marlo. “I want to get started on our journey. I want to rescue my mum and dad.”

Marlo stopped and looked at him. His grey beard had started to sprout little icicles. They made his beard sparkle in the winter sunlight.

“We have to go somewhere first, Magnus,” he said softly. “It won’t be easy to fight Murdamond, but I know someone who can help us. We have to go there first, then we can head to Murdamond’s castle. We will be facing great power; we need to be prepared.”

As they walked they heard a shout.

“Hey, Marlo; come and see who we found lurking in my barn.” It was a neighbour called Trinn and he looked worried. Magnus sighed and trudged over to Trinn’s barn. He couldn’t feel his feet any more.

Helwyr the hunter stood at the entrance and he was wearing a grim expression.

“I don’t like the look of them,” he said.

Magnus and Marlo went into the barn. It was warmer in there, but only just, and in the corner he saw two men: one short and blond and the other tall and thin with long, greasy hair. They were dressed inappropriately for the freezing temperature and they were both wearing a strange pendant that made Magnus immediately feel suspicious.

“Who are you and what are you doing in our village?” asked Marlo gruffly. The men were clutching each other to keep warm. Magnus could see their teeth chattering.

“We c… c… came to… f… f… find… y… y…you,” chattered Vile. “W… w… w… we heard y… y… you c… c… could h… h… h… help us.”

“We can’t stand here listening to this; we’ll freeze,” Marlo said, sensibly. “Come on, we’ll get you a hot drink and some warm clothes. Then you might be able to get your words out. Watch them, Helwyr; one move and you have my permission to cut their throats.”

Vile and Vicious opened their eyes wide at this, but meekly followed. They were too cold to try anything.

Half an hour later they were wrapped in blankets, drinking hot mint tea and blinking by the light of the fire.

“What are your names?” asked Magnus politely.

Well, my name is V… er… Vernon,” said Vicious. The warmth was making him sleepy and he had nearly given the game away.

“And you?” Magnus asked Vile, whose eyes were drooping. He jerked awake.

“Er, Vi… ouch!” Vicious nudged him abruptly.

“Tell him your name, stupid.”

“Er, it’s V… v… er… Verruca.”

“Really? Your mother named you after an unpleasant foot virus?” Magnus asked incredulously. They weren’t very good baddies, in his opinion.

“Yes,” grinned Vile stupidly. “She didn’t like me very much. But you can call me Wart.”

Magnus looked at Marlo, and Marlo looked at Helwyr. Helwyr was sharpening a spear and looking at the hapless pair with an odd look on his face.

“And why do you need our help?”

Vile couldn’t look at Vicious, who was giving him a stare that would probably have turned him to stone – he could feel his eyes boring into the back of his head. Vile tried desperately to rectify the situation.

“Well,” he began, in an exaggerated fashion, his top lip trembling, and he wiped away an imaginary tear, “that evil Murdamond, you know him?”

They all nodded wryly, going along with him. “Well, we have to get to his castle. He stole our gran and we want to get her back and we want to kill him, the evil… well, anyway. She’s ninety-two and that’s no way to treat a pensioner.”

“Really?” Magnus said softly. “I agree; that’s a terrible thing to do. Why did he take your gran? What could a crook of such renown want with a geriatric?”

Vile hadn’t thought of that. He mumbled something and Vicious decided to save this sorry situation before it got any worse.

“She’s a witch, you see. A good one. She magicked a… a… boil on his nose and he hates boils. He’s so vain, you see. And he was sooooo angry he took her, and we haven’t seen her for three weeks. Someone told us you were heading north in the spring, so we decided to ask you if you’ll let us accompany you.”

“You walked all the way here in those clothes?” Marlo asked, folding his arms and staring at them.

“We were robbed. They took our coats and our boots and our fine woolly hats,” Vicious lied.

“But they didn’t take those fine pendants you are wearing around your necks, did they?” Helwyr pointed out, and began to sharpen the spear with a bit more vigor.

The two men clutched their pendants. They’d forgotten all about them.

“Er, no, they didn’t; you are right. How lucky! I think they were just cold. They just wanted our outdoor clothing.” Vile sank into his chair. This was terrible. They’d really messed this up.

Marlo beckoned Em, Helwyr and Magnus into the kitchen. Helwyr handed his spear to Trinn.

“If they move, spike ’em.”

“They are definitely Murdamond’s men,” Marlo said. “If they are the best he can find, this will be a pushover.”

“Hmm…” Magnus said. “I wonder what their mission is.”

“Sabotage; delay; to make out-and-out mischief; to spy on us – take your pick,” grunted Helwyr.

“I mean, Verucca! Do they think we are stupid?” Marlo tutted.

“Maybe,” Magnus said. “Maybe they do. Maybe we should pretend we are. I’d rather have them with us and feed them duff information than have them following us out of our sight and control. Let’s pretend we’ve fallen for their ridiculous story and then lose them in a forest halfway there.”

They all thought for a moment.

“I suppose it’s a good plan. There’s a particularly vicious dragon in the Forest of Horrible Nightmares. We have to go through there on our way to see the Lady of the Mountain. We could feed the dopey duo to Ferno.”

“The Forest of Horrible Nightmares!” Magnus gulped a bit. “A dragon! Are you making this up?”

“Why would I do that?” Marlo replied. “Yes, good idea, Magnus. We’ll go along with their idiotic story. Do you think those pendants are some kind of transmitter?”

Helwyr shrugged.

“They could be anything, but they didn’t get them at a street market. I can tell you that for nothing.”

“Where can we put them? I don’t want them here with us.” Magnus shuddered; he didn’t like them one bit. Moth would probably try to bite them.

“Send them to stay with Ermentrude the sorceress till the spring comes. She’s good with characters like Wart and Vernon and she has a couple of spare beds. They’ll have a horrible time, but at least they won’t freeze to death.”

They all trooped back into the living room where Vile and Vicious were sitting in silence. They were awaiting certain death; they were sure of it.

“Now then, lads,” Marlo said with a warm smile. “What terrible luck you’ve had. Of course you can come with us. We start out on the 21st March. It’ll be here in no time. Don’t you worry about your gran; I’m sure she can look after herself. We’ll rescue her. It will be good to have the company, won’t it, everyone?” He smiled at Magnus and Em, who smiled cheerfully and nodded. Helwyr grunted.

Vile and Vicious stared with their mouths open. Murdamond was right. The vegetable-eaters were utterly stupid. They couldn’t believe their luck.

“Well, thanks very much,” said Vile at last and he got up and moved forward, as if to hug Marlo.

“No need for that,” Marlo said quickly. “Helwyr will take you to your lodgings. See you on the first day of spring.”

The two men were bustled outside, grinning cheerfully, and Magnus watched them heading towards the tumbledown wreck where Ermentrude lived. He didn’t envy them one bit.

“We’ll watch them like hawks,” Marlo said, patting Magnus on the shoulder. “Magnus is right. It’s best to keep your enemies close. But not too close,” Marlo said grimly, and he went into the kitchen to make some biscuits .

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