ed woke with a fresh bruise throbbing on the back of his head and his mother shaking his arm. Outside their tent he heard shouts and orders as the Hidden army readied for battle.
“Ned? NED?”
“Hi, Mum.”
“Never mind that, what happened?”
Lucy was standing next to his dad and had clearly told them everything up to the point where she’d been bludgeoned by the Demon. Ned cast his mind back to Barbarossa’s gloating face and shuddered.
“We talked. H-he asked me to walk away. He said that if I did, if I let everyone think I’d fallen, that he’d spare you and Dad, the circus, all of them.”
His mum looked furious and spotted Gorrn skulking under his bed.
“And where were you in all this, blob?”
“Roo?”
His mother tutted.
“And what about Sar-adin, hitting Lucy like that? To think we believed him!”
“He had to do it, and he lied to Barba about the clowns and what happened to them. Barba doesn’t know what Sar-adin said to us, I’m sure of it, and the Demon passed on another message – he just whispered, ‘eastern tower’.”
Ned’s mum frowned, seemingly unsure as to whether they could trust the Demon, but Lucy was adamant.
“It was only a second, but even in that time I could sense that Sar-adin was worried, not about being caught by George and the others, but about Barba finding out.”
Ned’s parents looked at each other, and nodded.
“Good. Well, I hope you told Barbarossa where to go!”
“Of course I did,” said Ned. “He’s adamant that we can’t win. But we can – we can win, right?”
He was asking all of them, Lucy included, but her eyes dropped to the ground. Even as a Farseer she had no answer.
His mum sat down on the edge of his bed, her face lined with worry, and just then he noticed that Whiskers was perched on her shoulder. The Debussy Mark Twelve looked at him intently, its tail wagging gently at its back. At least Faisal had been decent enough to let him have one last moment with his old pet before the coming battle. The newly acquired scientist part of Whiskers was nowhere to be seen.
“Hello, boy.”
Whiskers blinked.
“What are you doing with him, Mum? I thought he was heading for Gearnish?”
Ned’s parents shot each other a look.
“He is, darling, and me and your dad – well, we’re going with him.”
“What?”
“Now, Ned, before you get fired up, hear us out. We’re the best people for the job and you know it …” started Ned’s dad.
“Hear you out?! I’ve been there – I’ve seen that thing. Lucy, tell them – send someone else! Anyone – please!”
But Lucy said nothing and his father’s face stayed resolute.
“I’m your dad, and an Engineer – it should be up to me to fight what’s coming. But it’s not, and if you and Lucy have to face this monster, we’ll be damned if we don’t do everything we can to give you a fighting chance. Taking down the Central Intelligence, turning Barba’s ticker army against him, is as good as it gets.”
No matter the reason, Ned hated that he was always the last to know.
“When did you decide?”
“At the Nest, the night you got your powers back,” answered his mum.
Terry Armstrong got down on his haunches. “Ned, none of us wants what’s coming, but if we’re going to do this, then we all have to play our part, no matter what we have to face.”
Just then Mr Badger appeared by the entrance to their tent.
“Mr and Mrs Armstrong, I’m sorry, but the Tinker’s ready – we need to leave.”
The grey block that was Mr Badger couldn’t have known how his words sounded. To Ned they were like the ringing of church bells, only sad and heavy and grim. But he held himself together for his parents and Lucy’s sake, and they did so in kind for him.
“You’re going with them, Mr Badger?” asked Ned.
“I’ll be stepping through the mirror but on different business. Mr Fox has a message for his superiors that I need to deliver in person.”
Mr Badger waited outside as the three Armstrongs and Lucy Beaumont said their goodbyes by the tent’s entrance. One by one they whispered, “Good luck,” Gorrn and Whiskers adding an “Arr” and a “Scree” for good measure.
Ned gave his parents one last hug. Had the world not been waiting, he would have stayed in their arms forever.
But the world was waiting, and so was the Darkening King.