eeing, Telling and Feeling. These were the foundations of an Engineer’s powers. How they split and reformed atoms to their will. What coursed now through Ned’s mind and body had no beginning or end. It was pure power, a surge of blinding energy amplified not only by his ring but by the Heart Stone and the magic it drew upon, and as it did so, the rock in his palm grew hot, breaking away like particles of flowing dust till the Heart Stone was no more. Energy, light and sparking, burning atoms poured out of Ned, from his hands and eyes and mouth.
“NoOoOoo!”
He looked for just long enough to see the monster screaming with a hundred misshapen mouths, its form across the walls, the ceiling and floors retreating, shrinking and cowering till in a final violent shockwave of light and dark, there was nothing left of it at all.
The room became blurred and strange. Ned was barely aware of Lucy bending over him, tears pouring readily down her cheeks. She was shaking him, her hands frantic across his face, but her words were distant and soft. The walls around them were crumbling, the great window shattered, and where Benissimo and his brother had lunged, there was only an empty hole, dark and quiet and empty.
The last thing Ned saw was a heavily panting Alice. The old girl had come running and was trumpeting wildly, her trunk now tight round his waist.