moment. I’m back. What do you need, Eddie?”
“You have more experience with the odder realms of magic than I do. Does this place seem . . . I hesitate to use the word real, but I suppose it will have to do for want of anything better . . . Does all of this look real to you? Are we where we appear to be; or are we still in the Game?”
“Hard to tell,” said Molly, peering dubiously about her. “It seems authentic enough, but then it would, wouldn’t it? But the bottom line is . . . I can’t believe a second-rate conjurer like Chandarru has the power to take us out of a world created by the Powers That Be. So this is almost certainly just some place he’s called into being because he feels important and powerful here. We’re still in the Game. Still being watched by the Powers That Be . . . no doubt waiting eagerly to see what we’ll do next. If I knew which direction they were in, I’d flash them.”
“Have any of your magics returned?” I said carefully.
“Not yet,” said Molly, scowling fiercely. “Right now I couldn’t pull a hat out of a rabbit.”
“Enough muttering!” snapped Chandarru. He sounded peeved that we weren’t paying any attention to him. “It’s time for both of you to die! There can only be one survivor, one winner, in this Game.”
I turned unhurriedly back to face him. “You really think you can take down a Drood? We don’t die easily. That’s the point.”
Chandarru gave me his best smug smile. “But you’re in my world now. And that makes all the difference.”
“No, we’re not,” I said.
“What?” said Chandarru.
“If you were half the sorcerer you claimed, you’d know that,” I said. “Except you do know that, don’t you? Or you wouldn’t still be concerned with winning the Game. Nice bluff, conjurer, but we have to deal with reality. What really matters.”
“What?” said Chandarru. “What?”
“Look, we don’t have to do this,” I said. “We don’t have to fight and die to entertain the Powers That Be. We can work together. Find our own way out of this mess.”
“No,” said Chandarru. “We can’t. You’re a Drood, you see. I could never trust you. Or, for that matter, the infamous Molly Metcalf. After everything I had to promise, all I had to swear myself to, to pay for my terrible learning . . . I really can’t afford not to win this Game.”
I did my best to remain calm and reasonable. “Listen to me, Chandarru . . .”
“No! No more talking! I am the amazing Chandarru, Master of the Occult and Lord of the Abyss! And you are in my power!”
“Knock it off!” I said. “No you aren’t, and no we aren’t. This is all just another trick.”
“What?” said Chandarru.
“All you ever are is a collection of tricks,” I said. “A stage magician who desperately wanted to be something more. So you reinvented yourself. Went on the road, talked to all the right people, immersed yourself in weird shit like this . . . But even after everything you claim to have learned, you’re still just running tricks in front of an audience. All of this . . . is just another stage setting. None of it’s real. So the powers you claim to derive from this place can’t be real either. But this armour I wear, it’s real.”
I armoured up, and concentrated . . . and a set of steps appeared before me, floating on the air, leading all the way up to Chandarru on his bony throne. The steps glowed golden, just like my armour. Chandarru gestured frantically at them, trying to make them disappear, but his willpower was no match for mine. I ascended the steps towards him. He stood up abruptly, and threw handfuls of his crackling green lightning at me. They flickered and flared all around me, spitting and sparking as they sank into my armour and were absorbed without trace. I never felt a thing. Chandarru drew himself up, and threw change spells, disappear spells, and distortion spells at me . . . and they all just detonated harmlessly against my armour. Chandarru hesitated as I kept heading straight for him, and then he hit me with the strongest curse magic he had. It rebounded from my armour and struck him down.
The throne disappeared, leaving Chandarru floating unconscious in mid-air. His Oriental costume disappeared, and he was back in his formal stage outfit. He looked