else.
Walker stepped out from behind them. He leaned casually on his furled umbrella and tipped his bowler hat to me, mockingly. And then the glamour he was wearing dropped away, and there was Puck. A shorter, sturdy figure, almost human-sized, though the sheer looming scale of Oberon and Titania made him seem smaller. His body was as smooth and supple as a dancer’s, but the hump on his back pushed one shoulder forward and down, and the hand on that arm had withered into a claw. His hair was grey, and his skin was the colour of old yellowed bone. He had two raised nubs on his forehead that might have been horns. He wore a pelt of animal fur, which blended seamlessly into his own hairy lower body. His legs ended in cloven hooves.
Puck—fool and trickster, spy and thief and joyful killer. The only elf who was not perfect.
He smiled at me. “Lord, what fools these mortals be . . .”
“Get a new line,” I said.
I looked away from the elves. There were others present in the rose garden. The Somnambulist stood to one side, along with Charles and Emily, and Molly. I only had to look at them once, to know they were the real thing. And faced with the real Molly, I had to wonder how I could ever have been fooled by her colourless replacement. In my defence, the Game had done its best to keep me distracted . . . The four of them stood crammed together, inside a circle burned into the grass. It was clear from the way they held themselves that they couldn’t leave the circle.
I nodded and smiled to them, and then turned back to the elves. “I’ve had enough of your Game. It’s over! It’s time now to tell the truth.”
“The truth?” said Puck. “Well, there’s a time for everything, I suppose. Why not? With your majesties’ permission . . . Good, good. The truth is, dear little Drood, that you were on your own from the moment you left the Cathedral. Everyone you encountered was just a part of the environment you were dropped into. You never met any of the other competitors; they were all busy fighting their own separate Games. I regret to inform you that Tarot Jones, Chandarru, and the Sin Eater are all dead. They died at the hands of illusions generated by their own minds. At least they can take comfort from knowing they died entertainingly.”
“What about Molly? And my parents?” I said.
Puck shrugged. “They refused to play.”
“The Game is not over,” said Oberon, and there was still enough strength and majesty in his voice that everyone immediately looked to him. “The rules are clear. The Drood has to kill everyone else in order to win.”
“We control the only way out of the Shifting Lands,” said Titania, in her cold and effortlessly commanding voice. “And we alone decide whose obligations will be excused, and wiped clean. If you want our favour, Drood, you must earn it.”
“Screw your rules,” I said. “And stuff your favour.”
I turned my back on them again and went over to the circle burned into the grass. Molly put up a warning hand.
“Don’t get too close, Eddie! And don’t touch the circle; the magic running through it is strong enough to rip the soul right out of you and enslave it to the elves forever.”
“You know what?” I said. “Like everything else in this Game, I don’t believe it.”
I armoured up my right hand, reached down, grabbed hold of the circle, and tore it easily off the grass. It immediately broke under my rough handling, twisting and writhing in my grasp like a petulant snake. It tried to curl around my arm, but I crushed it in my armoured grasp. It fell apart into a hundred pieces, falling to the faded grass like hundreds of dead petals. I armoured down and smiled at the others.
“Time to go home,” I said.
“Loving the confidence,” said Molly. “But how?”
“I think,” I said, “that if we all put our minds together, we could break any hold the elves have over us. The Shifting Lands have no loyalty to anyone.” I turned back to Oberon and Titania. “What do you think?”
“You Droods,” said Oberon. “Always more trouble than you’re worth. Very well. We agree.”
“The Game is at an end,” said Titania.
“It’s been fun, but that’s all, folks,” said Puck.
Molly whooped, punched the air, and hugged me tightly. She felt very real in my arms. Charles and