we don’t belong here, at the Frontier,’ said Soraya, as Luka, Dog the bear and Bear the dog stepped off Resham into the dusty lane. ‘So, since you have to go, go quickly, so that we also can be off. Go to that other Soraya who lives in that house, and when you pop that Ott Potato into your father’s mouth, don’t forget it was the Insultana of Ott who gave it to you; and afterwards, as you grow into a young man, think about that Insultana sometimes, if you don’t completely forget.’
‘I’ll never forget you,’ Luka said, ‘but please, can I ask you one last question: can I pick up an Ott Potato with my bare hands? And if I put it into my dad’s mouth, won’t it burn him to bits?’
‘The Fire of Life does not wound those it touches,’ said Soraya of Ott. ‘Rather, it heals wounds. You will not find that glowing vegetable too hot to pick up. Nor will it do your father anything but good. There are six Ott Potatoes in that Pot, by the way,’ she concluded, ‘one for each of you, if that’s what you decide.’
‘Goodbye, then,’ said Luka, and then he turned to the Old Boy and added, ‘And I meant to say, I’m sorry about what happened to Captain Aag, because he was your brother, after all.’ The Old Boy shrugged. ‘Nothing to be sorry about,’ he said. ‘I never liked him anyway.’ Then, without further ado, the Insultana Soraya raised her arms, and the Flying Carpet of King Solomon the Wise rose into the sky and vanished with only a soft whoosh for farewell.
Luka looked at his front door, and saw, standing on the doorstep, glistening in the day’s first light, a large golden orb: the Saving Point for the end of Level Nine, the end of the ‘game’ that hadn’t been a game at all but, as Nobodaddy had said, a matter of life and death. ‘Come on,’ he shouted to Dog and Bear, ‘let’s go home.’ He ran towards the Saving Point and just as he reached it he stumbled, as he had known he would; he managed to kick the point with his left leg as he lurched awkwardly to his right; he heard, for the last time, the tell tale ding that confirmed his achievement; he saw all the numbers vanish from his field of vision; he felt oddly giddy for a moment; then he regained his balance, and saw that the golden orb had vanished, and the colours of the world had returned to normal. He understood that he had left the World of Magic behind, and was back where he needed to be. ‘And it looks like the same exact time it was when I left,’ he marvelled. ‘So all of that never happened, except, of course, that it did.’ The Ott Pot was still hanging from his neck, and he could feel its warmth on his chest. He took a deep breath and ran indoors and up the stairs as fast as he could run, and Bear the dog and Dog the bear came too.
The sweet smells of home welcomed him back: his mother’s perfume, the thousand and one mysteries of the kitchen, the freshness of clean sheets, the accumulated fragrances of everything that had happened between those walls during all the years of his life, and the older, more obscure scents that had hung in the air since before he was born. And at the top of the stairs was his brother Haroun, with a strange expression on his face. ‘You’ve been somewhere, haven’t you?’ Haroun said. ‘You’ve been up to something. I can see it on your face.’ Luka charged past him, saying, ‘I don’t have time to explain it right now, to be honest with you,’ and Haroun turned and ran after him. ‘I knew it,’ he said. ‘You’ve had your adventure! So come on, out with it! And by the way, what’s that hanging from your neck?’ Luka ran on without replying, and Bear the dog and Dog the bear pushed their way past Haroun as Luka rushed into his father’s bedroom. They had been part of the adventure, too, and they didn’t intend to miss the final scene.
Rashid Khalifa lay in his bed, Asleep with his mouth open, just as he had been when Luka had last seen him, and the tubes were still running into his arm, and the monitor by his bedside showed that his