'Quite,' said n.o.bodaddy. 'Now you get it. I do confess to a measure of self-love. And that is not a n.o.ble quality, I readily concede the point. But, I repeat: ecstasy ecstasy. All the more so in a case like this one. Your father has fought me with all his might, I should tell you. My compliments to him. He clearly feels he has powerful reasons to stay alive, and maybe you are one of those reasons. But I have my hand on his throat now. And you are right: when I said you were too late, I lied again. Look.'

He held up his right hand, and Luka could see that half of the middle finger was missing. 'That's all the life he has left,' said n.o.bodaddy. 'And while we're talking, he's emptying out, and I am filling up. Who knows? Maybe you'll still be around to witness the great event. You can certainly forget about getting home in time to save him, even if you do have the Fire of Life in that Ott Pot around your neck. Congratulations on getting that far, by the way. Level Eight! Quite an achievement. But now, let's not forget, Time is on my side.'

'You turned out to be a nasty piece of work, and no mistake,' said Luka. 'What a fool I was to be taken in by you.' n.o.bodaddy laughed a cold laugh. 'Ah, but if you hadn't gone along with me, there would have been none of this fun,' he said. 'You've made the wait so much more enjoyable. I really have to thank you for that.'

'It's all been just a game to you,' Luka shouted, but n.o.bodaddy wagged the half-finger at him. 'No, no,' he said reprovingly. 'Never just a game just a game. It's a matter of life and death.'

Dog the bear stood up on his hind legs and growled, 'I can't stand this fellow any more. Let me at him.' But n.o.bodaddy was out of Dog's reach up there on his rampart, and there seemed to be no way up. Then, in his deep, deep voice, the t.i.tan spoke, the scarred Old Boy himself. 'Leave him to me,' he said, and got up from his kneeling position behind Soraya; and rose; and rose; and rose. When a t.i.tan grows to his full size the Universe trembles. (The Universe also tries to look away, because nakedness enlarged in this way is much, much bigger than regular-sized nakedness, and harder to ignore.) Long ago, the Old Boy's uncle had risen up like this and destroyed the sky itself. After that the battle of the Greek G.o.ds against the Twelve t.i.tans had shaken the earth as the colossi fought and fell. The Old Boy, a veteran and hero of that war, scorning clothes as Greek Heroes and Ancients always had, rose up and grew so big that Soraya had to hurry to enlarge the flying carpet to its maximum size, before they were all pushed off it by the Old Boy's enlarging feet. Luka was pleased to note the look of fear on n.o.bodaddy's face as the t.i.tan reached out an enormous left hand, grabbed him, and held him fast. 'Let me go,' squealed n.o.bodaddy his voice was sounding inhuman now, Luka thought, it was goblinish, demonic, and, at this precise moment, it was shriekingly scared.

'Unhand me,' shrieked n.o.bodaddy. 'You have no right to do this!'

The Old Boy grinned a grin the size of a stadium. 'Ah, but I have a left,' he said, 'and we left-handers stick together, you know.'

With that, he drew back his hand as far as it would go, with n.o.bodaddy kicking and squeaking in his grip, and then he hurled that dreadful, deceiving, life-sucking creature far, far away, up into the sky, howling all the way to the edge of the atmosphere and then out beyond the Karman Line, where the world ended and the blackness of outer s.p.a.ce began.

'We're still trapped,' Dog the bear pointed out grouchily, because he felt a little upstaged by the t.i.tan's t.i.tanic effort. Then, too loudly, and in too challenging a manner, he added, 'Where are these Aalim, anyway? Let them show themselves, unless they're too scared to face us.'

'Be careful what you wish for,' said Soraya hurriedly, but it was too late.

'It is not known,' said Rashid Khalifa, 'if the Aalim have actual physical form. Perhaps they do have bodies, or perhaps they can simply take on bodily shapes when they need to, and at other times they are disembodied ent.i.ties, spreading out through s.p.a.ce because Time is everywhere, after all; there's nowhere that doesn't have its Yesterdays, that doesn't live in a Today, that doesn't hope for a good Tomorrow. Anyway, the Aalim are known for their extreme reluctance to appear in public, preferring to work in silence and behind the scenes. When they have been glimpsed, they have always been hidden inside hooded cloaks, like monks. n.o.body has ever seen their faces, and everyone is afraid of their pa.s.sing except for a few particular children ...'

'A few particular children,' Luka said aloud, remembering, 'who can defy Time's power just by being born, and make us all young again.' It had been his mother who had said that first, or something very like it he knew this because she had made a point of telling him so but soon enough the idea became a part of Rashid's inexhaustible storehouse of tall stories. 'Yes,' he admitted to Luka with a shameless grin, 'I stole that from your ma. Don't forget: if you're going to be a thief, steal the good stuff.'

'Well,' thought Luka the Thief of the Fire of Life, 'I acted on your advice, Dad, and look what I stole, and you see where it's got me now.'

The three hooded figures standing on the battlements of the Cloud Fortress of Baadal-Garh were neither large nor imposing. Their faces were invisible and their arms were crossed, as if they were cradling babies. They said nothing, but they didn't need to. It was plain from the expression on Soraya's face, and from Coyote's cringing whine Madre de Dios, if I warnt on a carpet in the sky right now I'd jus make a run for it an take my chances Madre de Dios, if I warnt on a carpet in the sky right now I'd jus make a run for it an take my chances and the quivering of the Elephant Birds 'Okay, maybe we don't want to do stuff after all! Maybe we just want to live, and remember stuff, like we're supposed to!' that their mere appearance struck terror into the people of the Magic World. Even the grizzled Old Boy, the great t.i.tan himself, was fidgeting nervously. Luka knew that they were all thinking fearfully about Sniffelheim, about being imprisoned for ever in solid blocks of ice. Or possibly they were worrying about liver-eating birds. 'Hmm,' he thought, 'it looks like our Magic Friends aren't going to be much use in this situation. It's up to the Real World team to pull this off somehow.' and the quivering of the Elephant Birds 'Okay, maybe we don't want to do stuff after all! Maybe we just want to live, and remember stuff, like we're supposed to!' that their mere appearance struck terror into the people of the Magic World. Even the grizzled Old Boy, the great t.i.tan himself, was fidgeting nervously. Luka knew that they were all thinking fearfully about Sniffelheim, about being imprisoned for ever in solid blocks of ice. Or possibly they were worrying about liver-eating birds. 'Hmm,' he thought, 'it looks like our Magic Friends aren't going to be much use in this situation. It's up to the Real World team to pull this off somehow.'

Then the Aalim spoke, in unison, three low, unearthly voices whose triple coldness felt steely, like three invincible swords. Even courageous Soraya quailed at the sound. 'I never thought I would be forced to hear the Voices of Time,' she cried, and put her hands over her ears. 'Oh, oh! It's unbearable! I can't stand it!' and she fell to her knees in pain. The other magic beings were similarly distressed and writhed around on the flying carpet in evident agony, except for the Old Boy, whose tolerance for pain was obviously very great after that eternity at the mercy of the liver-munching Bird of Zeus. Dog the bear looked unimpressed, however, and Bear the dog, whose hackles were up, bared his teeth in an angry snarl.

'You have taken us away from our Handloom,' the soft sword-voices said. 'We are Weavers, the three of us, and on the Loom of Days we weave the Threads of Time, weaving the whole of Becoming into the fabric of Being, the whole of Knowing into the cloth of the Known, the whole of Doing into the garment of the Done. Now you have taken us from our Loom and things are disorderly. Disorder displeases us. Displeasure displeases us also. Therefore we are doubly displeased.' And then, after a pause: 'Return what you have stolen and perhaps we will spare your lives.'

'Look at what's happening around you,' Luka shouted back. 'Can't you see it? The calamity of this whole World? Don't you want to save it? That's what I'm trying to do, and all you have to do is get out of my way and let me get home '

'It is of no consequence to us whether this World lives or dies,' came the reply.

Luka was shocked. 'You don't care?' he asked disbelievingly.

'Compa.s.sion is not our affair,' the Aalim replied. 'The ages go by heartlessly whether people wish them to do so or not. All things must pa.s.s. Only Time itself endures. If this World ends, another will continue. Happiness, friendship, love, suffering, pain are fleeting illusions, like shadows on a wall. The seconds march forward into minutes, the minutes into days, the days into years, unfeelingly. There is no "care". Only this knowledge is Wisdom. This wisdom alone is Knowledge.'

The seconds were indeed marching forward, and at home in Kahani Rashid Khalifa's life was ebbing away. 'The Aalim are my mortal enemies,' he had said, and so they were. Pa.s.sion rose up in Luka, and a scream of angry love burst out of him. 'Then I curse you, just as I cursed Captain Aag!' he yelled at the Three Jos. 'He caged his animals, and treated them cruelly, and you're exactly the same, to be honest with you. You think you have everyone in your cage and so you can ignore us and torment us and make us do what you want, and you don't care about anything except yourselves. Well, curse you, all three of you! What are you, anyway? Jo-Hua, the Past has gone and will never return, and if it lives on, it's only in our memories and the memories of the Elephant Birds, of course and it's certainly not standing up there on the ramparts of this Cloud Fortress, wearing a stupid hood. As for you, Jo-Hai, the Present hardly exists, even a boy my age knows that. It vanishes into the Past every time I blink an eye, and nothing as, um, temporary temporary as that has much power over me. And Jo-Aiga? The Future? Give me a break. The Future is a dream, and n.o.body knows how it will turn out. The only sure thing is that we Bear, Dog, my family, my friends and as that has much power over me. And Jo-Aiga? The Future? Give me a break. The Future is a dream, and n.o.body knows how it will turn out. The only sure thing is that we Bear, Dog, my family, my friends and we we will make it whatever it is, good or bad, happy or sad, and we certainly don't need you to tell us what it is. Time isn't a trap, you phoneys. It's just the road I'm on, and I'm in a real hurry right now, so get out of my way. Everyone here has been scared of you for too long. May they lose their fear and and and put will make it whatever it is, good or bad, happy or sad, and we certainly don't need you to tell us what it is. Time isn't a trap, you phoneys. It's just the road I'm on, and I'm in a real hurry right now, so get out of my way. Everyone here has been scared of you for too long. May they lose their fear and and and put you you on ice for a change. Stop bothering me now. I I snap my fingers at you.' on ice for a change. Stop bothering me now. I I snap my fingers at you.'

So there it was. He had defied Time's power, just as his mother (and, later, his father) had said he could, and all he had at the end of it was his recently acquired ability to snap his fingers loudly. It wasn't much of a weapon, really. But it was interesting, wasn't it, that the Aalim had been stopped in their tracks by his curse, and that they had put their heads together and were muttering and murmuring it seemed to Luka helplessly helplessly? Was that possible? Might it be that they were powerless against Luka Khalifa's famous Cursing Power? Could it be that they knew that he was one of the Particular Children who would not be the victims of Time? If this was Rashid Khalifa's Magic World, then were the Aalim his creation, too, and therefore subject to his laws? Very deliberately, like a sorcerer casting a spell, Luka lifted his left hand high above his head and snapped his fingers with all his might.

Right on cue, the encircling Cloud Fortress of Baadal-Garh began to shake like cheap theatre scenery, and, as the prisoners on the flying carpet watched in astonishment, large sections of the crenellated walls of that aerial jail began to crack and fall. 'It's under attack from the outside!' Luka yelled, and everyone on the flying carpet began to cheer as the Aalim disappeared from view to face the unexpected a.s.sault. 'Who is it?' Soraya asked, gathering her strength and looking extremely embarra.s.sed about her moment of weakness. 'Is it the Otter Air Force? If so, they're on a suicide mission, I'm afraid.' The naked t.i.tan shook his head, and a slow grin spread over his huge face. 'It's not the Otters,' he said. 'The G.o.ds are revolting.'

'Well, on the whole we agree about what the G.o.ds are like,' said the Elephant Birds, 'but there's no need to be rude.'

'I mean,' said the Old Boy with a sigh, 'that the G.o.ds have risen in revolt.'

And so they had. Looking back on these events later in his life, Luka was never sure if the Revolt of the G.o.ds had been provoked by his speech under the Tree of Torment, when he had tried to persuade the forgotten deities that their survival depended on his father's; or if it had been conjured up by his Curse, whose purpose had been to break the stranglehold of the Aalim over the affairs of both Worlds, the Real and the Magical; or if the retired immortals had decided that enough was enough, and Luka and his friends had just been around at the right time to witness the consequences. Whatever the reason, the hornet-swarm of the ex-G.o.ds of the Heart of Magic flew through the rip in the sky and descended in wrath upon the Cloud Fortress of Baadal-Garh. Bast the Cat G.o.ddess of Egypt, Hadadu the Akkadian Thunder G.o.d, Gong Gong the Flood G.o.d of China whose head was so strong that it could crack the Pillar of Heaven, Nyx the Greek Night G.o.ddess, the savage Nordic Fenris Wolf, Quetzalcoatl the Plumed Serpent of Mexico, and a.s.sorted Demons, Valkyries, Rakshasas and Goblins could be seen alongside the big fellows Ra, Zeus, Tlaloc, Odin, Anzu, Vulcan and the rest burning the Cloud Fortress, hurling tsunamis against its wall, blasting it with lightning, headb.u.t.ting it, and, in the case of Aphrodite and the other Beauty G.o.ddesses, complaining loudly about the Ravages of Time on their complexions, their figures and their hair.

If there had been a force field protecting the Cloud Fortress, the a.s.sault of Magic1 had been too much for it. And as the collected might of all the former deities demolished the Aalim's stronghold, and a loud, strange, screechy, miaowing sound was heard, Luka shouted at Soraya, 'This is our chance!' and at once the flying carpet rose high into the sky and bore its pa.s.sengers away at speed. had been too much for it. And as the collected might of all the former deities demolished the Aalim's stronghold, and a loud, strange, screechy, miaowing sound was heard, Luka shouted at Soraya, 'This is our chance!' and at once the flying carpet rose high into the sky and bore its pa.s.sengers away at speed.

The getaway wasn't easy. The Aalim were making their last stand; their day was ending, but they still had some loyal servants to call on. Soraya had only just set a course for the Bund, the embankment on the River Silsila where Luka would have to leap back into the Real World, when a squadron of bizarre one-legged birds, the fabled Shang Yang, or Rainbirds of China, a.s.saulted the flying carpet from above. The Shang Yang carried whole rivers in their beaks and poured them over the Resham Resham in an attempt to extinguish the Fire burning in the Ott Pot around Luka's neck. The carpet lurched sideways and plunged downwards under the weight of the falling avalanches of water; but then, showing remarkable powers of recovery, it straightened itself out and flew onwards. The a.s.sault of the Rainbirds continued; five, six, seven times the floods fell from the sky, and the carpet's pa.s.sengers fell over, collided with one another, and rolled dangerously near the edges of the carpet. Still the defensive bubble held firm. At last the Shang Yang's water supply ran dry and they flapped bad-temperedly away. 'Yes, it's good to have resisted this attack, but it's not the end of the trouble,' Soraya warned the cheering Luka. 'The Aalim have made one more desperate effort to prevent the Fire of Life from crossing over into the Real World. You heard that dreadful, piteous miaowing sound that filled the air as we left the Cloud Fortress? That was the Aalim playing their final card. I'm sorry to tell you that that noise was the Summons that unleashes the deadly Rain Cats.' in an attempt to extinguish the Fire burning in the Ott Pot around Luka's neck. The carpet lurched sideways and plunged downwards under the weight of the falling avalanches of water; but then, showing remarkable powers of recovery, it straightened itself out and flew onwards. The a.s.sault of the Rainbirds continued; five, six, seven times the floods fell from the sky, and the carpet's pa.s.sengers fell over, collided with one another, and rolled dangerously near the edges of the carpet. Still the defensive bubble held firm. At last the Shang Yang's water supply ran dry and they flapped bad-temperedly away. 'Yes, it's good to have resisted this attack, but it's not the end of the trouble,' Soraya warned the cheering Luka. 'The Aalim have made one more desperate effort to prevent the Fire of Life from crossing over into the Real World. You heard that dreadful, piteous miaowing sound that filled the air as we left the Cloud Fortress? That was the Aalim playing their final card. I'm sorry to tell you that that noise was the Summons that unleashes the deadly Rain Cats.'

1 Or, to give it its full t.i.tle, the Overthrow of the Dictatorship of the Aalim by the Inhabitants of the Heart of the Magical World, and Its Replacement by a More Sensible Relationship with Time, Allowing for Dream-time, Lateness, Vagueness, Delays, Reluctances, and the Widespread Dislike of Growing Old. Or, to give it its full t.i.tle, the Overthrow of the Dictatorship of the Aalim by the Inhabitants of the Heart of the Magical World, and Its Replacement by a More Sensible Relationship with Time, Allowing for Dream-time, Lateness, Vagueness, Delays, Reluctances, and the Widespread Dislike of Growing Old.

The Rain Cats for it is time, at last, to speak of catty matters! started falling from the sky soon enough. They were large Cats, raintigers and rainlions, rainjaguars and raincheetahs, Water Felines of every spot and stripe. They were made of the rain itself, rain enchanted by the Aalim and turned into sabre-toothed Wildcats. They fell as cats fall, nimbly, fearlessly, and when they hit the flying carpet's invisible security bubble they dug their claws in and held on. Soon there were Rain Cats all over the bubble, hundreds of them, then thousands, and their claws were long and powerful, and they slashed at the bubble to great and damaging effect. 'I'm afraid they will break through the shield,' cried Soraya, 'and there are too many of them for us to fight.'

'No, there aren't! Come down here, Fraidy Cats! We'll soon show you what's what!' Bear the dog barked bravely at the clawing, slashing Rain Cats above him, and the Old Boy prepared to grow to his full height again, but Luka knew all of that was just empty bravado. Thousands of feral enchanted felines would surely overpower even the great t.i.tan, and while Bear and Dog (and maybe even Coyote) would fight for all they were worth, and no doubt Soraya had plenty of tricks up her sleeve, there could, in the end, be no victory against such unequal odds. 'Every time I think we've cracked it,' Luka thought, 'there's another impossible obstacle in my way.' He took Soraya's hand and squeezed it. 'I only have one hundred and sixty-five lives left, and I don't think they will be enough to get me through this last test,' he said. 'So if we lose here, I just want to say thank you, because I would never have come half this far without your help.' The Insultana of Ott squeezed his hand back, looked over his shoulder, and burst into a wide smile. 'No need to get sentimental on me just yet, stupid boy,' she said, 'because you're not only making too many enemies, although you do seem to have no shortage of those. Look behind you. You're also acquiring some pretty powerful friends.'

Enormous banks of cloud had piled up behind the Flying Carpet of King Solomon the Wise; but, Soraya pointed out with glee, those were not mere clouds. They were the a.s.sembled Wind G.o.ds of the Magic World. 'And their presence here,' she said rea.s.suringly, 'means that the G.o.ds are definitely determined to get you home to do what you have to do.'

Now Luka saw the faces of the Wind G.o.ds inside the cloud banks, cloud faces puffing up their cheeks and blowing with all their might. 'Three Chinese Wind G.o.ds are here,' Soraya said very excitedly, 'Chi Po, Feng-Po-Po and Pan-Gu! And you see that bunch of flying Wind Lions, the Fong-shih-ye from the Kinmen archipelago of Taiwan? The Chinese usually refuse to speak to them, or even to accept that they exist but here they are, working together! It's really amazing how everyone has united behind you! Fujin from j.a.pan has come, and he Chinese Wind G.o.ds are here,' Soraya said very excitedly, 'Chi Po, Feng-Po-Po and Pan-Gu! And you see that bunch of flying Wind Lions, the Fong-shih-ye from the Kinmen archipelago of Taiwan? The Chinese usually refuse to speak to them, or even to accept that they exist but here they are, working together! It's really amazing how everyone has united behind you! Fujin from j.a.pan has come, and he never never goes goes anywhere anywhere. Look there, all the American G.o.ds, the Iroquois deity Ga-Oh, and Tate of the Sioux, and, see, the ferocious Cherokee Wind Spirit, Oonawieh Unggi, over there! I mean, the Sioux and the Cherokee were never allies, and to join up with the Iroquois Confederacy oh, my! And even Chup the Wind G.o.d of the Chumash tribe from California has stopped sunbathing and shown up; he's usually too laid-back to rustle up much more than a light breeze. And the Africans are here as well that's Yansan the Yoruba Wind G.o.ddess! And from Central and South America, Ecalchot of the Niquiran Indians, and the Mayan Pauahtuns, and Unahsinte of the Zuni Indians, and Guabancex from the Caribbean ... they're so old, that lot, that frankly I thought they had blown themselves out, but it looks like they have plenty of puff left! And fat Fa'atiu the Samoan is over there, and bulgy Buluga of the Andaman Islands is over there there, and Ara Tiotio the Tornado G.o.d of Polynesia, and Paka'a from Hawaii. And Ays the Armenian Wind Demon, and the Vila, the Slav G.o.ddesses, and the Norse winged giant Hraesvelg who makes the winds just by flapping his wings, and the Korean G.o.ddess Yondung Halmoni she'd be blowing better if she wasn't stuffing her mouth with rice cakes, the greedy creature! and Mbon from Burma, and Enlil '

'Stop, please stop,' Luka begged. 'It doesn't matter what they're called what they're doing is more than enough.' What they were doing was this: they were blowing away the Rain Cats. With many loud roars and yowls the Rain Cats lost their grip on the bubble around the flying carpet and were sent flying to nowhere, blown head over heels into the depths of the broken sky. A great cry of happiness went up from everyone aboard the Resham Resham, and then the Wind G.o.ds really got going, and the carpet began to travel at the most amazing speed. Even Soraya with all her skill could not have made it go half as fast. The Magic World below them and the sky above became a blur. All Luka could see was the carpet itself and the ma.s.sed Wind G.o.ds behind it, blowing him all the way home. 'Get me back in time,' he thought fervently once again. 'Please don't let me be too late, just get me back in time.'

The wind dropped, the carpet landed, the Wind G.o.ds disappeared, and Luka was home: not on the bank of the Silsila as he had expected, but in his very own lane, in front of his very own house, in the very place where he first heard Dog and Bear speak, where he first met n.o.bodaddy and embarked on his great adventure. The colours of the world were still strange, the sky still too blue, the dirt too brown, the house much pinker and greener than usual; nor was it normal for a flying carpet to be parked here, with a Sultana of the Magic World, a t.i.tan, a Coyote and two Elephant Birds aboard, all of them looking distinctly ill at ease.

'The truth is we don't belong here, at the Frontier,' said Soraya, as Luka, Dog the bear and Bear the dog stepped off Resham 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.' 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 whoosh for farewell. 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 n.o.bodaddy 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 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. 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 acc.u.mulated 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 heart was still beating, but very, very faintly. He looked happy, though, he still looked happy, as if he were being told a story that he loved. And by his bedside stood Luka's mother Soraya, with her fingers fluttering at her lips, and Luka understood, the moment he ran into the room and saw her, that she was about to kiss her fingertips and then touch Rashid's mouth, because she was saying goodbye.

'What on earth are you doing, running in here like a crazy person?' Soraya cried, and then Bear the dog, Dog the bear and Haroun charged in as well. 'Stop it, all of you,' she demanded. 'What is this? A playground? A circus? What?'

'Please, Mum,' Luka begged, 'there's no time to explain please just let me do what I have to do.' And without waiting for his mother's reply, he popped an Ott Potato, glowing with the Fire of Life, into his father's open mouth, where, to his amazement, it dissolved instantly. Luka, staring fiercely through his father's lips, saw little tongues of fire dive down into Rashid's insides; and then they were gone, and for an instant nothing happened, and Luka's heart sank. 'Aah,' his mother was complaining, 'what on earth have you done, you silly boy ...?' But then the scolding words died on her lips because she, and everyone else in the room, saw the colour return to Rashid's face; after which a glow of health spread across his cheeks, almost as if he were blushing with embarra.s.sment; and the monitor by the bedside began to drum out a firm, regular heartbeat.

Rashid's hands began to move. His right hand darted out without warning and started tickling Luka, and Soraya gasped to see it, half with delight at the miracle of it, half with something like fear. 'Stop tickling me, Dad,' Luka said joyfully, and Rashid Khalifa said without opening his eyes, 'I'm not tickling you n.o.body is,' and then he turned over on his side to attack Luka with his left hand as well. 'You are, you are tickling me,' Luka laughed, and Rashid Khalifa, opening his eyes, and grinning widely, said innocently, 'Me? Tickling you? No, no. That's just Nonsense.'

Rashid sat up, stretched, yawned, and gave Luka a funny, inquisitive look. 'I've been having the strangest dream about you,' he said. 'Let me see if I can remember it. You went adventuring in the World of Magic, I think that was it, and the whole place was falling apart. Hmm, and there were Elephant Birds, and Respecto-Rats, and a real, honest-to-goodness Flying Carpet, and then there was the little matter of becoming a Fire Thief and stealing the Fire of Life. You wouldn't by any chance know anything about that dream, young Luka? You wouldn't by some unlikely chance be able to fill in the blanks?'

'Maybe so and maybe no,' said Luka shyly, 'but you should know already, Dad, because, to be honest with you, it felt like you were right there with me all the time, advising me and filling me in, and I'd have been lost without you.'

'That makes two of us, then,' said the Shah of Blah, 'because I'd be lost right now if it wasn't for your little exploit, that's for sure. Or, your not-so-little exploit. Or, in fact, your super-colossal ultra-exploit. Not that I want you to grow a big head or anything. But the Fire of Life. Really Really. Quite a feat. Hmm, hmm. Ott Potatoes, is it? And could that thing hanging from your neck in fact be an actual Ott Pot?'

'I don't know what you two are talking about,' said Soraya Khalifa contentedly, 'but it's good to hear the old rubbish being spoken in this house again.'

That wasn't the end of the story, however. Just as Luka was relaxing, certain that his job was done at last, he heard an unpleasant bubbling noise welling up from a corner of his father's bedroom and there, to his horror, was a Creature he thought he had seen for the last time when the Old Boy hurled him out into the deeps of s.p.a.ce. It wasn't wearing a vermilion bush shirt or a panama hat any more; it was colourless and faceless, because Rashid Khalifa had gone back into himself, and though this vile death-thing was plainly trying to gather itself into some sort of human shape, it succeeded only in looking twisted and hideous and sort of sticky, as if it were made out of glue. 'You dont' get rid of me as easily as that,' it hissed. 'You know why. Somebody has to die Somebody has to die. I told you at the beginning there was a catch, and that's it. Once I've been called into being, I don't leave until I've swallowed a life. No arguments, okay? Somebody has to die.'

'Go away,' Luka shouted. 'You lost. My father's fine now. Just bubble off to wherever it is you go.'

Rashid, Soraya and Haroun looked at him in amazement. 'Who are you talking to?' Haroun asked. 'There's nothing in that corner, you know.' But Bear the dog and Dog the bear could see the Creature all right, and before Luka could say any more it was Bear who interrupted. 'How about,' he asked the Creature, 'if an immortal being gives up his Immortality?'

'Why is Bear barking like that?' Soraya asked, bewildered. 'I don't understand what's happening.'

'Remember?' Bear asked Luka urgently. 'I am Barak of the It-Barak, a thousand years old and more? Turned into a dog by a Chinese curse? You didn't like it much when I told you that, because you wanted me to be your dog and nothing else. Well, now that's all I want to be, too. After a thousand years, that's it. To h.e.l.l with the past! And who wants to live for another thousand years? Enough of all that! I just want to be your dog, Bear.'

'That's too big a sacrifice,' said Luka, overwhelmed by his dog's loyalty and selfless courage. 'I can't ask you to make it.'

'I'm not asking you to ask me,' said Bear the dog.

'That dog is a lot noisier than I recall,' Rashid said. 'Luka, can't you quieten him down?'

'An Immortality,' said the Creature in the corner hungrily. 'Mmm! Yes, yes! To swallow an Immortality! To suck it out of the Immortal and fill up with it, leaving the ex-Immortal behind in mortal form! Oh yes. That would be very sweet indeed.'

'Ahem,' said Dog the bear suddenly. 'There is something I would like to confess.' At that moment, Luka thought, Dog looked sheepish, not bearish at all. 'You know that story I told you about being a prince who could spin air into gold? And Bulbul Dev the bird-headed ogre, and so on?'

'Of course I remember,' Luka said.

'See, husband, now the bear is growling, and the boy is talking to the bear,' said Soraya helplessly. 'These animals and your son as well are really getting to be impossible to control.'

'It wasn't true,' admitted Dog the bear, hanging his head in shame. 'The only thing I spun out of thin air was that yarn, that s.h.a.ggy-dog story or s.h.a.ggy-bear story, maybe I should say. I just thought I ought to have a good story to tell. I thought it was expected of me at the time, especially after Bear here sang that song about himself. I made it up to make myself look good. I shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry.'

'Don't worry,' said Luka. 'This is a storyteller's house. You should know what it's like by now. Everybody here makes up stories all the time.'

'That's settled, then,' said Bear the dog. 'Only one of us has an immortal life to give up, and that one is me.' And without waiting for any further discussion he ran to the corner where the Creature was crouching, and leapt; and Luka saw the Creature open a ghastly sort-of-mouth impossibly wide, and he saw Bear being swallowed up by that mouth; and then Bear was ejected again, looking the same, only different, and the Creature had become Bear-shaped too: No-Bear, instead of n.o.bodaddy. 'Ohh,' cried the Creature, 'Ohh, ecstasy, ecstasy!' And there was a sort of backwards flash, as if light were being sucked into a point instead of exploding out from a point, and the Bear-Creature imploded, whoommpppfff whoommpppfff, and then it wasn't there any more.

'Woof,' said Bear the dog, wagging his tail.

'What do you mean, "woof"?' Luka demanded. 'Cat got your tongue?'

'Growl,' said Dog the bear.

'Oh,' said Luka, understanding. 'The magic part really is over now, isn't it? And from now on you're just my ordinary dog and my ordinary bear, and I'm just ordinary me.'

'Woof,' said Bear the dog, and jumped up against Luka and licked his face. Luka hugged him tightly. 'After what you just did,' he said, 'I'll never let anybody think of dogs as bad-luck animals, because it was a lucky day for all of us when you became my dog.'

'Will somebody please tell me what is going on?' Soraya said faintly.

'It's okay, Mum,' said Luka, hugging her as tightly as he could. 'Calm down. Life is finally back to being ordinary again.'

'There's nothing ordinary about you,' his mother answered, kissing the top of his head. 'And, ordinary life? In this family, we know there's no such thing.'

On the flat roof of the Khalifa house, that cool evening, a dinner table was set out under the stars yes, the stars had come out again! and a feast was eaten, a feast of delicious slowly roasted meat and quickly pan-fried vegetables, of sour pickles and sweetmeats and cold pomegranate juice and hot tea, but also of some rarer foods and drinks happiness soup, curried excitement and great-relief ice cream. At the very centre of the table, in their little Ott Pot, were the remaining five Ott Potatoes, glowing softly with the Fire of Life. 'So this other Soraya you became so fond of,' said Soraya Khalifa to Luka, just a little too sweetly, 'she said that if a healthy person eats one of these it can give them long life, and maybe even let them live for ever?'

Luka shook his head. 'No, Mum,' he said, 'it wasn't the Insultana of Ott who said that. It was Ra the Supreme.'

In spite of a life spent with the fabled Shah of Blah, Soraya Khalifa had never entirely liked this fanciful stuff, which she now had to put up with from both her sons as well as her storyteller husband. Tonight, though, she was making a real effort. 'And this Ra...' she began, and Luka finished the sentence for her, '... told me that personally, speaking in Hieroglyph, which was translated for me by a talking squirrel named Ratatat.'

'Oh, never mind,' said Soraya, giving up. 'All's well that ends well, and as for these so-called "Ott Potatoes", I'll just tuck them away in the pantry, and we can decide what to do with them on another day.'

Luka had just been wondering how it would be if he, his brother, his mother and his father could all live for ever. The idea struck him as more frightening than exciting. Maybe his dog Bear had been right, and it was better to do without Immortality, or even the possibility of it. Yes maybe it would be better if Soraya hid the Ott Potatoes somewhere, so that all the Khalifas could slowly forget about their existence; and then maybe they, the Potatoes in their Pot, would finally get bored of waiting to be eaten, and would slip back across the Frontier into the World of Magic, and the Real World would be Real again, and life would be just that, life, and that would be more than enough.

The night sky was full of stars. 'As we know,' said Rashid Khalifa, 'sometimes the stars start dancing, and then anything can happen. But some nights it's good to see everything just staying put in its rightful place, so that we can all relax.'

'Relax my foot,' said Soraya. 'The stars may not be dancing, but we're certainly going to.'

She clapped her hands, and at once Dog the bear got up on his hind legs and began to stamp out the African Gumboot Dance, and Bear the dog jumped up and began to howl a Top Ten melody, and then the Khalifa family leapt to its feet and began to jig about energetically, and to join in the dog's song as well. And we'll leave them there, the rescued father, the loving mother, the older brother, and the young boy home from his great adventure, along with his lucky dog and his brotherly bear, up on the roof of their home on a cool night under the stationary, unchanging stars, singing and dancing.

ALSO BY S SALMAN R RUSHDIE

FICTION.

Midnight's Children

Shame

The Satanic Verses

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

East, West

The Moor's Last Sigh

The Ground Beneath Her Feet