Battle of the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page B

so.’
    The King nodded. ‘Once upon a time, I had power over him, and he could do nothing without my command. But he studied in secret, and chose a way that was not the Way of Light. He overcame me, and here you see me now, usurped and in prison. He cannot kill me, for there is an ancient law that prevents a servant from killing his master – even such a servant as he, dark as he. Instead he waits for me to die.’
    ‘I could shatter the glass,’ said Jack. ‘You could escape with me now.’
    The Sunken King shook his head, and his hair was like seaweed that flows under water. ‘That will change nothing. My power must first be renewed.’
    ‘How can that be?’ said Jack.
    ‘You must find the Dragon and bid him prepare a Bath. In those strange waters, I can be renewed. But there is not much time left for me. I am already beginning to dissolve.’
    And it was true. As Jack looked at the Sunken King he saw how blurred and watery were his outlines. The amber colour of the water is his lifeblood , thought Jack. He is becoming the water he sits in.
    ‘If the Magus is free to follow his own path,’ said the King, ‘ruin will follow him. There will be nothing left of life, do you hear me, Adam Kadmon? Nothing left of life.’
    ‘My name is Jack Snap,’ said Jack, and he felt it was important to keep saying his own name, lest he too should begin to dissolve in this formless place, or grow dark in the Dark House. His name was his outline, and his own quiet light. He would be his own name.
    ‘When you say Dragon, what is it that you mean?’ said Jack.
    ‘I mean Dragon,’ said the King.
    ‘There are no dragons,’ said Jack. ‘The very last dragon that ever lived was killed by St George, here in England.’
    ‘We are in the cellars of the Dark House,’ observed the Sunken King, ‘yet the Dragon is lower down yet. You must dive deeper, deeper dive.’
    As Jack was about to argue more about this matter of a dragon he heard a noise above him in the hall. He clapped his hands over the flare, burning himself a bit but not crying out, then moved as fast as he could back up the stairs, holding his jacket around the candle so that he could see his way but not be seen. As he got to the hall, he saw that the door to the courtyard was wide open. His heart leapt. Without thinking he dropped his candle and ran. He would be free, he would go home, he would escape. There was no more need of darkness and dissolution. No more to do with kings and creatures and boys and stone beds. He was his own Jack and he was in the courtyard under the stars, and there was the outer door to the street, and that was open too, and he had crossed the cobbles, and reached it, and he was out, and straight into the arms of . . .
    The Magus.
    ‘How now, little fish? What are you doing swimming here, eh?’
    Jack struggled and he kicked and he fought, but it was useless. The Magus was strong as twenty Jacks, and soon had him bundled back through the doors into the hall and into the library where a fire was burning and the room lit.
    A grey servant stood waiting for orders.
    ‘Fetch Wedge,’ ordered the Magus, and to Jack, ‘So you thought you would leave me so soon? Oh no, that cannot be.’
    Wedge came hopping into the room. He was dressed in half a nightshirt and wore half a bedcap on his half-head.
    ‘Not my fault, Master, no, nothing of me, nothing of me!’
    ‘How did this boy leave the dormitory?’
    ‘Witchcraft, it must have been!’
    ‘He didn’t lock the door,’ said Jack suddenly.
    The Magus went towards Wedge. Wedge hopped backwards, and they did this all around the room, Wedge hopping backwards and the Magus going forwards, Wedge swearing on all the saints in heaven and all the devils in hell that he had locked the door as he always did.
    ‘Took the keys off her and locked the door.’
    ‘She gave you the wrong key, then,’ said Jack, suddenly thinking that was a way to start them squabbling with each other, as well as to save