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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

IFELLto the ground, cla to my knees, I tried to crawl out of the ball of fire before I was consuh I was surrounded by the dragon’s flames, there wasn’t any heat! I opened ain quick What I saw caused both my eyes to snap open and my jaw to drop with astonish frozen over the Lake, a long line of fire extending from its mouth The fire covered not just round But none of us was burnt The static fla on?" Harkat asked, his words echoing hollowly

"I haven’t a clue," I said, running a hand through the frozen fire around round croaked, pointing to his left

Harkat and I followed the direction of the finger and saw a short, tubbywith a heart-shaped watch

"Mr Tiny!" we shouted together, then cut through the hared him out - and hurried to meet the mysterious little man

"Tight ti, boys!" Mr Tiny booo that close to the wire A thrilling finale! Most satisfying"

I stopped and stared at Mr Tiny "You didn’t knoould turn out?" I asked

"Of course not," he smirked "That’s what made it so much fun A few more seconds and you’d have been toast!"

Mr Tiny stepped past me and held out a cloak to Harkat and his naked companion "Cover the poor soul," Mr Tiny punned

Harkat took the cloak and draped it around Kurda’s shoulders Kurda said nothing, just stared at the three of us, his blue eyes ith suspicion and fear, tre on?" I snapped at Mr Tiny "Harkat can’t have been Kurda - he was around long before Kurda died!"

"What do you think, Harkat?" Mr Tiny asked the Little Person

"It’sKurda intensely "I don’t kno - but it is"

"But it can’t?" I began, only for Mr Tiny to interrupt curtly

"We’ll discuss it later," he said "The dragons won’t stay like this indefinitely Let’s not be here when they unfreeze I can control theitated state and it would be safer not to press our luck They couldn’t harm me, but it would be a shae"

I was anxious for answers, but the thought of facing the dragons again enabled ue and follow quietly as Mr Tiny led us out of the valley, whistling chirpily, away from the lost remains of Spits Abrams and the other dead spirits held captive in the Lake of Souls

Night Sitting by a crackling fire, finishing off a meal which two of Mr Tiny’s Little People had prepared We were no more than a kilometre from the valley, out in the open, but Mr Tiny assured us that ouldn’t be disturbed by dragons On the far side of the fire stood a tall, arched doorway, like the one we’d entered this world by I longed to throw h it, but there were questions which needed to be answered first

My eyes returned to Kurda Smahlt, as they had so often since we’d pulled him out of the Lake He was extremely pale and thin, his hair untidy, his eyes dark with fear and pain But otherwise he looked exactly as he had the last time I saw him, when I’d foiled his plans to betray the vampires to the vampaneze He’d been executed shortly afterwards, dropped into a pit of stakes until he was dead, then cut into pieces and crelanced up shah he still looked very uncertain Laying aside his plate, he wiped around his mouth with a scrap of cloth, then asked softly, "How ht years or so," I answered

"Is that all?" He frowned "It see that happened?" I asked

He nodded bleakly "My h I wish it wasn’t - that drop into the pit of stakes is sohed "I’ the clan But I believed it was for the good of our people - I was trying to prevent a ith the vampaneze"

"I know," I said softly "We’ve been at war since you died, and the Vaulped deeply "He killed Mr Crepsley Many others have died as well"

"I’ain "Perhaps if I’d succeeded, they’d still be alive" He grimaced as soon as he said that, and shook his head "No It’s too easy to say ’what if’ and paint a picture of a perfect world There would have been death and misery even if you hadn’t exposed me That was unavoidable"

Harkat hadn’t saidKurda like a baby watching its mother Now his eyes roamed to Mr Tiny and he said quietly, "I knoas Kurda Buthoas created years before - Kurda died"

"Ti that looked suspiciously like a human eyeball on a stick over the fire "From the present, I can move backwards into the past, or forward into any of the possible futures"

"You can travel through time?" I asked sceptically

Mr Tiny nodded "That’swith time, I can subtly influence the course of future events, keeping the world on a chaotic keel - it’sthat way I can help or hinder humans, vampires and vampaneze, as I see fit There are limits to what I can do, but I work broadly and actively within the Master Shan," he continued, addressing his words to Harkat "I’ve laid o, that he was doorave Without soht with the bear on his way to Va his Trials of Initiation - he would have perished long ago

"So I created Harkat Mulds," he said, this ti toand belched merrily "I could have used any of my Little People, but I needed someone who’d cared about you when he was alive, who’d do that little bit extra to protect you So I went into a possible future, searched a the souls of the tormented dead, and found our old friend Kurda Smahlt"

Mr Tiny slapped Kurda’s knee The one-tiony," Mr Tiny said cheerfully "He was unable to forgive hi his people, and was desperate toyou, he provided the vampires with the possibility of victory in the War of the Scars Without Harkat, you would have died long ago, and there would have been no hunt for the Lord of the Vampaneze - he would simply have led his forces to victory over the vampires"

"But I didn’t know - that I used to be Kurda!" Harkat protested

"Deep down you did," Mr Tiny disagreed "Since I had to return your soul to the past, I had to hide the truth of your identity froht have tried to directly interfere with the course of the future But on a subconscious level, you knew That’s why you fought so bravely beside Darren, risking your life for his on nuht about that in silence for a long while, as did Harkat and Kurda Tietable to send a soul from the future into the past to alter the present - and didn’t question hoas achieved - I could see the logic Kurda had betrayed the vampires Ashamed, his soul remained bound to Earth Mr Tiny offered hi to life as a Little Person, he couldI don’t understand," Kurda said, then winced "Actually, there’sloads I don’t understand, but one thing in particular My plan to betray the vampires would have succeeded if Darren hadn’t interfered But you say Darren would have died without my aid as Harkat Mulds So, in effect, I helped Darren mastermind my onfall!"

Mr Tiny shook his head "You would have perished regardless of the outcome Your death was never in question - merely the manner of it"

"What puzzlesme the most," Harkat muttered, "is how - the two of us can be here at the same - tiether?"

"Harkat’s wiser than he looks," Mr Tiny noted with a chuckle "The answer is that youcan’t - at least, not for very long While Kurda remained in the Lake of Souls, Harkat was free to roaed, one must make way for the other"

"What do you mean?" I asked sharply