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Mr Tiny was the last person in the world &uued with Evanna hotly, wanting to knohy I should present myself to him, or what it could achieve I hated and feared the meddler more than ever now that I knew so much about him
"I want to be on the opposite side of the world to wherever he is!" I cried "Or in another universe, if possible!"
"I understand," Evanna said, "but weyou to do this?" I asked "Is he the one who orderedyou take ain?"
"You will find out when you meet him," Evanna said coolly, and since I didn’t really have any option but to follow her lead ¨C she could have had me tossed back into the Lake if I disobeyed &u, I reluctantly followed after her as she set off into the arid wilderness
As we left the wars and took to the skies I watched it join the throng of dragons far above me, then lost track of it When I looked back at Evanna, I saw that she was still staring up at the sky "I e could have gone for a flight," she said, sounding curiously sad
"On the dragon?" I asked
"Yes It has always been a wish of on"
"I could call it back," I suggested
She shook her head quickly "This isn’t the time for it," she said "And there are too many of them The others would see us on its back and attack I don’t think you would be able to control so many, not without more practice And while I can mask us from them down here, I couldn’t up there"
As we continued to walk, I looked around and backwards, andmotionless by the Lake "Why are that lot here?" I asked
"This is the age in which our father fishes for the souls of the dead to create his Little People," Evanna said, without looking back or slowing "He could take them from any time, but it’s easier this hen there is nobody to interfere He leaves a sives the order" She glanced at me "He could have rescued you much earlier In the present, only two years have passed He had the power to remove you from the Lake then, but he wanted to punish you Your sacrifice threw his plans into disarray He hates you for that, even though you are his son That’s why he sent me forward to this point in time to help you In this future, your soul has suffered for countless generations He wanted you to feel the pain of near-eternal io mad from it, so that you couldn’t be saved"
"Nice," I grunted sarcastically Then my eyes narrowed "If that’s the way he feels, why rescue me at all?"
"That will soon beco way fro cold around us as the sun dipped Evanna was looking for a specific spot, pausing every few seconds to exa on Finally she found what she was searching for She came to a halt, knelt and breathed softly on the dusty earth There was a ruround split at our feet and the mouth of a tunnel opened up I could only see a few er
"Don’t tell o down there," I muttered
"This is the way to our father’s stronghold," she said
"It’s dark," I stalled
"I will provide light," she pro softly, casting a diht a few metres ahead of her She looked at me seriously "Stay by my side down there Don’t stray"
"Will Mr Tiny get me if I do?" I asked
"Believe it or not, there are worsesoet their hands on you, your millennia of torment in the Lake of Souls will seem like a pleasant hour spent on a beach"
I doubted that, but the threat was strong enough to ensure I kept within a hair’s breadth of the witch as she started down the tunnel It sloped at a fairly constant thirty-degree angle The floor and walls were smooth and made of what looked like solid rock But there were shapes ated shapes, all shadows, claws, teeth and tendrils The walls bulged outwards as we passed &u for us But none could break through
"What are they?" I croaked, sweating from fear as much as the dry heat of the tunnel
"Creatures of universal chaos," Evanna answered "I told you about them before ¨C they’re the h he is not as powerful as them They are imprisoned by a series of temporal and spatial laws ¨C the laws of the universe which our father and I live by If we ever break the laws, these creatures will be freed They will turn the universe into a hell of their ownAll will fall beneath them They’ll invade every ti ever born &ury when you found out I was Mr Tiny’s son," I said "You thought he’d broken the laws"
"Yes I rong, but it was a close-run thing I doubt if even he was sure of his plan’s success When he gave birth to Hibernius andabout you &uiven you ly broken the laws and brought about the ruin of everything we know and love" She looked back at uessed you were that important to the world!"
"No," I said sickly "And I never wanted to be"
"Don’t worry," she said, her s line when you let Steve kill you You did what Hibernius and I never thought possible &ued what seemed an inevitable future"
"Youof the Lord of the Shadows?" I asked eagerly "That’s why I let him kill me It was the only way I could see to stop it I didn’t want to be athe world Mr Tiny said one of us had to be the Lord of the Shadows But I thought, if both of us were dead"
"You thought right," Evanna said "Our father had edged the world to a point where there were only two futures When you killed Steve and sacrificed yourself, it opened up dozens of possible futures again I could not have done it ¨C I would have broken the laws if I’d interfered ¨C but as a human, you were able to"
"So what’s happened since I died?" I asked "You said two years have passed Did the vampires defeat the vampaneze and win the War of the Scars?"
"No," Evanna said, pursing her lips "The war still rages But an end is within sight &u Persuasive leaders are pushing for peace, Vancha and Harkat Mulds on the side of the va a treaty, discussing the guidelines by which both sides can live as one Others fight against them ¨C there are many in both clans who do not wish for peace &u out"
"Then it worked!" I gasped "If the vampires and vampaneze make peace, the world will be saved!"
"Perhaps," Evanna hummed "It’s not as clear-cut as that Under Steve, the vampaneze made contact with hu lives and power in exchange for their help They wanted to create nuclear and che the world and its survivors under their direct control That could still happen"
"Then we’ve got to stop it!" I shouted "We can’t let-"
"Easy," Evanna hushedto prevent it That’s why I am here I cannot meddle too deeply in the affairs of mankind, but I can do more now than before, and your actions have convinced me that I should interfere Hibernius and I always stayed neutral We did not get involved in the affairs of ainst it, afraid we hed "I rong It’s necessary to take risks every now and then Our father took a risk in his attempt to wreak havoc ¨C and I must now take one in an atte about?" I frowned
"Mankind has been evolving," she said "It has a destiny of its own, a growth towards so He used the vampires and vampaneze to throw mankind off course, to reduce the cities of the world to rubble, to drag huain But his plan failed The clans of the night now seek to reunite and live separately fro no harm, as they did in the past
"Because the vampires and vampaneze have become part of the present, our father cannot unmake them He could return to the past and create another race to co Tiainst him If he cannot pide the clans within the next year or so, it is unlikely that he will be able to bring about the downfall of ht ¨C and no doubt will ¨C plot afresh in the future, and seek so the world will be safe"