I looked around me at the watching family. It wasn’t that long ago they’d gathered together to cheer my name, as the family’s saviour. And now they looked at me like I was some kind of war criminal. It wasn’t just that I’d lost a battle. I’d disappointed them by not being their perfect hero after all. I took out the Merlin Glass, shook it out to full size, and stepped through into the Armoury. Molly and the Armourer hurried through after me, and I shut the Glass down again. The weight of the family’s disapproving eyes was gone, and we were alone in the Armoury.

“You know, Eddie,” said Molly. “It seems to me that you’re getting just a bit dependent on that mirror.”

“Nonsense,” the Armourer said briskly. “That’s why I gave him the Glass—to get him out of close scrapes. Devices are meant to be used. How about I make us a nice cup of tea? And I’m pretty sure there’s an unopened box of Jaffa Cakes around here somewhere.” He stopped abruptly and looked at me. “You know, you look like shit, boy. Are you hurt? Injured?”

“No,” I said. “All that slaughter and butchery, and I came through it all without a scratch. Of course I did; I had the family armour. The others didn’t, and the Loathly Ones tore them apart.”

“Never look back, boy,” the Armourer said gruffly. “Concentrate on what you’re going to do next. Doesn’t matter if you lose a battle, as long as you win the war. Take a look at the family record; we’ve known our fair share of defeats. Of course, you have to go back quite a way to find anything like this . . . But that’s because the family’s grown soft and complacent and cautious, down the years, leaving all the dirty work to the field agents. Only picking the small battles, the small victories we were sure we could win. That’s why the Loathly Ones have been able to stick around this long and build up their numbers. Never would have been allowed, not even a century ago. So stop feeling sorry for yourself, Eddie, and think! Did you learn anything useful from this first encounter? Anything you can use, the next time you go up against the bastards?”