Once they started to run, they changed. The transition from human to beast was instantaneous. One moment they looked like shaven-headed young men; the next they were enormous wolflike creatures with human faces. They ran upright on two feet, but hunched over, their claws sending up whorls of dust.

“Doctor?” Virginia said calmly.

“Send them to sleep,” Dee called out. “Can you play and run at the same time?”

Dare pulled her flute from its leather cover, put it to her lips and blew gently.

And yet no sound came out.

“Oh,” she gasped, “that’s not good.”

The four cucubuths were closer now, their handsome faces marred by the ragged teeth that filled their mouths. Hairless tails thrashed the ground.

There was a flicker of movement in the air behind the cucubuths, and Huginn and Muninn appeared. The huge ravens tumbled from the sky, crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust. They flapped their wings, but only rose a few feet off the ground before they settled down again. Then, spotting the blazing sword, they screamed Dee’s name in unison. The giant birds darted toward the only light in the landscape, moving in a running hop that quickly ate up distance.

“Doctor, if you have a genius plan, now is the time to use it,” Virginia panted, shoving her flute back into its cover and pulling a flat-headed tomahawk from under her coat. When Dee didn’t immediately reply, Dare risked a quick sidelong glance at him. “John?”

Dee stopped.

“John?” she said again. She had actually run past him, but returned now to stand by his side. The Magician’s face was completely expressionless. His cold gray eyes turned red and blue in the reflected light from the burning sword. And then Virginia realized that the grit of this unmade Shadowrealm was coiling and twisting around his feet, creating patterns-intricate spirals and snaking ripples. She moved her hand past his eyes, but they did not blink, and she knew then that he wasn’t seeing her, nor could he hear her. “You always were trouble, Dr. John Dee. No wonder everyone around you died.” Then she turned to face the cucubuths and the crows alone.

Fire that was cold

Ice that was hot.

The sensations rolled off the sword and flowed through his wrists up his arms and settled into his chest.

And with the warmth and the chill came the memories, terrible, terrifying memories of a time before the humani, of a time when the Elders ruled the earth, and then beyond, to the world of the Archons; and before them, to the Ancients; and back further, to the Time Before Time, when the Earthlords ruled.

Memories of the four great swords of power…

… of their creation…

… and their powers…

… and why they had been separated…

… and why they must never be brought together…

And the shocking realization that these were not weapons, these were more; much, much more.

“John!”