Before, passing through these openings had taken only an instant, but this was different, the going much harder, as if he was forcing himself against a raging ocean tide. Swimming lattices of light formed before him and linked up, bleeding into one vast, incandescent corridor that warped and stretched out infinitely ahead. Beyond its edges, he had the vaguest impression of rushing, twisting landscapes, wild swarms of star fields colliding in blinding explosions of color, then gone like matches struck in the night. He was gripped by a sudden, seductive sense of insignificance that bloomed into an overwhelming sense of wonder, and then the urgent sense that he had to go on, push forward against the weight of time and distance. He heard the great gears grinding slower, felt himself moving faster. The pressure grew unbearable, as if the air was trying to slam itself together around him, crush him out of existence, smash his atoms and make them pop.

And then he was through.

The pain in his ankle returned. He was wheezing for breath in the dark and the rain, and the ruined castle lurched above him. The ground shook and the ripped sky shone and roared painfully as unearthly lightning flashed across it.

The whole world howled. Alex looked up to see his grandfather standing in the blazing gateway with Harry. The old man took his cane, considered it for a second, then swung two-handed at the old wooden structure, beginning to smash it apart.

A thin, flailing tentacle reached through from the other side and curled tightly around Alex’s grandfather’s ankles. He staggered as it started dragging him back in. While he struggled, another, greater limb emerged, knocked Harry flat, then wrapped around the lifeless life-sizer that had been abandoned by the gate and lifted it through. The dying light of the broken gate flared brighter and rushed over Alex’s grandfather in blue-white flames. He bent in pain.

Alex threw his flier and sent it diving at the tentacle that held his grandfather. He struck out with his hook. As the metal plunged into the pale, sticky flesh, Alex felt a sickening, burning sting on his mind and had to let go. His flier dropped. But it was enough. The tentacle uncurled, releasing the old man, and shot back into the place beyond. The last of the light winked out as the gate collapsed.

The earth stopped shaking. Alex stood panting. The sky had healed. The moon shone down, tinting the black clouds silver, and the rain rattling the leaves of the Black Forest sounded like endless applause from a vast, unseen audience.

XXXVI.

OUTSIDE/INSIDE

Alex’s grandfather lay facedown, surrounded by pieces of broken old picture frames. Harry and Kingdom were already by his side. As Alex limped to join them, Harry glanced up anxiously. He shook his head.

Alex knelt. “Grandad?”