The big grey car whispered through the snowy streets, gleaming in the lamplight. Oscar sat in the back, sandwiched between Maggs and Ridley, while his Uncle Rufus sat in a small jump seat opposite them.
It had started to snow again, gently, the flakes falling soundlessly against the windows. Oscar stared out at the streets, empty except for scurrying figures, black against the quiet white.
“At least I got to do one spell before it all ended,” said Oscar
“Ah, but it hasn’t all ended,” said Skelton, “In fact, it’s only just begun.”
“It’s only the Magi that have ended,” said Maggs.

It swerved at the last moment, careering past Oscar with a great banging, like a fast train passing, crashing into the corner of the room in its headlong flight. The cat landed on the Charter Table itself, turning carefully to face the great shifting and slipping pile of glass panes that were the White Dragon, as it tried to unwind itself from the knots its collision had tied it in.

Cuddy staggered back from his lectern as the terrible darkness plummeted towards him, tipping over the edge of the stage and down into the arrangement of flowers beneath. Skelton landed gently on the stage, the shadows boiling out around him. The robes coiled up and around the lectern and swept it from the stage. He stepped forward to face the Magi as Cuddy pulled himself out of a clump of ferns and started back up a set of steps into the safety of the crowd.

Once again Skelton set the ornithopter hurtling through the streets as low as he dared, rushing down towards the dome of the Cathedral and then beyond, where the skyscrapers dropped away and they were forced lower, in between the roofs of the Victorian buildings, just above the street lights below, between chimney pots and aerials, rustling the leaves of the trees as they whooshed past.
“The Temple’s not far away now, are we ready?” Skelton looked back over his shoulder at them.
“What’s the plan?” Maggs pulled herself forward to see where they were.

This meant that they were right behind him when he crossed the threshold out of the Black Chamber, back into the Tower, and Oscar saw the sudden transformation as his Uncle stopped being just his Uncle in a funny outfit and became the Erl King, how he rose and stretched, becoming thinner, more angular, how the robes boiled and billowed, tendrils of smoke merging into the shadows of the room around him, until he seemed to fill the space.

“I’m afraid,” said Maggs, “We weren’t actually looking for you...”
“It was in Maggs’ notes,” explained Oscar, “She had all the notes about the Black Chamber and Cowper. We thought she might have found out away to beat the Wild Ride and the secret might be here.”
“Cowper?” Skelton was confused, “Why would he have known anything about the Wild Ride?”
“But I must have been trying to discover a way to stop them,” protested Maggs, “I mean, that’s why they attacked me, isn’t it?”

“Forgive me for not coming to meet you, but I’m a little tied up at the moment.”
The room was plain and stone walled like the others. It had a small window high in one wall that was letting in a little light, beneath which was a solid antique table, with some food and an old-fashioned oil lamp on it. And on the far wall, chained with his arms above his head, dressed only in a shirt and ragged trousers was the last person they had expected to see: one time Lord Protector of the Magi and now the country’s most wanted man, Oscar’s godfather, Rufus Skelton.

The Knight Errant never saw it coming. Oscar barely saw it himself, it all happened so quickly. The Yeoman opened the door for them and was about to announce them to whoever was inside when Ridley pushed past him and crossed the tiny room to where the guard sat in his green coat. He barely had to try and stand up before Ridley reached down and placed her hand on his forehead.

It was exciting, but Oscar was secretly glad that when he looked down all he could see were clouds - it made the whole thing a little less real. Occasionally there was a break in the cloud cover and he caught a glimpse of glowing ribbons of roads and little specks of house lights and realised quite how high up they were and he had to look away. The problem then was catching sight of the moon, which was full, bright and altogether a lot closer than he was used to seeing it.