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. For a moment Oscar tasted the bitter tang of the Erl King’s shadow of fear against his back teeth, and then his Uncle remembered that they were with him and withdrew it, so that it receded away like a barely recalled nightmare.
The anteroom was now empty - the guard the Ridley had knocked out had gone. Instead there were now a group of Knights Errant clustered in the doorway. It was an odd sight - it was as if there were a glass wall in the doorway that they were all pressed up against, trying to get in but stopped by some invisible power. And there, in the centre of the room, sat the little black cat, staring at them all.
It turned as Skelton, Maggs and Oscar came through the door and Oscar could have sworn that it nodded at them in welcome. As the Erl King spidered out to fill the room the guards in the doorway drew back away from him in fear, but they still blocked the exit.
“Emergency exit, I think,” said Skelton, his voice rasping through the mask, and he gestured with his right hand. The stones of the wall burst outward, swooping up and away, revealing an empty patch of night sky.
“Come on you two,” and Skelton grabbed hold of Maggs and Oscar and Oscar felt the robes twine about him, at once silky and rough, like they were edged with tiny teeth. And then they were dropping through the gap and out into the cold darkness.
They fell down through the night with a great rushing and fluttering as the Erl King’s cloak spread out around them, its coils and shreds beating against the air. It had been raining while they were inside and drops still specked at Oscar face as they feel.
“Is that what you came here in?” Skelton was pointing down at the ornithopter, which was still sitting on the lawn, now with two Knights Errant standing guard over it.
“Yes, it’s an ornithopter...”
“You’re braver than I thought.”
The Shadow of the Erl King preceded them and the Knights Errant fled from the craft as they dropped towards them, scampering for the safety of the Tower. Skelton hit the ground running, bundling up the steps. Erik and Karl had rushed to the door to meet them, but now they fled from the terrible figure rushing towards them, leaping up onto the red leather benches on the far side of the cabin.
Oscar found himself and Maggs flung after them, onto the benches, as Skelton turned straight to the controls, the robes creeping out to explore all the knobs and dials with their thin black fingers.
“It’s him, it’s him,” hissed Erik, “We’ve got him cornered now...”
“Hasn’t he got us cornered?” whispered Karl.
“Hold tight,” the Erl King’s voice was a shocking interruption and the gnomes cowered back as the ornithopter creaked and juddered, preparing for take off.
Just at the last minute, just as the craft stretched its wings and the door was closing, the black cat leapt up through the thinning gap and into the cabin. It sauntered across to the benches and jumped up onto Oscar’s lap.
“Oh,” said Skelton, “decided to join us, have you?” and the ornithopter threw itself into the sky.

Sheer walls of lights and shining glass flashed past them as the ornithopter swooped up from the Tower and plunged into the canyons of the City. The streets followed a medieval maze between the shining monoliths of the skyscrapers and Oscar and Maggs had to cling on to the walls to stop themselves being thrown about the cabin as it twisted this way and that between the towers of office buildings.
Skelton wrestled with the controls, trying to keep them low and out of sight from watching spies, as they raced their own reflection along the walls of glass, wheeled round church spires and darted beneath the gaze of monumental statues.
Suddenly they climbed steeply and Oscar had a glimpse of floors of lights rushing down past them in the darkness. There was a sickening moment of weightlessness and then they dropped suddenly and stopped. There was the sound of claws scrabbling on stone and the creaking of the leathery wings as the ornithopter settled down.
Oscar scrambled to the window and peered out. They were perched on the pinnacle of some great skyscraper, high above the infernal orange glow of the streets, like an eagle on a crag. There in the distance below them he could see the clear pale bulk of St Paul’s Cathedral, shining up through the rain. The cabin rocked slightly as the ornithopter shifted the grip of its claws and the cross winds, confused by the narrow streets, buffeted against them.
Uncle Rufus had pulled off his mask, crossed to the benches and was now laying Ridley out flat, examining her wound with Maggs.
“What’s he done to her?” asked Erik, eyeing him nervously.
“I’ll deal with him,” Karl was trying to sound threatening, but was keeping his distance all the same, “We’ve dealt with him before...”
“You two pipe down,” said Maggs, “We need to concentrate.”
“Are we his prisoners?” whispered Erik.
“Lord Skelton just rescued us all from certain death, so I think you might be a little grateful,” The gnomes stepped back, abashed.
“But he’s bad,” complained Erik, “I can feel it, I can feel the dark magic...”
“It was him that took you away from us,” Karl was not going to be appeased, “He has to be dealt with.”
“That’s true,” Oscar hadn’t thought about that part of the story, “I still don’t understand that...”
“We don’t need to understand,” Karl was determined, “He just needs to be punished.”
“He could at least apologise,” Erik, however, seemed to be prepared to compromise, “If he was sorry, I mean, really...”
“Oh, don’t expect a villain like that to apologise,” Karl was undeterred, “Not him.”
“Little Gnomes!” Skelton whirled round angrily and they leapt back away from him, “I am sure I would be sorry if I had time to be but we are trying to save Mistress Ridley’s life so will you SHUT UP!”
The gnomes said nothing, apparently frozen with fear and Skelton snorted and returned to Ridley.
“Of course,” it was Karl’s voice and Skelton’s back stiffened in anticipation, “If you hadn’t wiped away the mistress’ old life, she’d still remember that she gave us all kinds of healing abilities. It was part of our training. Very important she said.”
Maggs turned slowly to look at them but Skelton just cast his eyes upwards, “Spirits preserve us,” he muttered.
“Can you help us?” Maggs asked.
Erik craned past her to look at Ridley, “I think now the bleeding’s stopped we can - better than dark magic could, anyway.”
“If I let you help, will you shut up?” asked Skelton.
“If we help you, you’ll have time to explain and apologise, won’t you?” said Erik as he ran down the bench and climbed up onto Ridley’s unconscious form, Karl following.
Skelton barked a short, sharp laugh and stepped away, back to the control panel.
“Alright, alright, well, perhaps you’re right, since I still haven’t even apologised to Maggs, yet:” Skelton grimaced and looked uncomfortable, “I’m sorry for what I and the Wild Ride did to you, I really am, Maggs, you didn’t deserve that...” He looked genuinely contrite and Maggs patted his arm.
“It’s not really that much to lose, if you can’t remember what you lost,” she said.
“So that was you?” Oscar was still trying to work the whole thing out, “You were the one who attacked Maggs?”
“I’m afraid so, yes...”
“But why?”
In response, his Uncle gestured at the window.
“Look down there, Oscar - what can you see?”
Oscar looked back out of the window. Far, far below was a narrow street, a clear valley of orange light between the dark buildings. It was empty. Then a small figure emerged from one side, stepping out tentatively on to the pavement. A moment later it retreated again. A dark, angry glow began to fill the pit below, a great, churning of fire and smoke. And a glittering something came weaving down the road, dark and gleaming: a dragon, its claws sparking on the asphalt, his head questing as it tested the pavements for life. And then it was round the corner and gone.
“An early winter’s evening not long before Christmas and the streets are empty,” Uncle Rufus was looking over his shoulder, “Only the servants of the Magi are abroad, searching for the disobedient. Where is everybody? They should be out, celebrating, preparing for the holidays, having fun. Instead they’re hiding inside, locked up with dragons and knight mares stalking the streets.”
“And quite right, too,” interrupted Karl, “With maniacs like you on the loose.”
“Yes, that was my mistake,” Skelton shook his head, wearily, “You see, Oscar, this was what I was afraid of, when Maggs and Hopkins first formed the Knights Errant all those years ago – at least I was right about that, I suppose...”
“But Maggs wasn’t Cuddy – they were trying to help people,” protested Oscar.
“And you don’t think that’s what Cuddy believes he’s doing? Good intentions are no guarantee of good people, I’m afraid. If you think you know what’s best for people and you find you have the power to overcome any objections, then you will do what you like, how you like, no matter what anyone else says: and that is very, very wrong indeed.”
“So you decided to summon the Wild Ride and make everyone do what you wanted instead,” said Erik, looking up from his work. He appeared to be binding up Ridley’s wound with what looked to Oscar like spider’s webs.
“Yes,” said Skelton, ruefully, “Touché. That’s precisely what happened. I tried to warn them, both the Knights Errant and the Three Wise Lords of the time, but no one would listen to me – I was a lot younger then, and my beard wasn’t nearly as frightening.
“I wanted to make them understand, to show them what it would be like for ordinary people under the rule of the Magi, to be governed and ordered by such frightening things, so I learned the Old, Secret magic, made pacts with the Darklings and conjured the Wild Ride...
“Except that it worked slightly too well – I realised that I could do more that just make a point, I could actually stop them, I could drain Maggs’ power, lock up Hopkins, drive the Order underground... I got, well, I’m afraid I got carried away... I controlled the Wild Ride and, through them, I could control the Magi – I became Lord Protector, created the Knights Watchmen and the Veil and hid magic away for twenty years.
“Until, that is, the whole thing turned upside down.”
“Thursby and the new Knights Errant?” Oscar felt he knew where they were now.
“That daft lot? Moons and Circles, no – at least not at first – no, it was the Darklings – Darklings that I knew full well weren’t any part of my Wild Ride – appearing out of nowhere, attacking Magi unsuspected, undetectable and completely unbelievable. I’d become too confident, I think, too sure of myself – I was caught completely off guard and I messed it up, frankly, I didn’t take your Knights Errant – and I’m including you in that, young man –I didn’t take them seriously at all, until it was too late, and then all I managed was to get this poor young lady in trouble.”
“Ridley?”
“Who do you think gave the promising young Knight Watchman the mission of infiltrating the Knights Errant? I should have guessed that she’d find them more exciting than being a boring old Watchman, and perhaps she was right at that, too.”
“But you think that Cuddy is behind all this?”
“Oh yes – I can’t quite see how, yet...”
“I think I can fill in that bit,” Maggs interjected, “If Hopkins and I were really reserking Darklings before, then he must have already known a lot about the Old magic, and then all that time in the White Tower and his library...”
“Library?” Skelton was taken by surprise, “What library?”
“In the tower,” continued Maggs, “We saw it, didn’t we, Oscar? Amazering place, books I thought had vanished hundreds of years ago – Cuddy must have disuncovered it and realised he could use it, he could use Hopkins’ knowledge and power to create his own Wild Ride, to use that fear of the Darklings to pull his new Knights Errant together.”
“That sounds about right,” Skelton shook his head, “That’ll be why he possessed Hopkins, poor chap.”
“So Cuddy planned everything?”
“I’m pretty certain - everyone else: Thursby, you, even Hopkins, have just been pawns in his game.”
“But what’s he trying to do?”
“Rule the world, I think, or something like it. Sounds rather silly when you say it out loud, doesn’t it?” Skelton laughed a little, “And I’m not sure even he would think about it like that, but I’m fairly sure that he thinks that the Magi should be in charge and that he should be in charge of the Magi and if making that happen means burning down the whole of civilisation around him, he would gladly light the fuse.”
“Very well, then,” said Karl, jumping down from the bench, “What are you going to do about it?”
“How is she?” asked Skelton, ignoring him for the moment, “Is she alright?”
“I think so,” Erik was wiping his hands with cobweb, “The wound is cleaned and bound and the bleeding’s stopped. She’s strong and we’ve woven what charms we can.”
“Good,” Skelton turned back to the controls of the ornithopter, “Then we can get on with answering your question, Master Gnome. I can tell you precisely what we’re going to do about it: we’re going to destroy him by destroying the Magi, and we will destroy the Magi by destroying the Great Work.”
The gnomes stared at his back, open-mouthed.
“But... how?”
“Oh details, details,” Skelton grinned at them over his shoulder, “Hold on tight: going down!”
And the ornithopter folded its wings and plunged towards the street.