He saw a dark handle sticking out from the load of timber. He tried to pull at it with fingers now as substantial as a shadow.
HE SAID HE WOULD DESTROY IT FOR ME!
The Death of Rats shrugged sympathetically.
The new Death stepped through the wall, scythe held in both hands.
It advanced on Bill Door.
There was a rustling. The grey robes were pouring into the smithy.
Bill Door grinned in terror.
The new Death stopped, posing dramatically in the glow from the forge.
It swung.
It almost lost its balance.
You’re not supposed to duck!
Bill Door dived through the wall again and pounded across the square, skull down, spectral feet making no noise on the cobbles. He reached the little group by the clock.
ON THE HORSE! GO!
‘What’s happening? What’s happening!’
IT HASN’T WORKED!
Miss Flitworth gave him a panicky look but put the unconscious child on Binky’s back and climbed up after her. Then Bill Door brought his hand down hard on the horse’s flank. There at least there was contact — Binky existed in all worlds.
GO!
He didn’t look around but darted on up the road towards the farm.
A weapon!
Something he could hold!
The only weapon in the undead world was in the hands of the new Death.
As Bill Door ran he was aware of a faint, higher-pitched clicking noise. He looked down. The Death of Rats was keeping pace with him.
It gave him an encouraging squeak.
He skidded through the farm gate and flung himself against the wall.
There was a distant rumble of the storm. Apart from that, silence.
He relaxed slightly, and crept cautiously along the wall towards the back of the farmhouse.
He caught a glimpse of something metallic. Leaning against the wall there, where the men from the village had left it when they brought him back, was his scythe; not the one he’d carefully prepared, but the one he’d used for the harvest. What edge it had had been achieved only by the whetstone and the caress of the stalks, but it was a familiar shape and he made a tentative grab at it. His hand passed right through.
The further you run, the closer you get.
The new Death stepped unhurriedly out of the shadows.
You should know that, it added.
Bill Door straightened up.
We will enjoy this.
ENJOY?
The new Death advanced. Bill Door backed away.
Yes. The taking of one Death is the same as achieving the end of a billion lesser lives.
LESSER LIVES? THIS IS NOT A GAME!
The new Death hesitated. What is a game?
Bill Door felt the tiny flicker of hope.
I COULD SHOW YOU—
The end of the scythe handle caught him under the chin and knocked him against the wall, where he slid to the ground.
We detect a trick. We do not listen. The reaper does not listen to the harvest.
Bill Door tried to get up.
The scythe handle struck him again.
We will not make the same mistakes.
Bill Door looked up. The new Death was holding the golden timer; the top bulb was empty. Around both of them the landscape shifted, reddened, began to take on the unreal appearance of reality seen from the other side …
You’re out of Time, Mr Bill Door.
The new Death raised his cowl.
There was no face there. There was not even a skull. Smoke curled formlessly between the robe and a golden crown.
Bill Door raised himself on his elbows.
A CROWN? His voice shook with rage. I NEVER WORE A CROWN!
You never wanted to rule.
The new Death swung the scythe back.
And then it dawned on the old Death and the new Death that the hissing of passing time had not, in fact, stopped.
The new Death hesitated, and took out the golden glass.
It shook it.
Bill Door looked into the empty face under the crown. There was an expression of puzzlement there, even with no features actually to wear it; the expression hung in the air all by itself.
He saw the crown turn.
Miss Flitworth stood with her hands held a foot apart and her eyes closed. Between her hands, in the air in front of her hovered the faint outline of a lifetimer, its sand pouring away in a torrent.
The Deaths could just make out, on the glass, the spidery name: Renata Flitworth.
The new Death’s featureless expression became one of terminal puzzlement. It turned to Bill Door.
For YOU?
But Bill Door was already rising and unfolding like the wrath of kings. He reached behind him, growling, living on loaned time, and his hands closed around the harvest scythe.
The crowned Death saw it coming and raised its own weapon but there was very possibly nothing in the world that would stop the worn blade as it snarled through the air, rage and vengeance giving it an edge beyond any definition of sharpness. It passed through the metal without slowing.
NO CROWN, said Bill Door, looking directly into the smoke. NO CROWN. ONLY THE HARVEST.
The robe folded up around his blade. There was a thin wail, rising beyond the peak of hearing. A black column, like the negative of lightning, flashed up from the ground and disappeared into the clouds.
Death waited for a moment, and then gingerly gave the robe a prod with his foot. The crown, bent slightly out of shape, rolled out of it a little way before evaporating.
OH, he said, dismissively. DRAMA.
He walked over to Miss Flitworth and gently pressed her hands together. The image of the lifetimer disappeared. The blue-and-violet fog on the edge of sight faded as solid reality flowed back.
Down in the town, the clock finished striking midnight.
The old woman was shivering. Death snapped his fingers in front of her eyes.
MISS FLITWORTH? RENATA?
‘I–I didn’t know what to do and you said it wasn’t difficult and—’
Death walked into the barn. When he came out, he was wearing his black robe.
She was still standing there.
‘I didn’t know what to do,’ she repeated, possibly not to him. ‘What happened? Is it all over?’
Death looked around. The grey shapes were pouring into the yard. POSSIBLY NOT, he said.
More trolleys appeared behind the row of soldiers. They looked like the small silvery workers with the occasional pale golden gleam of a warrior.
‘Ve should retreat back to the stairs,’ said Doreen.
‘I think that’s where they want us to go,’ said Windle.
‘Then that’s fine by me. Anyway, I vouldn’t think those vheels could manage steps, could they?’
‘And you can’t exactly fight to the death,’ said Ludmilla. Lupine was keeping close to her, yellow eyes fixed on the slowly advancing wheels.
‘Chance would be a fine thing,’ said Windle. They reached the moving stairs. He looked up. Trolleys clustered around the top of the upward stair, but the way to the floor below looked clear.
‘Perhaps we could find another way up?’ said Ludmilla hopefully.
They shuffled on to the moving stair. Behind them, the trolleys moved in to block their return.
The wizards were on the floor below. They were standing so still among the potted plants and fountains that Windle passed them at first, assuming that they were some sort of statue or piece of esoteric furniture.
The Archchancellor had a false red nose and was holding some balloons. Beside him, the Bursar was juggling coloured balls, but like a machine, his eyes staring blankly at nothing.
The Senior Wrangler was standing a little way off, wearing a pair of sandwich boards. The writing on them hadn’t fully ripened yet, but Windle would have bet his afterlife that it would eventually say something like SALE!!!!