“Sorry, Mother,” said Puck. “But I did owe you that, for making me the way I am. And what better glamour to deceive you than the father I never knew? You should have died when he did and saved us all so much suffering.”
He looked up and smiled into our shocked faces.
“It’s what she would have wanted. She could never give up. She didn’t know how. So I have put her out of her misery, and ours. Now she’s gone, all the elves must bow down to King Oberon and Queen Titania, by right of succession. The elves are one people again, with no need of civil war. I must thank you, John Taylor, for making this possible. No-one else could have brought us all together.”
“This isn’t the ending I wanted,” I said.
The Puck shrugged again. “You never did understand elven humour.” He looked at Oberon and Titania. “Well, Your Majesties, have I done right in your eyes?”
“Of course,” said Oberon. “A most elegant solution. We shall now oversee the passing of our people, from Shadows Fall and the Sundered Lands, to the new Earth that has been promised. But Titania and I ... will not be going with them. To be a new people, they must leave the past behind. And Titania and I ... have too much past in us. We are the old way, and the old way must be forgotten. So we shall remain in Shadows Fall, where all things of the past belong.”
“Some others will no doubt wish to remain with us,” said Titania. “The future is not for everyone. But the race will continue, elsewhere, and that is all that matters.”
“I will stay with you,” said Puck. “Because there’s still far too much mischief to get into in our world to ever give it up.”
“Dear sweet mischievous Puck,” said Queen Titania. But she was looking at Queen Mab’s dead body when she said it.
Sometime later, Suzie and I and Arthur and Kae stood watching through the Door, looking out over the empty Earth, as the Fae came through an endless series of dimensional gateways to claim their new home. Thousands of them, on foot and on horseback, or on other magical creatures, some of which I couldn’t even put a name to. The elves came proudly, singing and laughing, and for the first time I thought I saw in them something of what Arthur had always seen. They had their pride back, and their grandeur. They had been Humanity’s enemies for so long, we had forgotten their magic and their glory. And perhaps they had, too. Seeing them now, it almost made me sad that I’d never see them again. Almost.
The crossing took a long time, but when it was finally over, Oberon appeared out of nowhere to join us at the Door. He waited patiently for us to recover our self-possession, then he ceremoniously closed the Door, spun the brass combination lock, and said a simple but very binding spell over it. No-one would ever be able to access that particular alternate Earth again. He said nothing, merely bowed briefly to King Arthur, and vanished before Arthur could bow in return. Back to Shadows Fall, leaving history behind, to become legend.
The Doormouse crept up to join us, his whiskers twitching anxiously. “Well, this has all been very interesting, and perhaps even moving, but now that it is all quite definitely over; do you think you could all please get the hell out of my life? You’re all too weird, even for me.”
Outside in the street, Arthur looked round him, suddenly seeming a bit lost. “What do I do now, Mr. Taylor? It would seem I have done what I was brought back to do, though I can’t help feeling you did more than me.”
“Couldn’t have done it without you,” I said, and I meant it.
“Do I have to go back to sleep now? I’ve seen so little of this brave new world that has such wonders in it. I dreamed centuries of history, but I was never a part of it.”
“You must come back to Castle Inconnu, with me,” said Kae. “Let me show you what I’ve built, tell you all the amazing things the London Knights have done, all the marvellous victories we won, in your name and in defence of your dream.”
“All these years, and still so desperate for my approval?” said Arthur. He put both hands on Kae’s shoulders and shook him slightly. “You’ve always had my approval, brother. I have always been so very proud of you.”
“But you can’t stay, Arthur, and you know it,” said a familiar voice. “This isn’t your time—in oh-so-many ways—and it isn’t the Final Battle. That is yet to come.”
We all looked round, and there was Gayle, or Gaea, Mother Earth herself, standing in a powder-blue business suit, looking very elegant and very efficient. King Arthur bowed to her.
“Greetings to you, my Lady of the Lake. I should have known you’d turn up. Must I go back to my grave again?”
“No,” said Gaea. “The word is out, and already far too many people know about it. I suspect a certain bartender of planning guided tours. Come with me, Arthur, and I will find you a new resting place, with a little more dignity, where you can sleep peacefully until you are needed. And no, Kae, this time you don’t get to know where.”
“But ... we’ve been together such a short time,” Kae said to Arthur. “After so many years ... Will I ever see my brother again, Lady?”
“Who knows?” said Gaea. “Merlin did make you immortal, after all. He must have had his reasons.”
“Of course we’ll meet again,” said Arthur. “You really think I’d fight the Final Battle for all Humanity, without my trusted brother at my side?”
The two men embraced fiercely, then one walked off with the Lady of the Lake, and the other walked off to rejoin his London Knights. And Suzie and I were left standing there in the street.
“Let’s go home, John,” said Suzie. “It’s been a very long day.”
“Yes,” I said. “Let’s do that.”
We walked off down the street, Suzie’s arm through mine. After a while, she looked at me seriously.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, John.”
“Oh yes?”
“I’m pregnant.”
I stopped dead and looked at Suzie, who looked calmly back at me.
“You’re ... what?”
“I’m pregnant,” said Suzie. “I’m going to have a baby.”
“How did that happen?”
“Well, if you don’t know by now ...”
“A baby,” I said. “We’re going to have a baby ...”
“How do you feel about that?” said Suzie.
I smiled at her. “I couldn’t be happier.”
We started walking again, her arm tucked companionably through mine, her leather-clad shoulder pressed against my white trench coat.
“We’ve come a long way,” I said, after a while. “We’re neither of us the people we used to be.”
“Just as well,” said Suzie. “They were both very ... limited people.”
“Been through a lot of changes,” I said, carefully not looking at her. “And most of them, together. I don’t think we could have come half so far, without each other’s support.”
“We do make a good team,” said Suzie.
“Yes,” I said. “First as colleagues, then as partners. But now ... baby makes three. We can do a lot as partners, but I don’t think raising a child is one of them. Would you like to marry me, Suzie?”
She looked straight ahead, her face as cold and unreadable as ever. “You always were the romantic one.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know. I love you, John. As much as anyone like me can love anyone. But I don’t want you marrying me out of a sense of obligation.”
“You know me better than that.”
She looked at me briefly. “Yes. I suppose I do.”
“I love you, Suzie Shooter. Much against my better judgement. Because I need you.”
“And I need you, John Taylor. If only to watch my back while I’m reloading.”
“So you’ll marry me?”
“Yes,” said Suzie, in her usual cool, collected voice. “As long as it is fully understood; I will not be wearing white.”
We walked along some more.
“Can you imagine what our kid is going to be like?” I said. “He’ll be running this place before he’s twenty.”
“Damn right,” said Suzie Shooter.
You are cordially invited to the wedding of