'It's all right, James,' Merlin said wryly, helping James get his feet under him. 'Just stay back from it.' Then, to the skeleton, he said, 'You cannot see us because you have no eyes, Farrigan.'
'Merlinus!' the skeleton cried. 'Where are you, you devil's son? How dare you trap me?'
'How dare you breach my boundary and attempt to steal my cache, my old friend?'
'Friend, pah!' the skeleton spat. Its jawbone squeaked as it spoke. 'You were quit of the world. Dead! What good was it to you?'
'You hoped I was dead, but you knew otherwise. My cache was bequeathed to no one but me, either way. Austramaddux made you well aware of that.'
'Austramaddux is a mongrel cur,' the skeleton of Farrigan growled. 'I'll put his head on my wall for this trickery. And what mean you that I have no eyes? It is merely dark. Light your staff if you are Merlinus, curse you.'
Merlin looked at James, his eyes hard. 'He will be released from his bond to this world when we leave. It was part of the curse of anyone who dared breach this place that they should remain until my return. Now that that time is come, the curse will end. Can you bear to wait with him? He is quite harmless as long as you keep your distance.'
James looked at the skeleton. It lolled against the wall, working to pull its leg bones together and make them work. It muttered squeakily to itself. James swallowed.
'Yeah, I guess. How long will you be?'
'Mere minutes,' Merlin replied, then he raised his voice. 'Miss Weasley, can you hear me?'
Rose's voice came through the invisible entrance clearly. 'I'm right here. I'm looking right at you through the door. What's going on in there?'
'Nothing consequential. Can you direct the Occido Beam now? The waning sunlight should be finding its way through a large crack to the left of the cave mouth.'
James heard Rose's footsteps as she walked away. A moment later, a narrow beam of sunlight speared the dusty air of the cavern, penetrating the one-way stone of the doorway.
'Very good, Miss Weasley,' Merlin said. 'Up just a bit, please.'
The beam of sunlight pierced the depths of the cave. It bobbed and roamed as Merlin directed Rose, carefully aligning the beam. Finally, it lit upon a shiny burnished symbol embedded in a far distant wall. It flared brightly and suddenly, amazingly, a long golden cord dropped out of the beam of sunlight.
'Thank you, Miss Weasley,' Merlin called, reaching to collect the end of the cord. 'You have done exceptionally well. Whatever you or Mr. Deedle do from this point on, under no circumstances should you enter the cavern, regardless of what you hear.'
James felt a chill as Merlin turned to him.
'Your duty is very simple, Mr. Potter, but absolutely essential. You must hold the end of this cord.'
James took the cord in his hands as Merlin handed it to him. It was thin, finely woven from bright golden threads. 'All I have to do is hold it?'
Merlin nodded, maintaining eye contact with James. 'But be sure, James Potter, as long as you hold this cord, you hold my life in your hands. You cannot let go for any reason until I return. Do you understand?'
James frowned, puzzled. He nodded. Without another word, Merlin turned and walked into the dimmer recesses of the cave, holding his staff ahead of him. The cave was apparently rather deeper than James had initially believed. As the wizard strode slowly away, his staff illuminated a much larger cavern connected to the one James stood in. The floor was very dark, nearly black. Strangely, Merlin was walking on the golden cord, placing each foot carefully on its length. The cord stretched into the depths of the cavern, disappearing into darkness. With a start, James saw that the floor of the larger cavern was not simply dark, as he had initially thought. It wasn't there at all. Merlin was walking on the cord alone, suspended over an apparently bottomless abyss.
There was a dry chuffing sound and James glanced over at the skeleton. It appeared to be laughing.
'Off to get his treasures, is he?' it said. 'Left you in the lurch, methinks. Favor me with your name, oh demon.'
'I'm not a demon,' James said. 'My name is James.'
'Ah, a great name, that is. Tell me, Master James, if you are not a servant demon, why do you hold the son of the devil's cord?'
James shook his head. He knew he shouldn't talk to the pathetic Farrigan. It chuffed laughter again, wearily, and dropped its sword. The rusted blade broke off the hilt and the skeleton drew a great sigh, crackling its ribs.
'I have divined my state now,' Farrigan said. 'Austramaddux was right about the trap. I have been here an age, have not I? I am long dead, bound to this earth only by the curse of that abomination. And for what? I came not to thieve, but to destroy. Can you understand that, oh James, who holds the cord of the very man? I came to end it once and for all. But I have failed, and now it is begun. It is a good thing I am dead after all, and shall not see of it, yes?' The skeleton chuckled.
James' curiosity got the better of him. 'What is it? What is begun?'
'Say not that you be such a fool as to be blind to Merlinus' skullduggery,' the skeleton replied, turning its head toward the sound of James' voice. 'You, who even now assist him in his aims. Tell me not that you have not heard of the Curse, my young friend.'
'I don't know what you're talking about,' James answered. 'Merlin's not who you think he is. I don't know what he was like in your time, but he's different now. He's good.'
The skeleton threw itself forward, cackling and beating its bony thighs with its hands. Finger joints broke away and pattered amongst the animal bones. 'If you believe that, then perhaps your world deserves what is to be dealt it.'
'What is it?' James asked, feeling simultaneously fearful and annoyed.
The skeleton of Farrigan stopped cackling. It twisted its head toward James again, its blank eyes penetrating. 'How can you not know that the Gate is rent open? Merlinus has torn the curtain. His return to the world of men is a rift, connecting the realms. Things have come through, and are even now loose among men.'
'The Borleys,' James said to himself, considering.
The skeleton nodded. 'But that is not all. It is coming. The Gatekeeper. The Sentinel of Worlds! Merlinus is its Ambassador. Fool! Even now, you hold the cord in your hands! Release it! Perhaps the Gate may still be shut! Release the cord and rid the world of the Curse, for it is nearly complete! Believe not the lies! Release it and send him to his deserved doom!'
'No,' James said, gripping the cord tightly, as if his fingers might betray him. He looked out along the length of the cord, but he could no longer see Merlinus. He could feel no weight on the cord. He knew he shouldn't pay any attention to the deranged skeleton. Obviously, Farrigan was an ancient enemy of Merlinus. Probably, he had broken into the cavern to steal the cache, as Merlin alleged, and become trapped by the one-way stone. The skeleton was lying. There was no Curse. And yet…
What if the skeleton was telling the truth? James had been responsible for bringing Merlin back into the world, duped by the horrible Madame Delacroix and her accomplices. He, James, had been consulted about whether or not Merlin should become the new Headmaster of Hogwarts. If there was any truth to what the skeleton said, it would be entirely on James' head. Perhaps it was destiny, then, that had placed the cord in his hands, the cord that could cut Merlin off again, undoing all that James had unwittingly done. Perhaps now was his only chance to set things right again.
'I sense your struggle, boy,' the skeleton said quietly. 'You know what your purpose is, do you not? Do it. How hard can it be? It is no effort at all. Simply let go. Your friends await you outside, ready to release you from this place. They need not know what became of the wizard. Tell them he simply fell and is no more. Only you will know what you have saved your world from. Do it now. Do it while you still can.'
