of his voice, he was nowhere to be seen.

'For your information,' the magician went on, 'the Key opens the Pyramids at Xuxux.'

'Really?' Candy said, hoping to keep the chat going while she tried to locate Wolfswinkel. 'The Pyramids, huh? Very interesting.' She leaned close to Malingo. 'Let's stand back to back,' she said. 'That way he can't creep up on us.'

Malingo did as she suggested and carefully stepped into place, his back against Candy's.

'Believe me,' Wolfswinkel went on boastfully, 'I will be massively rewarded for what I did this Hour. I will have power on a scale that would be unimaginable to the likes of you—'

'Where is he ?' Candy whispered to Malingo. 'He's close. I know he's close. Why can't we see him?'

'It's driving you crazy , isn't it?' Wolfswinkel said. 'You're wondering if your pitiful senses are finally giving out? Perhaps you're going crazy. Have you thought about that? What is it the poet says? The mind cannot bear too much reality. You poor thing. It's the madhouse for you.'

Malingo seized hold of Candy's hand. 'You are not going crazy,' he said.

'Then why does he sound so close to us?'

Malingo was trembling violently. 'Because he is close,' he said. 'He's very close.'

'But I don't see him,' Candy said, still inspecting the landscape around them.

'Those hats of his give him a lot of powers,' Malingo whispered. 'He's just made himself invisible.'

'So so he could be anywhere?' Candy said.

'I'm afraid so.'

Armed with this new information Candy studied the landscape around them for some sign, however subtle, of their enemy's presence. A bush shaking as Wolfswinkel brushed past it; a pebble cracking beneath his invisible heel. But in the flickering, deceptive light from the fire-poles, it was difficult to be sure of anything. Was that Wolfswinkel moving through the grass off to her left, or just a trick of the light? Was that his breath, close to her ear, or simply the wind?

'I hate this,' she whispered.

She'd no sooner spoken than there was a loud slapping sound, and Malingo stumbled forward, crying out. He instantly let go of Candy's hand and swung around, raising his fists like an old-fashioned boxer.

'He's right here !' Malingo warned. 'He's right here ! He just hit the back of my—'

He didn't finish. There was another smack, and then a third, this one so violent that it threw Malingo to the ground. He put his hands over his head to protect himself from any further assault.

'Run, Candy!' he yelled. 'Get out of here before he starts on you.'

At this point Candy felt Kaspar's arms catching hold of her, and she was lifted up into the air. It was a supernatural strength Wolfswinkel was displaying: the source of it, of course, those ridiculous hats of his. Candy flailed around, hoping by chance to knock them off his head again, but he had her held in such a position that she was powerless to do so. 'You're coming back to the house with me,' he said. 'Right now .'

Candy continued to struggle, but the man's strength was simply overwhelming. She started to yell for help, hoping there might be somebody out there on the murky slopes that could save them.

'It's a lost cause, I'm afraid,' Wolfswinkel said, his invisible mouth inches from Candy's ear. His breath stank of rum.

Before Candy could reply, there was a lot of motion in the grass around them, and out of the darkened landscape came a number of tarrie-cats. It was not a small assembly. One minute the place was deserted; the next the beasts seemed to be all around them, their ears pricked, their eyes incandescent, watching Candy intently as she struggled in the arms of her invisible captor. As they approached, she remembered the horrendous crimes Wolfswinkel had claimed the cats had been responsible for. Had any of what he'd told her been true ? Had the tarrie-cats come here now to commit some new atrocity? To leap on poor Malingo while he lay on the ground and scratch out his eyes? Or to climb up her body and smother her?

As if their situation wasn't bad enough, it had now become incalculably worse.

Or so she thought.

But as the tarrie-cats advanced upon them, she felt Kaspar's hold on her weaken a little, and a few muttered words escaped his lips.

'You stay away from me…' he warned them.

The tarrie-cats ignored him. They simply continued their approach, their scrutiny frighteningly intense.

'Don't look at me that way,' Wolfswinkel said to them.

Look at me ? Candy thought. What did he mean by look at me? He was invisible, surely. How could they possibly be seeing him? Suddenly it was clear to Candy.

'They can see you,' she said to Kaspar.

The magician made no reply. But he didn't need to. His body was answering for him. He'd begun to shake, and his grip on Candy had weakened so much that she was able to slip free of him. She went immediately to tend to Malingo, who was still curled up on the ground.

'It's all right,' she reassured him. 'The tarrie-cats are here.'

'That's good ?' he said, turning over to look at her. There was blood and fear on his face.

'Oh, yes, it's good,' she said.

'How so?'

'Because the tarries can see him, Malingo.'

'They can?'

They both looked up.

The animals' eyes were all focused on the same spot, just a few feet from Candy and Malingo. And from that exact place came Wolfswinkel's voice.

'You keep your distance, you spit rags!' he wailed at the tarries. 'Stay away, I'm warning you, or I'll set fire to your tails. I mean it. You don't know the things I can do to the likes of you!'

A few of the tarries exchanged anxious glances at Wolfswinkel's outburst, but none of them were intimidated enough to retreat.

'He's bluffing,' Candy said to them. 'Do you understand me? He's afraid of you.'

'You be quiet , bug-rot!' Wolfswinkel yelled, his voice shrill now. 'I'll deal with you later.'

Malingo, meanwhile, had got to his feet. The blood was running down the side of his face from the wound on his brow, but he seemed indifferent to his own hurt. There was a strange new confidence about him.

'You know all you ever do is threaten people,' he said, striding toward the place where the many stares of the tarrie-cats converged; in other words, the spot where the wizard stood. Wolfswinkel said nothing more—presumably hoping to keep his ex-slave's hands from touching him. Then he beat a rapid retreat. Candy and Malingo could hear the dirt his heels kicked up, and they could see the collective gaze of the tarries moving up the slope, following the magician as he fled for the sanctuary of his house.

Malingo wasn't about to let him get there. He chased Wolfswinkel up the slope, glancing back at the animals now and again to confirm that he was indeed running in the right direction.

He was twenty yards shy of the front door when he pounced.

There was a loud, profoundly outraged yell from the murk.

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