pocketssss…' Brigid said, teasing him. Crowther blanched. 'What are you talking about?' 'In your pocketssss.' Another cackle. 'The secret one, in the lining of your coat.' Crowther shook his head uncomfortably. 'The mask. We need the mask,' Caitlin/Brigid hissed. 'Go away.' Crowther looked spooked now. Matt pulled the professor to his feet. 'What are you hiding?' 'Get away from me!' Crowther brandished his staff, his fear plain to see. 'We needssss it,' Caitlin/Brigid keened. Crowther held his threatening pose for a moment and then sagged. From the voluminous depths of his overcoat, he pulled an object that glinted like sunlight. It was indeed a mask, but fashioned of the purest silver. The male face shaped on the front was perfect — the wide, empty eyes just the right distance apart, the nose straight and small, the lips full, the cheekbones beautiful — so much so that they all found it attractive. Yet its effect was even greater than that: the simple appearance was so powerful that it moved them to tears, sucking swelling emotions from places that had never been touched before.
'What is that?' Mahalia whispered in awe.
Jack made a strange sound in the depth of his throat. 'The Immaterius. The Mask of Maponus.'
'You know it?' Crowther said, surprised.
'I've heard whispers… in the Court of the Final Word.' Jack couldn't take his eyes off it. 'They say you can look into the very depths of Existence with it, understand the reasons behind everything, but it was tied into the mind of one of the gods… And when he went mad, something happened to the mask, too.'
'If you look through it in the right way you can see God,' Crowther said dully. 'And if you look in the wrong way you see hell — you go mad, like Maponus.'
'That was how you found me,' Caitlin said. 'You looked through that and saw me, and you came.'
Crowther nodded. His hands were shaking as he held the mask. 'You don't understand…' He attempted to put the mask away, but appeared unable. 'Every time I use it, it takes a part of me, a little sliver of my soul. It's killing me a bit at a time. That's the price I pay for getting its knowledge.'
'Do you think I care?' Caitlin said coldly. 'This is about more than you, or me, or any of us. It's about saving the human race — all those poor people dying for something that has nothing to do with them — and if sacrifices are needed, that's what we have to do.'
'I didn't sign up for that,' Crowther replied dully.
'No, you thought you were getting an easy ride to an easy life. Tough. You made the wrong choice. You were better off where you were.'
Crowther stared at her unwaveringly for a moment, seeing her with new eyes. 'I don't know whether you're quite hateful, or simply deluded,' he said eventually. 'Well, you can't make me.'
Caitlin's icy smile made him uneasy. 'Don't tempt me.' The sun was setting in a flame of deepest red when Crowther finally felt ready to use the mask. Odd, discomfiting shadows crept from the base of the sprawling forest and strange hungry bird-sounds echoed from its depths. The incarnadine glow gave a hellish tint to the mask's sheen as Crowther searched for a location for his ritual. He eventually settled on a spot near a sprawling rowan bush, its flowers emanating a sickly-sweet perfume.
While Caitlin and Matt helped Crowther to settle, the younger ones sat several yards away, watching the scene. 'You know all about this,' Mahalia said to Jack. 'Who's Maponus?'
'He's one of the Golden Ones,' Jack replied. 'They called him The Good Son and he had a special place amongst the gods. Really powerful, you know, but they all loved him, too. And then he became trapped on your… our… world and that drove him mad. Now the Golden Ones keep him locked up somewhere in the Court of the Final Word, trying to cure him. Even they don't dare let him loose. He could destroy everything — and probably would, given half the chance.'
'And this mask is really powerful?' Her eyes glimmered.
'Very powerful.' He gave her a sideways glance. 'Too powerful for you or I. Best not to get involved in things like that.' As Crowther sat cross-legged, Matt wandered off to the place fifty feet away from where he and Caitlin had decided to monitor the proceedings. Caitlin was about to follow him when Crowther spoke.
'Making sure you don't get too close, I see,' Crowther said savagely. 'The risks appear to be all on my shoulders.'
'You chose it,' Caitlin said. 'Do you know what you're doing?'
'No. I know what I'm trying to do, but these things never go smoothly. Especially with this.' He looked at the mask with naked hatred.
'Brigid tells me you can't get rid of it,' Caitlin said.
'It's like a damn drug,' Crowther replied. 'I wish I'd never picked it up.'
'How did you come across it?'
He shifted uncomfortably. 'I stole it… from the college in Glastonbury. That'll teach me, won't it? It came from some treasure trove of magical items the miserable old fool in charge of the college had been guarding for God knows how long. I don't think they really knew the value of it.'
'But you did.'
'I had an inkling. These artefacts of power often insinuate their way into plain sight, waiting for the right person to come along.' He laughed bitterly. 'Or the wrong person.'
'You're talking as if they're alive,' Caitlin said.
'You don't know how right you are.' Crowther weighed the mask in his hands before saying, 'I should have known there was no running away. After everything I've done in my life, I wouldn't be allowed to get off so easily. You'd better go back to your friend. And whatever happens, don't come near me until I've removed the mask.'
Caitlin returned to the sheltered spot with Matt, all thoughts of Crowther now obliterated by the screaming monkey noises emanating from the back of her head; her other selves were scared — apart from the one who resided at the very back, in the shadows. Emboldened, she was continuing her slow creep into the light. They watched and waited for almost half an hour until the sun was a blood-red incision on the horizon and the cacophony of bird-sounds in the forest had died away, leaving an eerie silence. Only then did Crowther lift the silver mask to his face.
He paused when it was just an inch away, as if overcome with second thoughts, and then the strangest struggle began; from the others' viewpoint the mask appeared to be fighting Crowther, or perhaps it was his subconscious fighting himself. But then, when the silver was just half an inch from his skin, bolts unfurled from the side of the mask where previously they had been invisible, rose out and rammed themselves into the sides of Crowther's head.
He screamed. There was a whirring noise as the bolts screwed themselves into bone and then the mask levered itself into position and clamped on tight. Crowther went rigid.
'Do you feel that?' Matt whispered.
Caitlin did; the air was heavy and infused with a steely sheen like the atmospherics before an electrical storm. Everything was so still and quiet it was as though all sound had been sucked out of the vicinity.
'Something bad's going to happen,' Caitlin/Amy whimpered.
Entranced by Crowther's display, Mahalia wasn't aware that Carlton had wandered away until she saw him just feet from the professor. She attempted to run to him, but Jack grabbed her wrist and dragged her back.
'Don't,' he hissed. 'It's too dangerous.'
'I don't care!' She wrenched her hand free. 'Carlton!' But by then it was too late. Carlton was by Crowther's side, reaching out, his fingers skimming the surface of the mask.
There was a sound like the swash and backwash of water or the beat of a heart in an echo chamber, rising slowly from somewhere near the horizon, but rushing closer, until it was all around them. Sh-ssh, sh-ssh, sh- ssh.
Light leaked from the ground, as if the illusion of reality was breaking apart to reveal what lay behind it. A few seconds later there was no forest or countryside, no sky, just a strange wan light with no up or down.
The six of them were suspended in nothing, Crowther still sitting cross-legged. Vertigo brought them to the point of sickness, until they suddenly adjusted as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
'What the hell's going on?' Matt said. 'This wasn't supposed to involve us.'
And then Carlton spoke, except his lips didn't move, his face bright with a broad smile. 'There's time enough for rest later. We have a job to do now.'
He pointed, and as they turned to see what he was indicating, the whole of Otherworld was suddenly spread out before them.
'Oh, God,' Mahalia gulped. 'We're standing in the air!'
