“Nabi!” her sister declared with overwhelming relief. “Nabi!”
Taking her eyes off the refugees, she stepped back through the doorway and looked along the corridor. Maggie and the others watched a furrow form across Eun-mi’s forehead. Something was wrong.
“Itsy bitsy…” the voice continued.
Eun-mi saw the six-year-old walking slowly from the prohibited area. Before her, she carried a silver wand as though it was a standard. Her face was lit by the pale golden light radiating from its amber star. When she passed the door to Lee’s room, she halted. Her large eyes were glinting but glassy – and so were those of the creature that sat upon her head.
Eun-mi caught her breath. It was a large, spider-like shape, its fang-filled mouth resting on Nabi’s brow.
“Itsy bitsy…” the little girl intoned.
At first Eun-mi thought it was alive, and she nearly sprang forward to tear it away. But then she saw its spindly legs dangling limply around Nabi’s shoulders and knew it was dead. That made it worse somehow. Nabi had placed it there willingly. It was macabre and repulsive. Before Eun-mi could think of what to say, other figures emerged from the darkness at the end of the corridor.
It was Doctor Choe, her two technicians, the guards, and the female who had been stationed on the terrace. Behind them came something else.
Eun-mi’s lips parted and she cried out in horror and disbelief.
“Nabi!” she called urgently. “Come here, hurry! Get away from that!”
Within the refectory, the Westerners had no idea what she was seeing. They had never known her react to anything like this before. It alarmed and unnerved them more than staring at the barrel of her gun.
“What is it?” Gerald asked. “What’s out there?”
She did not hear him and a new sound prevented him asking again. It was the clip-clopping of hooves on concrete. Eun-mi swung the pistol round and aimed it down the corridor.
“Nabi!” she cried again. “Move away! Come to me.”
“Chung Eun-mi,” a female voice called to her. “Put away your gun. There is naught to be afraid of.”
The refugees recognised it immediately.
“Doctor Choe,” Maggie whispered.
“Yes,” Gerald breathed. “But listen. She doesn’t have an accent any more. Her English is perfect.”
Eun-mi stared at the doctor incredulously.
“What is that?” she demanded, shaking her head in confusion at the shape that walked beside her. “What is it?”
“A wondrous beast from the true Realm,” the doctor answered. “It has come to guide you, to guide us all there. This is but a dream and we have tarried here too long. Nabi has seen the blessed truth, now you shall also.”
The doctor began reading the familiar opening paragraph of Dancing Jax.
“Oh, God,” Maggie uttered. “DJ’s here. It’s got her.”
“Don’t let her read to you!” Gerald shouted to the girl in the doorway. “Stop her!”
“Put book down!” Eun-mi ordered fiercely. “Down or I fire!”
The doctor ignored her and the guards and technicians joined in, their voices filling the corridor. Little Nabi added to the intoning chorus.
Maggie and the others looked at Eun-mi anxiously. How long could she hold out against the power of Austerly Fellows’ infernal words?
“Do not make me do this!” Eun-mi warned.
The chanting and the menacing advance of the hooves continued. Eun-mi closed one eye and fired the gun. The shot thundered throughout the corridor, followed by a weird, unearthly bellow that made every heart thump faster.
Unable to sit still any longer, Gerald leaped up and ran to the door. He had to see what was happening out there. Maggie tried to call him back, but the old man joined Eun-mi and gasped at what he saw. Another bestial cry trumpeted and the other refugees scrambled to the furthest corner of the refectory and hid beneath the tables. With her heart in her mouth, Maggie edged to the doorway.
Gerald was reaching down for one of the rifles. Eun-mi didn’t stop him. Peering past them, Maggie had to fight to stop herself screaming.
“The Ismus said Malinda’s wand wouldn’t work in this world,” she cried fretfully. “‘Just a pretty stick,’ he said.”
“Austerly Fellows and the truth don’t mix,” Gerald told her, grimly flicking up the safety catch as he took aim.
At that moment there came a roar of engines, and four military jeeps sped in from the main tunnel. Their headlights flooded the corridor with harsh light and General Chung Kang-dae jumped out, pistol at the ready. Yet the orders to his men died in his throat when he beheld the scene before him and he struggled to take it in.
There was Eun-mi, pointing a gun at her own people. The white-haired Englishman was next to her, an automatic rifle in his hands. Beyond them, in the line of fire, were his beloved six-year-old daughter, Doctor Choe Soo-jin and five base personnel. Had Eun-mi gone mad?
He was about to scream at her when another bellowing screech resounded and he finally realised what the strange shape next to the doctor actually was. At first he’d thought it was merely the peculiar skull on the stick, but now he realised it was more than that, much more.
Caught in the dazzle of the headlights, every shiny bone was gleaming. Vertebrae had replaced the stick.
“Kirin,” he whispered.
Behind him, the General’s men uttered cries of dismay when they too saw the unicorn’s complete skeleton pawing at the ground with dainty, bony hooves. The dark, empty sockets of the grinning skull angled round to gaze at them and the teeth champed together, causing the tuft of reddish beard still attached to the jaw to flick and swish.
Then it bellowed again.
Gerald opened fire.
The rifle sprayed light and noise. Eun-mi rushed to drag her sister to safety against the wall, swiping the dead Doggy-Long-Legs off her head with the back of her hand and wrapping her arms round her.
The horned skeleton reared, paddling the air with slender forelegs. The bullets bounced off the white bones like dried peas. Then it stamped and kicked and gave an unearthly scream as it charged. Gerald leaped aside, but he wasn’t quick enough. The unnatural creature crashed into him. The old man was flung into the air, as easily as one of Maggie’s stuffed toys, and hit his head on the concrete when he fell. The unicorn galloped over him, stampeding towards the General’s stupefied troops.
With its macabre head lowered, it rampaged into their midst. Screams and shots erupted as the unicorn slaughtered every soldier in its path. The single, tapering horn went slashing through the uniform of the People’s Army, impaling hearts and ripping out lungs.
The bravest tried to surround it. They wrenched at the exposed ribcage, shoving their rifles inside, using them as levers to try and snap it apart. But the ferocious skeleton was too strong for them. Its limbs lashed out and it spun round wildly. Moments later, those men were on the floor, their heads torn from their shoulders. Hooves kicked out and headlights smashed. The corridor collapsed back into gloom and Doctor Choe Soo-jin continued reading aloud.
The surviving soldiers drew away from the unicorn, retreating between the jeeps. It went stalking after them. Then, one by one, they dropped their weapons and began rocking backwards and forwards, their lips mumbling in time with the doctor’s. The skeleton tossed its blood-dripping head and tapped the ground as if applauding.
Standing in the centre of all this, General Chung stared around, aghast. He saw the dismembered bodies of his men and