adventures

Several feet above the floor.
With a shout, they fell in an awkward heap.
The Vizier, his turban at an odd angle, crawled from the wreckage, and Bernice struggled free
behind him. 'Well, what do you expect?' he asked her. 'I didn't have time to sort out my vertical
hold.'
'It'll do,' Bernice told him, brushing herself down and making sure that the others were all right
as they clambered to their feet. 'Is there any way that we can find out what that genie's doing
right now?'
'Yes,' said the Vizier, trotting over to a mirror mounted on the wall. 'PNN – the Pantoland News
Network. Watch!' He waved a hand before the mirror, and a picture appeared, the genie advancing
on a tiny hamlet of thatched cottages. Jolly peasants in colourful costumes ran from the
buildings as the genie's eyes blazed, setting fire to the buildings. A caption read: LIVE FROM RABBITS-
VILLE.
'That's inside the Kingdom,' Moody muttered. 'That thing moves fast.'
'The creature seems unstoppable,' a commentator was crying out. 'A royal decree has gone out
to all the points of the Kingdom, seeking a hero, woodchopper, or boy with something puny given
to him by an old woman, who will save us all from this terrible threat. This genie –' the commentator
paused for dramatic effect '– is not here to grant us three wishes.'
Gushy pushed her way to the front of the crowd and stared at the screen. 'What's it doing?' she
whispered.
The genie floated past the village, and had paused on the horizon. It spread its arms wide,
curled its fingers.
And gripped the sky with its fingertips.
The dwarves gawped. The sky was creasing against the pressure of the genie's hands.
Then, with one mighty rip, the genie pulled the sky down.
'The sky is falling!' gasped Cute.
Indeed it was. Bernice watched as lumps of painted backdrop fell everywhere, crushing buildings,
thundering into lakes, sending shockwaves across the countryside. Where the sky had been,
there was now only darkness, illuminated by vast, distant lights that were too bright to look at
directly. Bernice recognized that environment.
'The fourth wall has officially been broken,' she announced. 'I think we can expect visitors.'
'Visitors?' asked Gushy. 'What do you mean?'
From the stairs came the sound of somebody running down into the dungeons. Running with
great haste. It was Prince Charming. He stopped when he saw Bernice and the others, but his
message was too urgent for surprise. 'The audience!' he cried to the Vizier. 'The audience is
revolting!'
Bernice slapped a hand over Candy's mouth and nodded grimly to the Prince. 'We know.'
Thooo was looking into the distance, as if his eyes could see back in time. The academics waited
in silence. The Grel were still gurgling amongst themselves on the other side of the enclosure.
Typical of them, thought Stokes, to focus on the first fact that revealed itself, and so miss the
complete picture.
'Many centuries ago, my people realized that, at some point within the next few hundred years,
our sun would become a supernova. They couldn't, for reasons I've already mentioned, leave. By
spacecraft or by the Green. So they developed another plan making use of the Green indirectly.
They wanted, remember, a way to take the whole population of my world, and all its culture, all
its words and art and lifestyle, away at once. They knew that the Green was infinite, that they
could all stay there. The Green isn't a world in itself – its not a place to live. But it could be a shelter.
So they came up with a big plan. Every member of our race was to meet together, in this big
hall.' He gestured at the distant ceiling above. 'All three billion of them. They marched, and this
took days, with entertainment and refreshment along the way, until, group by group, they were
under this central projector, a giant gateway into the Green. Being the sort of race that liked
parades and music and lining up, and long-lived enough to worry about stuff like supernovae,
they really got into it. Day after day, I watched them pass, week after week, until, after about an
Earth year, only the Greater One was left. The Greater One and me.'