Raz claps me on the back. “After you.”

I face the window of yellow light. Think about the demons that might be waiting on the other side. Take a breath. Hold it. Step through.

A desert world. It’s night, but lots of stars are glittering, so I can see clearly in all directions. Beranabus is magically searching for Cadaver, standing very still, eyes closed. After a few minutes he shakes his head. “He’s been through here but didn’t stop.” Rolling his shoulders, he spits on his hands, scuffs the sand with his feet, then starts on another spell, to open a new window and follow the demon to whatever world it fled to next.

The patches of light round us are glowing steadily when Beranabus begins. Soon after he starts searching for Cadaver, several pulse and move towards a spot in front of him. As he chants, more pulse and others drift in from afar to be added to the patchwork panel. Beranabus is piecing them together with spells. But if he could see them like I could, and move them directly by hand…

I think about offering my help, but I’m afraid he’ll laugh at me, so I keep my idea to myself. After a while I realise it’s been ages since I ate or drank, yet I don’t feel hungry or thirsty. I mention this to Raz, who’s lying on the sand close by, idly gouging out shapes with a finger.

“I noticed that too,” he says. “And although I have been here a day or two, I don’t feel sleepy. Our bodies must work differently in this universe. It is a place of magic and you can do many incredible things with magic.” He waves a hand over the sand and a sandcastle slowly thrusts upwards, turrets, a moat, tiny sandy guards on the ramparts.

“Cool!” I gasp. “Do you think I could…?”

“Try,” he says. “I didn’t know I could do that until just now.”

Excited, I sit and think about a castle even bigger and grander than Raz’s. I wave a hand over the sand, summoning my masterpiece.

Nothing happens.

Disappointed, I decide I’m being too ambitious, so I picture a smaller castle, with fewer turrets and troops. Again, nothing happens. I keep lowering my expectations, demanding less and less, until finally I ask for the simplest sandcastle possible. The sand ripples, then spits up a meagre glob.

Raz laughs. “Don’t worry. Gifts vary. Magic shows itself uniquely in each person. I can create sandcastles. Perhaps you can change shape or make rain.”

“Really?”

“It’s possible.”

I close my eyes and think about what sort of an animal I’d like to turn into.

Later. No luck with the shape-changing or making rain. If I have a magical gift, it must be very unique!

Beranabus is hard at work on the window, which seems to be nearing completion. I’m lying next to Nadia, Sharmila and Raz close by. Nadia’s been telling us about her life with Beranabus, the ways of demons, how to fight them.

“Where are they all?” I ask during a lull. “This is the second world I’ve been to, and apart from the trees, I haven’t seen any demons.”

“In a hurry to spot some?” Sharmila chuckles.

“No. I was just wondering. Where do they live?”

“They could be anywhere,” Nadia says. “Beneath the sand. All around us and invisible. On the other side of the world. There might be thousands here or only one. It varies. Some demons create a world just for themselves. Others—”

“Demons can create worlds?” Raz interrupts.

“The stronger ones can. Most just rampage through existing realms, but demon masters have the power to make new worlds and even self-contained universes.”

“Do they make the stars as well?” I ask.

Nadia smiles grimly. “Those aren’t stars.”

We stare at her then up at the sky. It’s peppered with glowing dots. They’re not like the stars in our universe—they’re bigger, brighter, closer, and many move across the heavens like meteors. But they can’t be anything other than…

“They’re demons,” Nadia says.

“They can’t be!” Sharmila protests.

“Nevertheless, they are.”

“But…” Sharmila gazes up at the sky, horrified. “To be able to see them from here… they must be enormous!”

“Yes.”

“Are they demon masters?” Raz asks.

“A few, perhaps, but most are just incredibly large demons who sail the skies, looking for others to torture and destroy. They don’t usually bother with the likes of us—we’re too tiny—but occasionally one might decide to squash us like ants.” She chuckles humourlessly. “When that happens, you get out as quick as you can. There’s nothing else you can do against a star-sized demon.”

I gawp at Nadia, then at the sky, filled with monstrous shapes. Suddenly, this place feels a lot more dangerous than it did a few minutes ago.

The next world is a giant, needle-shaped chunk of rock. The top is flat and lumpy, sixty or seventy feet in diameter. A hot wind howls round it, biting at us, threatening to rip us loose and cast us over the edge.

Beranabus curses and crouches. We copy him. “I’ve been here before,” he says, speaking as quietly as he can, yet loud enough to be heard over the howling wind. “It wasn’t somewhere I ever wanted to return to.”

The anxiety in his tone affects us all, even Nadia, who starts murmuring the words of a spell—I think it’s meant to protect us, or at least her.

“I’ll keep the window to the other world open as long as possible,” Beranabus says. “That way, if we come under attack, we can…” He stops. The yellow window of light has blinked out of existence. Beranabus growls and a look of disgust crosses his face.

“What’s happening, master?” Raz asks nervously.

“We’ve been ensnared,” Beranabus says, rolling up the sleeves of his jacket and shirt. “Cadaver’s led us into a trap.”

“Is he here?” Sharmila asks, looking round uneasily.

“No. He’s not welcome in this place. But he must have tipped off the Kallin. They were waiting for us. They destroyed the window.”

“Who are the Kallin?” Raz yells.

“Crawl to the edge,” Beranabus says, turning away from us and sitting cross-legged. “Have a look. Nadia,” he adds, “marshal them. Help them fight. Buy me time. I don’t think I’ll be able to open a new window fast enough, but let’s not die cheaply.”

He starts muttering spells, lips moving at a tremendous speed. Around him, patches of light pulse and blink, then move together, a bit faster than before, but not greatly so.

We look at each other then crawl towards the edge of the needle. The wind increases as we get closer. We lie flat on our stomachs, inching forward. I feel sick. I don’t want to look over the edge. But I must.

I don’t suffer from vertigo, which is good because it’s a long drop. And I mean L-O-N-G! I can’t see the base of the needle. It seems to be suspended in mid-air, and for all I know, it is. We’re in a universe of demonic magic. Who says giant needles of rock need to be rooted to the ground?

But the stomach-churning drop isn’t the worst thing. Slithering up the face of the rock are… things. Hundreds and thousands of small, long, black, hairy, spider-like creatures. Except they can’t be spiders because they have no legs. They move more like worms. Slithering towards us, an army of them. The Kallin.

One of the monsters leans back and raises its face to us. I see dozens of tiny eyes and a wide mouth. As I watch, the mouth stretches like a snake’s, the thing opening its jaws far wider than its body. There are fangs inside the mouth. More than I can count.

Something taps my shoulder. I scream, whipping round. But it’s only Nadia. She grabs me before I roll off the top of the needle, drags me away from the edge to where Sharmila and Raz are waiting.

“We’re in trouble,” she says simply. “There are thousands, so we can’t fight them. Our best hope is to block them. That means a barrier of energy, to keep them back.”

“Will that work?” Raz asks.

“We’ll soon find out. Now, we have a few minutes, so let’s see what we have to work with. I want each of you to create a personal barrier. Imagine yourself at the centre of a bubble of energy. Let your magic flow into it. Once I have an idea of your power, I can coordinate a spell and unite our magic forces.”