Will paid up, took his purchases and returned to his table.

His other self was staring at Will, rather hard.

“Are you okay?” Will asked.

“I’m—” His other self made stutterings. “I’m beginning to figure this out. It’s you … isn’t it … it’s you.”

“I’m me,” said Will. “And so are you.”

“You’re the Promised One. You returned to stop the past from being changed. Returned from your future.”

“This would seem to be the case,” said Will.

“Then all the horrors I’ve suffered. They’re all your fault!” The feeble fists were waving once again.

“Calm down,” Will told the waver of the feeble fists. “It’s not my fault. How was I to know that some alternative future would be brought into being and that you would exist?”

“You destroyed my life. You destroyed it before I was even born.”

“Your life isn’t destroyed. In fact, it seems that you have enjoyed a life of rare privilege. A great deal better than my life.”

“What? Born to fulfil a destiny that was not of my own choosing? Schooled to a fate that was laid out for me? Never allowed friends in case they were witches dedicated to my destruction? Watched over twenty-four hours a day? Never knowing a moment of privacy?”

“I’ve known hardship,” said Will. “Attacks have been made on my life.”

“You deserve whatever you get. It’s all your fault.”

“You ungrateful sod,” said Will. “You’d be nothing if it wasn’t for me.”

“Chief, don’t go down this route. It’s a hiding to nowhere.”

“And you keep out of it,” said Will.

“Aha!” said his other self. “Again he speaks to his familiar. I know what you are. You are the Evil One. I am Will Starling and you are the Anti-Will!”

“Turn it in,” said Will, “or I will have to give you a smack.”

“No, chief, don’t touch him. Remember David Warner. Keep thinking David Warner. Never touch your other self”

“I’m trying to help you,” said Will. “I’m not the Anti-Will. I am you and you are me. Different futures. Same fellow. We must help each other. We must try and work this thing out.”

“I hate you,” said the other Will.

“That’s ridiculous. And it’s unfair.”

“Do you have any idea of what I’ve been through?”

“No,” said Will. “I haven’t. What have you been through?”

“Hell,” said the other Will. “I’ve been through Hell.”

“I’m sure whatever it was, it wasn’t that bad.”

“Look at me.” The other Will fluttered his wobbly hands about. “Look at the state of me. I’ve been through horrors you wouldn’t believe.”

“Would you like to tell me about them?”

“No,” said the other Will. “I wouldn’t. I’d like a bath. I’d like a good meal and then I’d like to hide somewhere safe. Somewhere safe and comfortable. And I’d like to stay there, all on my own, forever.”

“You wouldn’t rather just help me get the job jobbed and then return to the future in glory.”

“Return to the future in glory? Are you mad?”

“It’s what I’d do,” said Will. “I’m sure they’re getting a reception committee ready for you even now. Parades through the streets, gala dinners, lots of willing groupies. In fact—”

“Won’t work, chief.”

“What won’t?” Will whispered behind his hand.

“What you’re thinking. That you return to his future and take all the praise if he’s not keen. Wouldn’t work. You can’t travel into his future.”

“It was just a thought,” whispered Will.

“Mad,” said the other Will. “Quite mad.”

“Why is it mad?” Will asked.

“Because it’s not what happens. It’s not what is written in The Book Of Rune. The Promised One returns to the past and thwarts the schemes of the evil witches. But he does not return to glory in the future. He dies in the past. Dies in an act of supreme heroism. Gives up his life for the cause of mankind. There’s no going back to the future for either of us. We die here.”

“We what?”

“Die,” said the other Will. “Not much of a future, is it?”

25

“But,” said Tim McGregor. “I mean – Well, die in the past? I mean, you’re here now. You didn’t die in the past, did you? I mean—”

Tim was sitting in the very place that the other Will had been sitting, three centuries before. It was even the same chair. Will had sat him down there on purpose, of course. Same chair. Same table. Same pub. Same part-time barman actually, but we’ll have to get to that at some other time.

“Pretty complicated stuff, eh?” said Will. “Which is why I wanted to go on to drinking halves. I was involved in all this, and I have a problem following the plot.”

“Tell me about the chaps at the police station,” said Tim. “Constable Tenpole Tudor, and Policewoman Higgins and Chief Inspector Sam Maggott. They were from here, right? From now. What were they doing back there?”

“I’ll get to that at some other time.” Will chewed upon Tim’s pork scratchings. “These taste exactly the same,” he said. “But listen, you can imagine my dilemma, can’t you? What was I to do? I was sworn to hunt down Rune’s murderer—”

“I assume that wasn’t your other self. He wasn’t Jack the Ripper.”

“No,” said Will. “He wasn’t. But, you see, I’d now got myself in pretty deep. Obviously I would do things that would change the future. Obviously, because there was my other self sitting right where you’re sitting now. But I wanted to do things of my own free will. Be in charge of my own destiny. Be in control.”

“But hold on,” said Tim. “Surely the future didn’t get changed. I’ve never seen a copy of The Book Of Rune. There’s been no war with Mars, or the British Empire ruling the world. Nothing has changed. But, fair dos, you’re trying your best to explain it all. So what happened next, and what had happened to your other self in the past?”

“Well, what happened next wasn’t too much fun and what had happened to him was no laughing matter at all. You see he’d travelled to the past and—”

“They were waiting for me,” said the other Will. “The witches. They’d read The Book Of Rune too, hadn’t they? They knew exactly when I’d arrive. And where. In a rented room in Miller’s Court. The room rented by Hugo Rune. He was supposed to be waiting for me there, with a bottle of champagne to toast my safe arrival. But he wasn’t there.”

“No,” said Will, “he was out buying the champagne, or at least acquiring champagne. I doubt that he actually paid for it. I met him outside in the street. That’s where I appeared.”

“Yes,” said the other Will. “That would be it. You would be the one who met him and was taught by him.”

“Please go on with your story,” said Will. “There may be a way out of this for both of us.”

“There’s no way out. We’re doomed.”

“Not necessarily so.”

“That’s what I thought. I had a plan you see. When they escorted me to the time machine to send me off to save the world and die in the process, I didn’t struggle, I didn’t try to escape. I behaved with dignity, because I had a plan.”

“Go on,” said Will.

“Escape,” said the other Will. “Escape from them. My watchers and my protectors and the witch assassins who were constantly trying to kill me. I planned to escape from them all. I couldn’t do it there in the future, but I reasoned that I could in the past. I’d let them send me. I couldn’t stop them. But once I was here, I figured that I’d do things my way. I wouldn’t play their games. I’d play my games. I’d just vanish. No heroics and no death for me. I’d get myself a quiet little job, settle down and marry a nice Victorian girl. Have some kids; maybe they would be my own great- great- great- and-whatever-grandparents. But I wouldn’t get involved in any world-savings.”

Will shrugged and smiled a little too. “That’s probably what I would have done,” said he.