Paul leapt forward, knowing even as he did so he was too late, but Scarth wasn't. The demon jumped up, grabbed Ess by her waist and whirled her round, throwing her to the ground. Ess scrabbled to rise, but Scarth sat on her chest, arms wrapped over his face as she flailed at him.

"Ess, Ess, calm down. It's what he wants," said Paul, kneeling beside her.

She stopped and glared at Paul. Then she nodded and swept the hair out of her eyes.

"Okay, okay, I'm calm," she said, her voice trembling with anger.

"What's going on?" said Oz. "Ess? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Oz. Just dandy." Ess gently pushed Scarth off and rose to her feet.

"Not hurt Ess," said Scarth, quietly. "Scarth good."

"Yeah, good boy, Scarth. You did the right thing. Ice-cream for you later. Maybe two," said Paul.

Furcas shook his head disbelievingly. "You knew that to enter the circle was certain death, and that your soul would be mine, and yet you still stepped forward. And you meant it too, didn't you. Stupid. Incomprehensibly stupid. Even the abomination has more sense than you." He shrugged. "Fine, if it means that much to you, then I will ensure it does not suffer unduly."

"You're not going to put him in lakes of boiling lava?"

"Believe me, girl, I don't even want it in the Pit. It will be kept safe."

"Okay, cabaret over," said Oz, clapping his hands. "Paul, Ess, assume your positions, and this time, bloody stay there. Right, Furcas, now we've sorted out the fine print, what can you contribute to enterprise?"

"You understand, of course, that I can take no active part in Roath's fall. I am only here, after all, because you compelled me by invocation."

"Yes, yes, we're the bad guys in all this. So what good are you?"

Furcas gave Oz a cold stare. "Be careful, wizard. Roath is an idiot, but I am not. Do not bate me."

"I meant no offence, I'm sure. I'm just keen to get this whole sorry mess over and done with."

"Two hundred years I have had to endure this, and you want it over in a minute? As you wish. Roath is arrogant and powerful. That is his weakness. In his arrogance he thinks himself invincible. I could have told the wimp my name, I could have appeared without a summons. Instead, I allowed myself to be called here like a dog. Why do you think that is?"

"Because you're stuck in the past?" ventured Paul, smarting under the 'wimp' comment.

"Because I understand the reasons behind the traditions, boy. By not giving you my name, by forcing you to invoke me, I have become manifest in all my power." Furcas seemed to grow and shine with an inner light. Paul willed his feet to stay still, determined not to back away a second time.

"Inside this circle I am almighty. Inside this circle, which, by the way, could have been larger, I am in full control of all my powers. But for this circle you would be writhing in pain you cannot imagine for all eternity. Made manifest by the proper rites, I am a god."

"It's all the same with you, isn't it," said Ess. "Everything is a contest to see who can piss up the wall the highest."

"If you mean, it is all about power, then, yes, you are correct. But Roath oversteps the mark. He believes himself to above tradition, too powerful to be concerned with it all. That is his mistake."

"So, how does that benefit us?" asked Oz.

"There are precedents," replied Furcas. "There have been demons before that ignored the rules at their peril, and then became trapped. That is what we must do. Bring him here, let him believe he is free and in control, then close the door on the trap. You cannot defeat him, but you can neutralise him. That is all I require. When his absence is noted, a new Lord will step forward, and I will ensure the correct one is chosen. If, after a thousand years or so, he frees himself, it will be for nothing. He will have lost his position, his respect and his power base. All I need is a breathing space where he cannot do anything."

"A thousand years or so?" said Paul.

Furcas shrugged. "Or thereabouts."

"Oh, well a piece of piss, then," said Oz. "Yeah, we'll do that all before dinner, I expect."

"I did not say it would be easy, nor without risk. Fail, and you will be eternally damned to the pit, and Roath will take a very personal interest in your torment, I am sure. Succeed, and your current problem, and mine, will be no more."

"You said there were precedents?" said Paul. "You mean, people have trapped demons before?"

"Of course," said Furcas. "That is why Roath is so dangerous. If we all took his approach the sea would be full of us by now."

"We're going to trap him in the sea?"

Furcas sighed, like a tired father being asked for the twentieth time why the sky is blue. "No, you are not going to trap him in the sea. How could you do that? Make sense. The sea is merely where we are going to throw him once he is trapped. Sitting on the sea bed fifty fathoms from any interfering human is as safe a place to store him as any, and it will take millennia of erosion to break down the glass."

Oz smiled. "Ah, of course. Precedents."

"You've heard about this?" asked Paul.

"Sure, and so have you, Paul. The stories of Schehezerade."

"Sorry, I don't know his books."

"Her, and yes you do. Aladdin, Sinbad, Ali Baba. The Arabian Nights. Oh, come on, surely you must have seen I Dream of Jeannie at least? We're going to trap Roath in a bottle."

Paul frowned. "Okay, I've seen this guy, and it's going to have to be a pretty big bottle."

"You think I'm actually this shape and size?" asked Furcas. "How many demons can dance on the head of a pin? If we wanted, a legion of demons could fly in the space between the atoms. Size is immaterial."

"Ha!" said Ess, then looked self-conscious. "Sorry. Carry on."

"But how can we trap him in a bottle if he can fly through the atoms?"

Furcas shook his head. "Are you all this stupid? It's not the glass that traps him, fool. That is merely the container for the spell. It is magic. It is power. It is the laws of the universe. Not the tiny universe you know, but ours. This is what I bring to this enterprise. The knowledge and power to trap Roath."

"And what do we do?" asked Oz.

"I shall tell you," said Furcas, smiling.