‘Bitter experience,’ Ryan muttered.

  ‘We must all accompany the Doctor,’ Houdini spoke firmly. ‘The Uptown will be a safer place to wait things out than here. I know the space; whatever comes, we will have the advantage.’

  So Houdini’s drivers took us to the theatre. While the Doctor disappeared into the blue box to magic herself up whatever she needed to find the magician murderer, her friends joined the rest of us backstage. There was still work to do: embellishing the costumes, testing the trick contraptions, making sure they worked as smooth as silk stockings. I watched Billy and the stagehands work under Mr Collins’ direction in the shops: it would only take one failure, one little feature less than perfect, to wreck a perfect illusion.

  Everything’s so fragile, I thought. The gap between the trick and the truth so small.

  ‘Dorothy?’ Ryan came up beside me. ‘Any chance of a guided tour upstairs?’

  ‘Now?’ I almost blushed. ‘Just the two of us, you mean?’

  ‘Yeah, it’s all right. The Doctor just asked us to search for … well, you know, any ways in and out this thing could use.’ He smiled. ‘Julie’s showing Yaz around the trap room, workshops and the fly space, Graham is checking front of house and all round the outside. Thought we could look through the dressing rooms?’

  ‘Sure,’ I told him. I saw Billy look my way as we left, and he didn’t look happy. I felt a flutter inside to see that look on his face.

  ‘I can show you my dressing room,’ I said as we headed upstairs. ‘We all share it, me and Julie and the chorus girls. But Mr and Mrs H, they’ve got the star rooms, they’re locked.’

  ‘That’s what these are for.’ Ryan held up a bunch of keys. ‘These are the masters from security.’

  I stared. ‘How’d you get those? You stole ’em?’

  ‘I’m returning them! Think the Doctor borrowed them next year and never put them back.’ He shrugged. ‘We’ve got to look everywhere, right – to keep everyone safe?’

  And I felt safe with Ryan, I did. I had to help him with the keys, he wasn’t so good trying to turn all the different ones in the locks, but it was a real thrill, you know, checking out the Houdinis’ private dressing rooms when they weren’t there. Kind of like we were doing something wrong to do right. That’s what it felt like.

  Right up until we found this big glowing metal cabinet in two halves, sitting in Mrs H’s wardrobe.

  ‘Oh, my days,’ Ryan said. ‘The Doctor told me to watch for this. Think it’s what that creature uses to travel.’ He grabbed my arm and ran from the room, pulling me after him. ‘Which means the thing must already be here in the theatre – come on!’

  But on the landing we ran straight into two men with handguns. One of them smashed the butt of his pistol into the side of Ryan’s head and he went down. I opened my mouth to scream and the other thug grinned and pointed his revolver in my face.

  ‘Don’t,’ he said.

  Houdini stood alone on the silent stage, staring out over the acre of seats before him. Behind him hung the vast tapestry Bess had spent weeks putting together from copies of all the medals and ribbons and certificates he’d received over the years, touring Europe and America, flying over Australia, dazzling the world. They hung now like mocking memories of youth. He and Bess had been so close, back then, reaching for the top together.

  He forced himself to focus, pictured the sea of rapt faces that would be filling the theatre that evening and tried to remember the thrill he’d once taken from deceiving and delighting those ordinary people, the energy he’d thrived on that made life seem bright. These days everything felt greyer. His wrist throbbed as it so often did now, since breaking it twice in his movie days. His body ached. He’d ascended to the heights of his profession and he’d done so much to stay there. This show, three acts in one, had been running for months already, and already its innovations were being dismantled by the lesser types, the men like Gladstone and Yarinski who took magic and hid it in lock-ups to gloat over instead of bringing fresh wonders to the world. Houdini felt the pressure to push himself more keenly than ever, but was all too aware he’d be turning fifty-two in just a few weeks. And still the bookings, the challenges, the trains and the cars and commitments …

  Houdini could hold his breath longer than any man on Earth, but he still needed space enough to draw it now and again.

  The Doctor’s beautiful friend, Yaz, approached him, her tread soft, her eyes wide and dark. ‘You all right?’

  ‘All right?’ Houdini meditated on this for a time, then smiled. ‘The Doctor has asked you to watch over me … Strength?’

  ‘That’s me,’ Yaz agreed with a smile. ‘And, you know, happy to. I mean, there’s only one Harry Houdini. Your name lives on for ever.’

  ‘The Great Houdini who can cheat fate?’ Houdini smiled and flexed his tender wrist. ‘The Doctor has shown you many things, I am sure. Many wonders, and many escapes. But there is something that no man can escape, and that is why the Doctor lives as he – as she – does.’

  ‘What’s that, then – old age? Death and taxes?’

  ‘It is this world, my dear.’ Houdini shook his head. ‘The world we strive to create for ourselves, with its privileges, its luxuries and accolades. That is the velvet prison we fashion, and once we swing the door shut on ourselves we cannot leave it.’

  ‘There’s one way to escape it, the same way Gladstone did. And believe me, I’ve seen enough of that travelling with the Doctor too.’ Yaz’s face had hardened. ‘You think she does what she does to escape your idea of prison? No way. She sees what’s wrong and she can’t turn away from it. She has to get involved, has to help. That’s her prison.’

  Houdini nodded thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps you’re right. I never met a less selfish soul. I wish I had learned from her example.’

  ‘There’s still time,’ said Yaz simply. ‘Choose a better way out. You can do that. You’re Houdini.’ She smiled. ‘Speaking of which … I know it’s not the best time, but d’you think I could see some of your act?’

  ‘Ha! As you wish it.’ Houdini gave a small bow. ‘Bess!’ he called back to behind the curtain. ‘Is Billy with you, perhaps? I wish to demonstrate to Yaz here our “Reincarnation”.’

  A few seconds later, Bess pushed through the curtain and, of course, Billy certainly was with her. The way she mothered him and how he in turn indulged her foolish fancies – it made Houdini’s flesh creep.

  ‘Reincarnation?’ Bess flashed Yaz an awkward smile. ‘We don’t need to rehearse this again, Harry, do we? Considering what’s happened …’

  Houdini returned the coolness of her gaze. ‘Whatever … distractions we face now, I need to know that all will be perfect when I perform. Besides, how can we disappoint our eager audience?’ He gestured to Yaz. ‘The Doctor is not yet back with her machine to receive the signals of this … creature?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Well.’ Houdini took a deep breath, let his measured stage voice boom across the auditorium. ‘The Doctor is not alone in her ability to switch forms with another – this I did learn from her … and him, and him, and him …’ He turned to Billy and tapped the ring on his index finger. ‘Go.’

  Billy glanced at Bess. ‘You only have to ask, Mr H.’

  ‘Collins!’ Bess hollered backstage. ‘We’re doing Reincarnation …’

  ‘This is awesome.’ Yaz scrambled down from the stage beside the orchestra pit and sat in the front row, grinning. ‘You’re sure it’s OK for me to watch?’

  Houdini bowed again and crossed to a dark, lacquered cabinet placed centre-stage. Billy walked away through the seating to the back of the theatre. No hesitation, Houdini noted, very good: the lad would make his way to the one reserved box in the theatre, which would be held empty tonight as usual in readiness …

  ‘Now! In the act of Reincarnation, my dear Yaz, I shall project myself across the theatre.’ He looked to Bess, who was pulling the sabres from the back of the cabinet as she watched Billy exit the auditorium.

  ‘Ordinarily, I would be handcuffed many times by members of the audience and placed in chains before entering the Cabinet of Endings.’

  Bess flashed the first sabre around with lethal skill as Houdini stepped back into the box. ‘Dorothy does this on the night,’ she explained, as she pressed the door of the cabinet closed. ‘No one wants to see the old frump in the spotlight.’

  ‘Come on, Bess, you look amazing,’ Yaz called.

  In the paint-stinking darkness of the cabinet, Houdini braced his arms against the sides and raised his legs as Bess outside slammed the first sabre into the cabinet at calf height. Then he quickly ducked into a crouch as the next blade sliced through at what would’ve been stomach height, and delivered a theatrical, bloodcurdling scream. He opened the catch on the trapdoor, which swung down into the space beneath the stage, the noise hidden by the swish of the third sabre biting at chest height. Houdini dropped down quickly into the gloomy, five-watt under-stage. Moments later, as the fourth blade bit at neck height, he swung the door back up into place, and the thump gave the illusion of a severed head striking the floor.

  The silence felt wrong; usually it was filled with the startled whisperings of the audience. ‘Houdini is dead,’ he muttered. ‘Now, let Houdini take his place.’

  Just then he felt cold metal press up to the back of his neck. He turned and saw two glints in the shadows: a grin and a gun.

  He recognised the man at once: Wiseman King’s loyal manservant, a tame thug named Dawson.

  Dawson gripped Houdini’s hand, peering at his index finger. ‘Good. You got the ring.’

  Houdini pulled away sharply, pretended to overbalance and fell to the floor.

  ‘No tricks,’ Dawson hissed. ‘C’mon. Mr King wants to see you.’

  Yaz was leaning forward in her chair as the illusion surely neared its climax. Bess had delivered the final sabre and now looked pantomime dismayed. She stared out at the imaginary audience as if about to ask for help – then gasped and pointed to the back of the auditorium.

  Yaz whirled round to find a familiar figure launching itself from the VIP box balcony, catching at a trapeze that dropped down from the shadows of the vaulted roof. She clapped with delight. Somehow, here was Houdini! Grasping the trapeze, swinging forward, letting go and somersaulting … as another trapeze dropped down just in time for him to catch it.

  Then Bess screamed. When Yaz swung back round to the stage she’d vanished, the curtain billowing behind her exit. Part of the act …?

  Yaz heard a second shriek, this one above her. An inhuman, ululating sound. The flying Houdini overhead was blurring in mid air, changing shape even as she watched – becoming a monster, twisted and yellow, with muscular legs, a head like a bull and thick misshapen wings. Yaz stared in horror as the creature landed heavily on the stage. One wing struck the cabinet, knocking it apart and triggering the trapdoor beneath. The creature swung its horned head from side to side, flapping the charred gristle of its wings as it stomped towards the curtain and pulled it down with a sweep of its monstrous claws.

  Though she was terrified, Yaz knew that Houdini had to be down beneath the trapdoor. She climbed quietly up onto the stage – but the creature swung round and spied her. Swearing under her breath, Yaz slithered down into the gloom, pulled her phone from her pocket and swiped up for the torch. At her feet was Houdini’s gold ring. She picked it up and as she did, she saw letters written in the dust on the floorboards: WK – PP.

  ‘Whoa! Hello!’ The Doctor’s voice sounded from above.

  Yaz pushed her head back up through the trapdoor and saw the Doctor had come on stage, the enormous creature bearing down over her. She was clutching an improbable gadget that looked like corks and cutlery jammed into a carriage clock with an old retro Simon Says instead of a dial. ‘Nice to know my tech works – I found you!’

  ‘Doctor,’ Yaz called, ‘that thing’s a shapeshifter, he looked like Houdini just now. But the real Houdini’s not here, only his ring, and—’

  ‘Yaz, Doctor!’ Graham had burst into the auditorium and was rushing to join them. ‘Get away from that thing!’

  But the terrifying creature was changing again, shrinking into a smaller, bipedal figure with tousled dark hair and blue eyes. ‘I guess this looks better to you?’

  ‘Billy!’ Graham looked dismayed. ‘Aww, Billy, I thought you were a good kid. Don’t tell me you’re an evil monster!’

  ‘There are many kinds of monster,’ Billy retorted. He shimmered, becoming a taller, glistening white creature festooned with snapping ovoid jaws and claws. ‘Monsters who would steal and kidnap. Monsters who would enslave and exploit.’

  ‘And escaping slaves who would kill?’ The Doctor looked sadly up at the monster before her. ‘Yaz, Graham. This is what killed Gladstone last night – and the other magicians.’

  ‘They all used me. Or the technology that kept me here.’ The albino creature dwindled in size, becoming Billy once again. ‘They prospered from my slavery.’

  ‘But you’re free now,’ the Doctor said. ‘You had your travel pod – once I’d burnt out the restraint circuit, you could’ve left this planet and all its unkindness. Why didn’t you?’ Her gadget gave an electronic chime and she looked across to where Graham was helping Yaz out from the trapdoor. ‘What’s that you’ve got?’

  ‘Just Houdini’s ring,’ Yaz said. ‘He dropped it for us to find, beside some initials in the dust.’

  ‘It is not a ring. It is the command circuit.’ Billy advanced slowly on Yaz, his hand outstretched. ‘It limits my actions, forces me to obey—’

  ‘Then stay back!’ Yaz said, holding out the ring. Billy gasped with pain. ‘Oh, God, sorry!’ Yaz felt sick, lowered her hands. ‘Please, stay back, Billy. I won’t use this. I don’t want to control you.’

  ‘The slavers did. Barnum did. Wiseman King did. Houdini did. But the ring is old, as I am. It is finally losing power.’ Billy grimaced, but resumed his advance. ‘Enough for me to defy its control …’

  ‘Uh-uh. Sorry.’ Suddenly the Doctor was standing right in front of him, shielding Yaz and Graham, blocking Billy’s way. ‘So the battery’s running low, is it? Control growing erratic, so you can resist enough to sneak away and kill? Take revenge on those who wronged you, is that it?’

  ‘To secure my future I must deal with my past,’ Billy told her.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ said Yaz. ‘Did you say Wiseman King controlled you?’

  ‘King purchased me and my pod from the carnival man, Barnum, along with other salvage from the slaver ship that brought me here.’

  ‘Down there in the dust, it says “WK – PP”.’

  ‘Wiseman King,’ the Doctor breathed. ‘Also known as Prince of the Preternatural!’

  ‘A prince and a king?’ Yaz turned up her nose. ‘There’s some ego, right there.’

  ‘You reckon it’s King who grabbed Houdini?’ Graham said to Billy.

  Billy nodded. ‘I changed form to attack because Bess was taken by one of his men. King has links to the mob – no shortage of hirelings.’

  ‘Why would he take the risk of grabbing Houdini and Bess from here?’ Yaz said.

  Graham shrugged. ‘I guess with everything in the papers about the Magician Murders …’

  ‘He’ll know he’s a target,’ the Doctor concluded.

  ‘King was the final magician on my list,’ Billy hissed. ‘He paid in his prime for me: a shapeshifter, his to command. Made me do … so many things.’

  ‘Until he had to sell off his best assets to buy his way out of trouble. And now I imagine he wants his command ring back as security against what’s coming.’ The Doctor took the slim gold band from Yaz. ‘He doesn’t know its power’s on the wane. I could fix it, of course, get it working again. Stop you the hard way.’ She handed it to Billy. ‘But I won’t. We can figure this out together, I know it. And I know Houdini’s been using you, and I’m sorry. But he’s an old friend and I have to help him now – and help him to see why he should be sorry.’

  Billy looked at the ring and nodded. ‘King has taken Bess. I won’t allow harm to come to her. It was her who chipped away at this ring every time it was off Houdini’s finger. Trying to disrupt the circuits …’

  ‘She was helping you?’ Graham said.

  Billy smiled sadly. ‘We helped each other.’

  The Doctor had started pacing the stage. ‘Well, if Wiseman King has any more of your technology, Billy, my little gadget here ought to … Yes! There’s a trace. Northwest Side …’

  ‘King owns property in Old Edgebrook District,’ Billy said.

  ‘So what are we waiting for?’ said Yaz. ‘Let’s find Ryan and get going!’

  Graham nodded. ‘Where is he, anyway? He left with Dorothy …’

  We were all in the same car – me, Ryan, Houdini and Mrs H – all with the windows blacked out, cutting across town. I never felt so scared. The car slowed, went through a big set of iron gates and along a winding path into the middle of a wood. Waiting for us there was a fine fancy mansion.

  Mrs H looked at her husband. ‘You don’t have the ring.’

  ‘No,’ Houdini murmured. ‘When I recognised Dawson, I took it off and switched it for my signet ring, left it for the Doctor to find. If the ring is safe then, when we see King, we’ll have something to bargain with.’

  ‘Bargain with that degenerate?’ Mrs H shuddered. ‘You can’t. He’s only brought the three of us to use as leverage against you.’

  I gulped. ‘You mean he’ll hurt us?’

  ‘Naw,’ Ryan said, with a hard look at Mrs H. He had a bloody cut on his temple but he hadn’t complained about it once. ‘They thought we were hiding that travel pod thing they loaded onto their truck. Bet you they brought us along cos they think we know how it works.’

  ‘Maybe,’ I conceded. ‘But I don’t see how it came to be in your dressing room, Mrs H.’

  ‘My wife is unnaturally close to the creature,’ Houdini said coldly. ‘With all the shapes and faces it can assume, she makes it a mirror to her past.’