Passage #2

The Battle of the Sun by Jeanette Winterson Pages 351-353

   "The Magus rode alongside Jack and reined in his horse.

    'Jack, my Jack, this is all folly. I have defeated you before and I shall defeat you now. Why do you try and fight me? Yet I will offer you a chance. Bow your head to me, kneel before me, and you shall have a share in my treasure and in my power. You shall not be my rival, you shall be like a prince to me. You are too young, you cannot use this untruly power that is in you. Offer it me, and you shall know what power is. I shall soon rule England, and from England, I shall soon rule the world.'

    'You will never rule me,' said Jack. 'I would die first.'

    The Magus regarded him. 'Die, Jack, would you? The you shall!'

    And the Magus galloped forward, his clack flying out behind him, and from the streams of his cloak came every kind of evil - came goblins and devils, red-eyed demons and hook -faced birds, came creatures without heads, came heads without bodies, came silent furies and whistling deaths, came claws, beaks, talons, came the tearing, ripping, shearing racket of dark power.

    As Jack ducked and swung his sword, Mother Midnight in the poop-house pulled her own cloak around her and flew straight out of the window, calling like a bird of prey, but the birds of prey who came at her call were light and clear and aimed themselves fearlessly at the flapping hells that covered the sky.

    As soon as the window was open, the brave little dog Max, seeing his beloved Jack in the thick of the fray, jumped out and landed on fast feet and ran at hounds of hell six times his size.

    When Mistress Split saw this, she thought only to save her Boojie, and springing off her one leg, she abseiled down the sunflower, and pulled out her huge sword from beneath her skirts and set to work at every monster that came near her or threatened the dog.

    'Slash Mash Crash Bash!' she shouted. 'Come here to be beheaded.' BANG! went a goblin's head. CRASH! went an imp in a cart. MASH! went a pair of evil eight-legged things with beady eyes and nasty fur. SLASH! went her sword, and down went an homunculus with a red face.

    'Bless my wig!' cried the Keeper of the Tides. 'Am I to be here helpless while my friends perish?'

    And he pushed his ceremonial cannon into the window and began firing cannonballs into the squawking air.

    'Take that, and that, and that!' he cried, as a hideous harpy thudded at his feet.

    At the house on the Strand Roger Rover took command of the Queen's troops and they poured out on to the river, and never were men braver, their swords flashing, their double-headed axes slashing the sky.

    The Queen was on her feet, her lion heart alive with battle. Fearlessly she stood in the fully open window and shouted out, 'The Queen of England is with you!'

    And it was time for Silver to do her part.

    She ran downstairs and into the armory and fastened on herself a breastplate and helmet and took a small light sword. The she went to find Jack."(351-353)