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Orion audio read by Sian Phillips.

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The magic of all children has been released. Throughout the skies of Earth they swoop, crossing continents, changing shape, diving to the ocean depths and playing the deadly new spell-games.

Rachel bides her time, watching the skies for what she knows will happen - the invasion of the Witches. But when it comes it is not in the way anyone expects, and there is also a new enemy - the huge, terrifying Gridda-breed. To confront them will require all of Rachel's and her brother Eric's skill and courage, as they embark on a journey that takes them to Ool, home of the Witches ?a world where mountains move and breathe, the sun never pierces the clouds and the snows are alive.

"The writing is atmospheric and the plot gripping, as the children battle against awesome forces." - Good Book Guide.

"A fast-paced, gripping read." - Times Educational Supplement.

"Cliff McNish writes with energy and sparkling imagination in this most compelling conclusion to an extraordinary trilogy." - Nought to Twelve.

"After the first two novels in the series, we have a finale that grips like a vice, and is full of the pace and all the imaginative and descriptive flair we have come to expect from this remarkable author." - Amazon.

"The characters are believable; it is beautifully written, with page after page of powerful imagery; it is utterly compulsive and inventive reading for young teens." - Birmingham Post.

Read an extract from The Wizard's Promise

As Rachel awoke, her information spells automatically swept the house for threats. They probed into each room, an extra set of senses watching out for her.

Nothing out of the ordinary, they reported. Mum lay in her usual morning bath. Dad was in the study, trying to touch his toes. The information spells delved further out. In the garden, two froglets were wondering whether to make a break for it across the dangerous lawn. Next door's dog hid behind a shed, thinking no one else knew about his juicy bone.

Rachel smiled, peering out of her bedroom window. A flock of geese passed by, and, just for a moment, as she gazed up at those birds, and listened to the familiar sounds of home and garden, it was as if nothing had changed in the world.

Then a group of under-fives cut across the sky.

The youngsters flew in tight formation, led by a boy. Rachel guessed he might be three years old, probably less. The group travelled with arms pinned neatly to their sides, little heads thrust proudly ahead. Their eyes all shone some tint of blue, the distinctive colour of flying spells.

The slower geese scattered nervously when the children crossed their path.

Rachel yawned. Getting up, she brushed out her long dark hair and strolled downstairs to the kitchen. Her younger brother, Eric, sat at the dining table. A bowl of cornflakes crackled satisfyingly in front of him.

"You know, if I had magic,?he said, tucking in, "I wouldn't bother with flying or the other stuff. I'd just use a spell to keep the taste of cornflakes in my mouth forever.

"You'd soon get sick of it,?Rachel answered.

"No,?Eric said earnestly. "I wouldn't.?He waved his spoon at the departing toddlers. "Those little kids are probably long-distance racers. Must be, practising like that. They're so serious. At their age I was still happy just chucking things at you.

"Mm.?Rachel glanced round, expecting to see the prapsies. The prapsies were a mischievous pair of creatures ?feathered body of a crow, topped with a baby's face ?that had once served a Witch on another world. Usually Eric put them up to some prank when Rachel first came down in the morning.

"Where are the boys then?" she asked warily.

"I let them out early for a change," Eric said. "Told them to find me a gift, something interesting."

"Did you send them far?"

"China."

"Good."

Rachel stared up at the rooftops of the town. It was a typical morning, with children all over the sky. A few were up high and alone, practising dead-stops in the tricky April winds. Most children had simply gathered in their usual groups in the clouds, friends laughing and joking together. A few houses down Rachel saw a boy cooing. As he did so a pair of doves, tempted from some thicket, rose to his hand. Further away a girl drifted casually across the sky, plucking cats from gardens. The cats trailed in a long line behind her, complaining mightily.

"Hey look!" Eric cried. "Lightning-finders!"

Six teenagers were heading purposefully south, their arms raised like spikes.

"It's a brand new game started up by the thrill-seekers,?Eric said. "You search for heavy weather, find the storms and dodge the lightning forks. Most competitions are held in the Tropics, where the really big storms are. I bet that's where those kids are off to." He gazed wistfully after the teenagers, who had already disappeared over the horizon.

"What happens if they get hit by the lightning"

"Bad things, I suppose,"Eric said. "It's risky, but that's the whole point. Wouldn't be exciting otherwise, would it?"

Rachel shrugged. The new magical games didn't interest her much. She was more interested in those children stationed in the air, watching the skies for Witches.

Background to The Wizard's Promise

The Wizard's Promise is the third and last book in the Doomspell trilogy, and concerns the final confrontation with the Witches. I started off with two clear ambitions in this book: that Eric would be at the centre of the unravelling of it, and that no one would be able to predict the way the resolution to the story would unfold. I wanted, too, to get more complex psychologically with the Witches; I wanted to give them a little more depth - without losing any of their bite.

I set to work. I thought that after writing The Scent of Magic I was now a veteran writer who would make no major mistakes in plotting or characterisation. Wrong. The first draft was so bleak that my wife nearly ran screaming from the house. Orion felt similarly. I had to do a major revision, but I was running out of time. There was no deadline for The Doomspell because nobody knew about it. I had a head start for The Scent of Magic because the publication date for The Doomspell was put back. I'd always worked full-time as a project manager in computing while writing these books, and had to snatch whatever spare time I could. During the writing of The Wizard's Promise time just caught up with me. I was tremendously busy at work, the final book was turning out to be much longer than the first two, and on top of it all I had this big revision to do.

In the end I worked my guts off to get the final manuscript to Orion 2 months later than they were comfortable with, and they pulled out all the stops to make the scheduled publication date of September 2002.

I remember finishing The Wizard's Promise. I felt happy - even if briefly. I always have a sense of flatness and disillusionment after completing a book - I'm not sure why - but this time I briefly felt OK first. It took me ages to get the ending I was after, but - whether it's any good or not - I did finally get just what I wanted.