As the One drew near to the Dark Spire he became more cautious. He wrapped his presence in subterfuge and mystery, that none might detect him, and at the same time sent his presence and power crawling ahead along the cord into the Dark Spire to prepare the way . . . to prepare his hidey hole. It wouldn't last long, not beyond the return of the Lord of Elcho Falling who could surely sense his presence, but until then the One thought he could remain undetected.

Unless that baby realised his presence.

The One put hand over hand, pulling himself ever closer to the Dark Spire.

Ravenna was aware that somehow the Dark Spire was changing. Each time she went back to it for another egg she could feel something different about the spire, something darker, something more secretive. She felt a growing power within the spire, but a.s.sumed that was because it was gathering itself for the moment it had birthed its last egg and could grow into its full potential.

One afternoon, when she trudged down the stairs to the bas.e.m.e.nt chambers of Elcho Falling to attend the spire, her mind was everywhere but on her task. Despite the fact she found it distasteful -- and she hated the fact she had no choice in the matter -- Ravenna had become so used to her ch.o.r.e of removing the eggs from the spire and placing them about Elcho Falling she now conducted the business in a mild daze, her thoughts elsewhere.

Today she was thinking about the baby that lived higher in the citadel. She had managed a few hours the previous day to creep about Elcho Falling and discover who it was.

StarDrifter and Salome's son. He was a powerful boy, and handsome, but Ravenna envied Salome simply for being able to love her son without the burden of curses. StarDancer, the baby, would grow happy and healthy into his full heritage.

Not so Ravenna's son.

Ravenna had not entered StarDrifter and Salome's chamber. She remained in the corridor, leaning against the wall of the chamber, sensing the presence of the child within. She would have stayed there for hours, save that StarDancer had realised her presence and Ravenna had hurried away, fearing he would say something to his parents.

Apparently he hadn't, for she remained undiscovered.

That brief time spent huddled against the wall whetted Ravenna's curiosity about StarDancer. So powerful, so keen. What must it be like to have a child of so much ability and potential? Could her son be as powerful if he had the chance to grow into his full potential?

StarDancer consumed her mind as she approached the spire. She was concentrating entirely on him and paying her routine business with the spire no mind at all. Ravenna wandered about the spire, her mind alerting her to the moment of arrival at the source of another egg and she leaned down to the spire without thought of what she was doing.

As her two hands came close to the side wall of the spire, two green gla.s.s hands reached out and grabbed her wrists, and before she had time to draw a shocked breath Ravenna found herself in the ground floor of Elcho Falling only to realise an instant later that it was a corrupted version.

Elcho Falling's ground floor columned chamber was full of colour and majesty, but this chamber was grey and black hued and its columns were stunted and askew. There was no sense of magic here, either, only an emptiness and a sense of waiting.

And something else.

Another presence.

At first Ravenna thought it was Eleanon, but she quickly realised that this presence was vastly more powerful. She turned about, staring, her heart thudding in her chest as she saw that in the distance, beyond five or six rows of columns, the chamber disintegrated into black nothingness.

"Infinity."

The word whispered out to her, and Ravenna spun around, trying to locate the person who had spoken.

"Who's there?" she managed, her voice dry with fear.

"Do you not recognise this place?" the voice said.

Ravenna swallowed, still turning, if more slowly, her eyes darting everywhere.

This unknown stranger was so powerful . . . so dangerous.

"Who are you?" she said, glad her voice was a little stronger now.

"An old friend," said the voice, and from behind one of the columns stepped a man made entirely of green gla.s.s. In the centre of his chest revolved a golden pyramid.

Ravenna froze. The One. She had never seen him before, but this could be n.o.body else.

"h.e.l.lo, Ravenna," the One said softly. He came to a halt a few paces away from her, smiling a little as she tensed. "You are being very brave. Tell me, do you not recognise this place?"

"It is the interior of the Dark Spire," Ravenna said, guessing.

"Very good! I knew you were going to be useful. I was, for instance, greatly inquisitive regarding that baby which so consumed your mind as you pattered about the Dark Spire on your business."

Ravenna instantly tried to empty her mind of all thought.

"Too late," the One whispered. Then, in a louder voice: "You are Eleanon's plaything, yes?"

"Yes," Ravenna grated.

"Not any more," the One said.

StarDancer lay in his cot and screamed. He rarely cried, let alone screamed, but right now he wanted his parents as fast as they could possibly reach him. The Icarii woman who had been watching him stood by his cot, not knowing what to do. Her first instinct had been to hold StarDancer, but the boy had only screamed the louder when she'd tried to pick him up.

StarDrifter and Salome rushed into the chamber, convinced their son was being murdered, or was caught in a fatal brainstorm. But the instant they entered the chamber StarDancer quietened, the only sign of his recent distress the trail of tears on his downy cheeks.

"What happened?" StarDrifter said to the Icarii woman, FlightMeadow.

"I don't know!" FlightMeadow said. "StarDancer was sleeping peacefully, then he just began to scream. I tried to pick him up. But ."

By now Salome had her son in her arms and both she and her husband regarded FlightMeadow with cool, accusing eyes.

"I didn't ." FlightMeadow said, drifting to a halt at their regard. d.a.m.n it, why did StarDancer have to do this when she was minding him?

"Perhaps you could leave us alone with our son," StarDrifter said, and FlightMeadow gave a curt nod and left, vowing not to volunteer for babysitting again.

"StarDancer?" StarDrifter said.

I had a dream, StarDancer spoke into his parents' minds.

"Everyone dreams, sweetheart," Salome said, stroking her son's cheek. "They are but dreams, releases of our nervous energy, nothing more. You must not be afraid."

This was more than a dream, StarDancer said.

"Tell us," StarDrifter said, sitting down on the bed, slowly rocking StarDancer to and fro.

I dreamed of the mighty universe, StarDancer said. I dreamed of its vast emptiness.

"The voids between the stars," his father said, "nothing more."

I dreamed of a threatening presence moving through the void as a man would climb a rope.

"Just a dream," Salome said.

It was real.

Salome and StarDrifter shared an indulgent smile.

He was coming here. A frightening man. I dreamed of him before.

"Just a dr--" Salome started to say again.

It was real! StarDancer cried. Not a dream!

"Perhaps you dreamed of WolfStar," StarDrifter said. "WolfStar was an ancient ancestor of ours. He jumped into the Star Gate -- you remember me telling you of this -- and wandered through the s.p.a.ces of the stars for millennia. Eventually he returned, evil creature that he was, and created havoc within our family and Tencendor."

StarDancer was silent as he considered this. Whoever it was, he said eventually, he is here now. Within Elcho Falling.

"Don't worry, my sweetheart," Salome said, taking her son from StarDrifter and rocking him gently in her arms. "We have you safe."

Just a dream, she mouthed over StarDancer's head to StarDrifter, and again they shared an indulgent smile.

Chapter 22.

Isembaard.

Maximilian and his party had been pushing hard for the Isembaardian east coast. They'd travelled all day and well into each night, stopping only for a brief meal from their dwindling supplies and a few hours' sleep before rising before dawn the next day. All of them were close to exhaustion, crabby, hungry and a little anxious about what might await them on the coast. What if no one from Elcho Falling had managed to send a vessel south? What if there was a vessel, but it was under the control of someone antagonistic? Maximilian had heard nothing from the north for a long time and no way of knowing what had played out at Elcho Falling. Were former allies now enemies? And where were the Skraelings? Had some of them come back, hoping for a quick seaside snack?

The disappearance of the rat and the Book of the Soulenai had not worried them overmuch. The book had clearly nothing more for them, as also the rat, and Maximilian and Ishbel decided both had vanished until they were needed again.

But everything else . . . Hairekeep had taught everyone to be careful. The One was finally gone; or so they thought. Maximilian, while optimistic the Twisted Tower was now drifting further and further from their world, was not prepared to depend on that belief totally.

The One had surprised them before.

Maximilian held up his hand, stopping his companions.

They had entered Isembaard's only eastern port earlier. The small town -- little more than a village -- was completely deserted. No people, no dogs, no rats.

The Skraelings had been active here.

They had been walking through the abandoned town, looking down every side street and alley, keeping alert for any danger. Now, as they reached the single pier and the crescent of fine sand that defined the beach, Maximilian stopped them, nodding to the middle of the pier.

There sat a man before a metal circular bowl in which smouldered a small fire. He appeared to be toasting a fish over the coals.

"I'll go ahead," Maximilian murmured.

"We'll come with you," Ishbel and Serge said at the same time, while Doyle nodded his general agreeance with the statement.

"I should --" Maximilian said.

"We'll come with you," Ishbel said, "and don't argue the point, Maxel. We're all too tired for it."

Maximilian thought about sighing, but he was too fatigued even to do that, let alone fight with Ishbel. "We'll need to be careful," he said.

"Do you sense anything wrong?" Serge said.

"Apart from the fact I can't see a b.l.o.o.d.y ship anywhere?" Maximilian said. "No. I sense nothing wrong. Come on, then. Let's get this over and done with."

They walked forward, and as their boots struck the timber decking of the pier, the man half turned and saw them.

He did not appear worried, or even particularly surprised, to see the four people walking up the pier toward him. He carefully balanced the stick holding the fish on the side of the brazier, then rose, wiping his hands down his leather trousers.

He was a tall, lean man, dark haired and with the weather-beaten, stubbled face of an experienced seaman. His eyes were bright brown specks almost completely lost behind wrinkles and wreaths of skin, and his teeth were startlingly white and strong when he smiled as the four neared.

"You're the ride, then," he said.

"The ride?" Maximilian said, feeling stupid in his weariness.

"The pa.s.sengers I was sent to pick up," the man said.

"We were expecting a ship," Ishbel said.

The man looked at her. "And I was expecting a little courtesy, perhaps."

"I apologise," Ishbel said. "My name is Ishbel Persimius, and this is my husband, Maximilian. Our two companions are Doyle and Serge."

The man nodded at each in turn. "I am Abe Wayward," he said. "Who do you think sent me to wait for you?"

For a moment Maximilian could make no sense of the question, then he realised Abe was testing them. Maximilian managed a moment of inner humour, thinking that here he'd been, scrying out everything he could about this man, and yet here Abe was, testing them.

"It would have been either Axis SunSoar," said Maximilian, "or Georgdi, the Outlander general. The message would have originated from Elcho Falling, what you would have known as Serpent's Nest before ."

"Before everything went awry," Abe said, and nodded. "Good enough. Georgdi it was. Sit down and we can have a meal of carawait fish before we go. Tide won't be right for sailing until this evening, anyway."

"You have a boat?" Ishbel said, hoping her question didn't sound as desperate as she felt, or that Abe once more decided she was being impolite.

Abe nodded over the side of the pier. "Right there."

As one the four stepped up to the side of the pier and looked down. Far below, tied to the carbuncled piles of the structure, was a small sailing vessel little bigger than a rowing boat.

None of them knew what to say.

Abe chuckled at the looks on their faces. "The Outlanders are not known for their great fleet, my friends. We have a few fishing boats, but that's it. For everything else seaworthy, we depend on what the Vilanders supply us. They're the sailing nation, not us. Georgdi should have asked the Vilanders to send one of their cargo cobs to fetch you, eh? You could all have had individual cabins with velvet curtains, then."

"It looks an honest boat," Maximilian said, not knowing what to say.

Now Abe's chuckle turned into a hearty laugh. "And to think you're going to have to sit in it all the way north toward Margalit . . . or is it Elcho Falling you want to reach?"