She closed her eyes, allowing the power to rope free, and when she opened them again, she did not see with her eyes, nor did she see the flat of the Skarabost Plains.

She saw through the eyes of the Hawkchilds in the tunnel under the Fortress Ranges, and she saw the group of riders, their faces a mixture of confusion and panic. Dimly, StarLaughter heard the thump of a great paw next to her horse.

Queen of Heaven, Sheol whispered into her mind. Do you see?

Yes.

They are trapped. Sheol's mind voice was filled with irrepressible glee.

Yes!

Watch, Sheol commanded, and follow our lead.

"G.o.ds save us!" one of the men-at-arms screamed, staring at the floor beneath his horse.

Like the floor and walls elsewhere, it was slowly fading.

The man tried to wheel his horse about, but he lost control and the horse panicked. It reared and plunged and then . . . both man and horse vanished. They had fallen through into the darkness beneath.

"Stand fast!" Axis yelled. "And dismount! These horses will be no use."

Everyone did as he commanded, grateful to be off the increasingly panicked horses, yet well aware of the risks of trying to meet whatever danger threatened them on foot.

240 *

Axis felt Azhure by his side, and he looked at her.

She was calm, and in complete control. "We will do the best we can," she said.

"Yes," Axis answered, and looked to his son. "Caelum?"

Caelum was as calm as Azhure, and he managed to give his father a confident nod.

"What I need to know," the captain ground out, "is what we face and how to deal with it! I -"

His voice abruptly cut off, and Axis turned to look at him. He was struggling to find his footing. Beneath him the floor had disappeared.

Strangely, the captain managed to stay upright, and he lifted an ashen face to stare at Axis.

"It's all gone," he said unnecessarily. "There's nothing under my feet!"

Within a moment all six found that the tunnel had entirely disappeared, taking the remaining horses with it.

They were standing in blackness, surrounded by blackness - except for the bright stars where once had been the black cloud.

"Look," Caelum said softly. "The stars ..."

Once stationary, now the stars were flowing towards them, the sense of danger growing so palpable that Axis thought he could reach out a hand and s.n.a.t.c.h at it.

"Stand fast," he said, although he had no idea how - if! - they could meet the danger ... or what the danger even was.

Stars swirled about them and Axis, as Azhure and Caelum, were reminded of their experiences inside the Temple of the Stars. Then the stars had streamed and danced by them within the great cobalt beacon that had speared up from Temple Mount. Here they were locked, trapped within a blackness. Here the stars were malevolent, not benign.

"It is as though we are in a hall," Caelum said softly, turning slowly to look about him. "A hall of stars."

"A hall of stars," Azhure repeated. "Is there any ... can you feel the Star Dance?"

,241 .

"I feel something," Axis said, his senses desperately seeking the Star Dance.

But there was nothing.

Nothing but danger seeping all about them.

Axis' frustration exploded. "d.a.m.n you!" he called into the starry void. "What are you? Where are you?" "Look!" one of the men cried, pointing.

They all turned to follow his hand. From one of the constellations spinning about them a dark, cloaked and hooded figure had emerged. It was hard to say exactly how they could see it, but it was there. They could sense it, taste it.

Fear it.

"And there!" cried the captain.

Again they looked, and again they saw (sensed) another dark hooded figure moving towards them from a galaxy overhead.

"And there," murmured Azhure. "And there."

"How many?" Axis asked after a few minutes. They were surrounded by a circle of cloaked and hooded figures, slowly gliding towards them from among the stars.

"Twenty-seven," Caelum answered. He slowly drew his sword from its scabbard, hearing the sc.r.a.pe of steel about him as the others did the same.

The circle tightened until the figures were no more than five paces away, and standing so close each to the other that pa.s.sage through them would be impossible.

"My name is Axis SunSoar StarMan," Axis called. "Who are you?"

One of the figures took a step forward, and they spun in its direction. A faint light glowed about its head, and they saw the pale shape of hands lift to pull down the hood, revealing the face.

Azhure gasped, and she heard the swift intake of breaths about her.

It was a young birdwoman, fine gold hair curling about her forehead, deep violet eyes filled with sadness.

242.

"She is so beautiful!" Azhure whispered.

"Aye," Axis said. "And deadly."

"You are Axis SunSoar StarMan?" the birdwoman said. Her voice was strange, as if harsh from disuse.

Whispery. All had to strain to hear her.

"Yes," Axis said. "And you?"

She half-turned her face, the starlight catching a tear that ran down her cheek.

"My name is StarGrace SunSoar," she said. "Murdered StarGrace. Betrayed StarGrace."

She turned her face back towards them, and they saw her eyes glittered dangerously. "Lost StarGrace!" she hissed.

"Oh Stars!" Azhure said, and grasped Axis' arm. "StarGrace was the niece of WolfStar, daughter of CloudBurst. She was one of those he -"

"Murdered," StarGrace said. "Who are you, woman?"

Azhure tilted her chin but before she could answer, Axis spoke.

"Who stands with me does not matter, StarGrace. Why do you trap us here? Let us go!" Whatever else, Axis did not want to reveal that among them stood Caelum StarSon.

"You do not know the meaning of trapped!" StarGrace cried, and flung an arm behind her, indicating the starry universe. "Here is where we drifted a thousand wasted lifetimes. Here is where -"

"You betrayed this land of Tencendor to the Demons," Axis said.

StarGrace c.o.c.ked her head to one side, as if curious. "You are a fool, Axis SunSoar StarMan, and most physically deformed. You bear no wings. What has this come to, that a man who dares to bear the t.i.tle of StarMan wears no wings? I can see that the SunSoar house has become ill-bred over the millennia.

Corrupted."

Go, Sheol whispered in StarLaughter's mind. Go, and have your fun. But do not - ,243 *

/ understand, Sheol, and StarLaughter handed her child to the Demon to mind.

"It is more than time, then," said a new voice, "that the true heir return and put things to rights."

Axis snapped his head about so fast that his neck cricked in protest.

From somewhere beyond the circle a woman stepped forth. She wore no cloak, and no disguise, but was garbed instead in a robe that - Axis almost gagged - appeared to be made of blood. It trickled down over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and belly, congealing over her hips at the juncture of her legs, then running in thick, ropy strands down to her ankles.

Axis instinctively knew who she was. "StarLaughter."

She inclined her beautiful head, a lock of her dark hair dragging through the b.l.o.o.d.y shoulders of her robe, and laughed. "Indeed, Axis SunSoar. Now, will you introduce me to the others standing here?"

She stopped just past StarGrace. "Do it!" "No!" Axis said. "There is no need to -"

StarLaughter's face contorted in fury. She jerked her right hand, and the captain and the two remaining men-at-arms disappeared.

"They are pointless," she said, swinging her eyes between Axis, Azhure and Caelum. "And eminently dispensable. Just as your swords are."

And they too vanished, leaving only empty fists where once had been steel.

"Will you not introduce me to your wife and son, Axis?" StarLaughter said.

Axis silently cursed the fact that he had named himself in the first instance. Perhaps if he'd kept a still tongue, this woman would not have known that - "Oh, I have always known!" she hissed, and swung to face Azhure.

*244 *

"b.i.t.c.h!" she screamed, the veins on her forehead and in her neck throbbing into knotted fury. " You are the fruit of my husband's betrayal!"

Azhure reeled back, one hand half-raised before her. "I am not responsible for WolfStar's faults - "

"You are his flesh and blood! You carried his blood into power, not my son."

StarLaughter abruptly stopped, still staring at Azhure, her face contorted in fury, her hands clenched at her sides.

"Where is she?" she growled.

"Who?" Azhure shot Axis a stricken look, and he moved closer to her side.

"The b.i.t.c.h WolfStar lay with. Your mother."

Azhure managed to keep her composure. "She is dead. She died when I was six. Burned to death by - "

"Then why is it that I can feel her?" StarLaughter said, her voice quieter now, but her gaze no less intense.

"Why?"

Her nostrils flared, almost as if she could scent her rival. "She is here," she said. "Somewhere. Niah. Even if I have to hunt her beyond the gates of death, Azhure, be sure that I will do it!"

Now Azhure was visibly shaken, not only at StarLaughter's venom, but at her knowledge of Niah's name.

"How did you - "

StarLaughter shook her head of hair, and smiled. "How did I know Niah's name? How do I know anything?"

She paused, and shifted her eyes to stare directly at Caelum. "Drago told me. Drago told me everything."

The tip of her tongue flicked out between her teeth and ran over her top lip.

"He was extraordinary in bed, Caelum. The SunSoar blood, I suppose."

She smiled and took a step towards Caelum. "I would beg him to take me. I would grovel on the floor before him. Do you know what I mean, Caelum?"

245.

He paled. "Drago is a traitor," he managed.

"As are you!" StarLaughter erupted into a frightful fury. "You claim the Throne of Stars when it should be my son who claims that right!'"

StarLaughter took another step forward until she was so close to Caelum she could thrust her face in his.

"And do you know what, StarSon?"