She spoke the t.i.tle as a curse.

"He will come to get you. He will kill you." She smiled. "And nothing you can do will stop that now. Look at you, you pitiful lump of mortal flesh. You dare to name yourself heir and ruler of Tencendor. Ha! You were bred beyond the bonds of marriage. The legitimate heir, my son, will come to kill your'

The entire circle of robed watchers broke into agitated whispering.

"He will revel in your pain and blood," StarLaughter continued, triumph and laughter replacing the fury in her voice.

"See." The circle of Hawkchilds broke into howls of laughter, and they parted so that there was an unrestricted view of the part of the universe to which StarLaughter pointed. "See!"

Axis grabbed at Azhure and Caelum, pulling them into a tight group. Stars! What could they do! Even though he had no power himself, Axis could feel the power that vibrated from StarLaughter, as from each and every one of the robed children about them.

It must have taken unimaginable strength and skill to create this hall of stars. Had StarLaughter and the children done that, or had it been the TimeKeepers?

Of what use were swords against such enchantments as this?

"Look!" Azhure whispered, but both Caelum and Axis were staring anyway. Caelum shuddered, then wrenched himself out of his father's grasp. "No!"

"246-.

"Caelum -: " Axis began.

"No!"

"Yes!" StarLaughter whispered. "Here comes DragonStar to drink your blood, fool boy!"

Wheeling out of a galaxy of swirling stars came a figure as black as the others that had circled the three.

Save this one rode a horse, and brandished something in his hand that caught and reflected the starlight.

Caelum screamed, a thin wail of utter terror, and turned to flee.

But the circle of children - now hawks - crowded in about him, wrapping him in their wings, pecking at his face, his eyes.

Axis jumped to help, grabbing at legs and claws and wings, trying to free his son.

Azhure would have tried to help as well, except at the very moment that Axis leaped, Azhure felt cruel hands grab her arms and hold her back.

"No," StarLaughter whispered in her ear. "Why not let them both die together? They will only stand in the way of the true heir, DragonStar."

Azhure struggled, baring her teeth in a desperate attempt to bite her way free, but StarLaughter countered every move Azhure made with power and mirth. "d.a.m.n you!" Azhure cried.

"Nay," StarLaughter said. "You are the one who is d.a.m.ned. Can you not feel it?"

Caelum was completely enveloped in feathered wings and bodies. Struggling to battle his way in, Axis still managed to wonder in one corner of his mind how the children had transformed themselves. They were as dangerous and powerful as StarLaughter and the Demons. He managed to get a good grasp of one wing, and used his entire strength to tear it back.

Something screamed, and a body fell away from the writhing black pile that contained Caelum.

*247.

Axis grabbed at another wing, but this time a horrific head rose up and pecked violently at his face so that he was forced to stumble back, his arms covering his bleeding forehead and cheeks.

"Axis!" he heard Azhure scream. "Look!"

Axis raised his head, wiping blood out of his left eye - and felt his heart falter, and then thud violently.

Thundering towards them was a ma.s.sive black horse. Atop him was a man clad in enveloping black armour, and wielding a sword in his right hand such as Axis had never seen before.

The rider swept it through the air in great hissing arcs.

Caelum.

The word blasted through his head, and Axis saw Azhure clutch at her own skull and cry out.

Caelum!

The horse and rider drew nearer, and Axis, even though he could see no floor where he stood, could nevertheless feel the vibrations of the beast's approach.

The rider now stood in his stirrups, slowly waving the sword above his head, and Axis heard a scream of triumph tear through his mind.

He screamed himself, battling the gut instinct to fling himself out of the way, and instead leaped for Caelum, still struggling with the bird-children.

As Axis leaped, they all rose in the air, leaving Caelum writhing on the floor, covered in a thin layer of blood from a myriad of scratches.

At first Axis thought it was because of his own precipitous leap, but at the moment he gathered his son into his arms, he felt the horse's hooves slam down next to his head.

Instinctively he rolled closer to Caelum, gathering him into his arms - Caelum . . .

"No," Axis gasped. "Don't listen to him! Don't look at -"

Look at my face, Caelum.

,248 *

And Caelum had to. He had to. He had to see the face of the being that was about to kill him.

He twisted about in Axis' arms, and looked up.

The rider slowly lifted the visor of his helmet.

"Drago!" Caelum screamed, and then the rider's sword arm was flashing down, and Caelum felt the tip of the sword slice into his chest, slice deep into his chest, and he choked on the blood and pieces of sliced tissue that filled his lungs.

The rider leaned down from the horse, leaned down his entire weight, and twisted the blade. "No!" Axis screamed, reaching around Caelum to grasp the blade in his bare hands. "No/"

"Yes," whispered StarLaughter.

Yes! whispered the voice of the rider through their minds, and he twisted the blade again, and now Axis screamed, but still he held on to the blade, even though he could feel it slicing his fingers away, trying, trying, trying to wrench it out of his son's chest.

"A foretaste of the hunt," StarLaughter said conversationally, and then she, the children, and the black rider disappeared.

The instant she felt the restraining arms vanish, Azhure fell down on top of her husband and son. The blade was still embedded in Caelum's chest, and Axis still had his hands wrapped about it.

Stricken, Azhure looked into Caelum's face. "Drago!" he said, through a mouthful of clotting blood, and died.

Azhure blinked, and her son lay dead before her.

She blinked again, and her husband writhed screaming as he clutched his ruined hands to his chest.

She blinked once more, and she found herself kneeling on the hard black surface of the tunnel, staring at her husband and Caelum lying before her.

249.

Perfectly whole.

The sword, the blood, the horror, all had disappeared.

StarLaughter took a deep breath, and opened her eyes back to awareness of the horse beneath her and the cold winds of the Skarabost Plains whipping past her.

She turned her head slightly to look at the Demons.

They were all watching her with expressions half-ecstasy, half-wild amus.e.m.e.nt.

"He is weak," StarLaughter said, "and filled with hopelessness. If the StarSon can let a vision impale him, then think what will happen when the real thing hunts him through the Maze!"

There was silence as the Demons and StarLaughter smiled at the thought.

It would be a good hunt.

"Those were the three," said Mot, "who, if there had been any power remaining, could have wielded it."

Barzula smirked. "The Mage-King of the Avar was useless."

"Everyone is useless!" cried Rox.

"Tencendor is ours," Raspu said.

"Forever and ever and through all time," Sheol said, and looked reverently at the child in her lap.

They had, for the moment, forgotten about the two worrying magicians to the west.

250.

Drago's Ancient Relics D.

id you not live in southern Skarabost, Faraday?" Drago asked one night, idly stroking the lizard as it cuddled against his thigh.

They were crouched in their cramped tent on the sh.o.r.es of the Nordra as it sliced through the Western Ranges and the Rhaetian Hills. Drago had spent the best part of the day looking for a boat, but had found none. In the morning they would continue their northward journey to Gorkenfort on foot, crossing the Nordra when they found a ford or a boat. Faraday had remained silent when Drago had mentioned Gorkenfort; he knew all too well of her need to go directly north to Star Finger, and she knew it would be of no use to tell him yet again.

They sat shoulder by shoulder, with s.p.a.ce not even for a fire. The terror raged outside, and while they knew it could not touch them, the confinement of the tent was still preferable to sitting outside by a fire with the Demons nibbling at their minds . . . why? why? why? During the day they continued to travel through the Demonic Hours, ignoring the cold fingers of the grey miasma as best they could, but at night they rested, both physically and spiritually, within the warm comfort of the tent's interior.

Faraday took a long time to answer, and Drago was surprised that she finally did.

251 *

"Yes," she said. "On an estate called Ilfracombe. But it is far to the east of where we will travel." Her voice had a decided edge to it, but Drago ignored it. He also dreamed of the girl, but he found his need to get to Gorkenfort greater, and he hoped that the answers he would find there would also help solve the riddle of the girl.

"Do you still have family there?"

"Why these questions?" she said, and raised her face. "Will whether or not any of my family survive or be d.a.m.ned, save or d.a.m.n Tencendor in its turn?"

Drago was horrified to see the brightness of tears in her eyes. "Faraday ... we will get to the girl soon enough."

She was silent a long time, wiping the tears away with the back of a hand. It was not only the fretting for the girl that made her irritable, but her growing feeling for this man now so close to her.

Faraday didn't like that... she didn't like it at all.

"It is not just the girl," she whispered. "There is another wound which will nqt close."

This, at least, she would tell him.

Drago was silent, willing to let her tell him at her own pace.

"Before we left the Silent Woman Woods I said goodbye to Isfrael," she said, her voice stronger.

Drago remembered how curt Faraday had been when she'd mentioned her talk with Isfrael as they'd left the Silent Woman Woods.

"I know," he said gently.

Tears threatened again. "I loved that child so much!" Faraday said, and she spread her hands across her belly, as if she could still feel him growing inside of her. "And I loved Axis so much. I did so much for both of them. And yet both of them have preferred to cut me from their lives.

"Isfrael said ..." Her voice broke. "Isfrael said that he wished that just once I'd been there to rock him to sleep as a child."

252.

Furious with both Axis and Isfrael for hurting Faraday so much, for continuing to hurt her, Drago wrapped his arms about Faraday and hugged her close.

"Shhh, Faraday," he whispered into her hair, gently rocking her. "Shush now."

Very slowly and very hesitantly, as if she regretted every movement, he felt Faraday slide her arms about him.

"I shouldn't have abandoned him," she whispered. "I shouldn't have abandoned him."

"Shush now, Faraday," he said again. "Shush."

They sat in silence, and gradually Drago rocked Faraday to sleep as if she were a child.

Drago dreamed.

But this night it was not the girl who intruded into his subconscious.