A movement at the corner of Drago's eye caught his attention.

"And the lizard," he added hurriedly, and allowed Zared to drag him forth.

The walk was relatively short in distance and time, but thick with Zared's wild hope and Faraday's unspoken queries.

Herme's place before the door to Leagh's chamber had earlier been taken over by a palace guard, and Drago *535-.

dismissed him. "Go down to the kitchens and ask the cooks to prepare a light but nutritious meal. The Queen will require it soon enough."

The guard looked hesitantly at Zared, but when his King said nothing, he nodded and set off down the corridor towards the main stairs.

Zared still had Drago by the arm, and now he fumbled with the doork.n.o.b with his free hand. His hand slipped, and he lost his grip, but he pushed aside Drago's attempts to help him.

"I can do it! "he said.

Standing slightly behind the two men, Faraday felt sick. She had a very good idea of what she would see within the chamber, and she did not want to see Leagh thus degraded. She wiped damp palms against the rough weave of her gown. Could Drago truly do what he intimated? Had he come this far, this quickly?

By her side, Katie looked up into Faraday's anxious face. She patted at the woman's skirts, drawing her attention, and smiled when Faraday looked down. Faraday took a deep breath, and nodded. If Katie was confident...

The door swung open, and revealed the horror inside.

Leagh herself was not immediately apparent, but her stench flew out the open door and struck the faces of those who would enter. Drago and Faraday had to quell sudden nausea, and the lizard spat. Then it scurried past the hesitant legs before it, and disappeared inside.

Its entrance was greeted by a wild shriek, and the sound of a body shuffling about the floor.

Drago and Faraday forced themselves inside.

"Stars in heaven," Faraday whispered, and turned aside momentarily.

Now free of Zared, who had entered and then crept to one side of the door, Drago stared at the sight before him.

What had once been Leagh roiled at the end of its chains, a bare two paces from him. Its face had convulsed out of any * 536*

resemblance to the woman who had once borne it, and its body was covered with sores and boils, scores of self-inflicted wounds and several layers of flaked excreta.

Ribs and hip bones jutted at wild angles, while muscle and flesh had shrunk into deep valleys between them. Its hair was knotted and dark with grease, dirt and blood, its fingernails were torn and bleeding, and yellowed saliva hung down from its mouth. But all Faraday could stare at, all she could see, was the frightful sight of the distended belly.

She was with child!

"Zared," Drago said, remarkably evenly, "that door in the far wall. . . does it connect to another chamber?"

"What? Ah, yes. To the diamond chamber."

"Good. I want you to go and arrange for a bath, medicinal supplies and some well-watered wine to be placed in there."

"But -"

"And then I want you to go and wait with Theod and Herme."

"I will not leave her!"

In an instant Drago was on him, seizing both his shoulders. "Do as I say, Zared. For the G.o.ds' sakes, do you want her to realise that you have seen her like thisl"

Zared stared. "I never thought... I didn't..."

"She might forgive the fact that Faraday and I have seen her," Drago said more quietly. "But she will never, never, forgive you the sight of her in this condition."

"Help her, Drago. Help her," he begged.

Drago nodded, and gently shoved Zared out the door. "Go. Do as I ask."

He shut the door, paused to listen to Zared's footsteps shuffle down the corridor, and turned back into the room.

"We begin," he said.

He stood silent for a few minutes, his head down, his left hand gently opening and closing about the staff, ignoring the shriekings and slaverings of the creature lunging two paces away at the end of its chain.

537.

Faraday watched him silently, understanding that Drago was communicating with the staff in his hand.

Katie? Faraday dropped her eyes, and placed a gentle hand on the girl's head. Katie tilted her eyes up briefly, and smiled, but quickly returned her gaze to the scene before her.

Faraday looked back to Drago. She understood that she was about to witness a miracle unparalleled. A miracle not only in Leagh's own rebirth, and her redemption from the many-fingered madnesses of the TimeKeeper Demons, but in the rebirth of true hope for Tencendor.

For the first time Faraday understood why Tencendor had to die. It was the only way it could be reborn into its true nature. Drago looked up, catching her eyes, and perhaps even understanding a little of what she was thinking. He smiled, a movement that only just touched the corners of his mouth and eyes, but which, nevertheless, was rich with warmth and love.

Warmth and love for everyone, Faraday realised, not just for her.

Faraday could not help smiling back. She realised she also smiled with love, but for the moment she could not stop it. He was so extraordinary, and what he was about to do was so extraordinary, Faraday could not help but respond to his warmth.

She blinked, and the room bad disappeared and she stood in a field of flowers. Drago still stood some paces from her, but here he wore nothing but a simple white linen cloth about his hips.

He held out his hand to her in the traditional Icarii gesture of seduction, but it was not empty. He held a single white lily.

"You will be," he said, "the first among lilies."

And he smiled.

Faraday's heart was thudding in her chest, and she could not tear her eyes away from his. There was nothing in his face of his father's arrogant confidence . . . nothing but that incredible warmth and tenderness, nothing but the promise of safety, and of the love she'd always been denied.

538.

Faraday took a step through the flowers, and then she - Two paces away the frightful thing that had once been Leagh snapped and drooled and dribbled thick urine down its thighs, and Faraday snapped out of her vision.

She blinked, disorientated, her heart still thudding. Drago was no longer looking at her, but considering Leagh.

"We will need to restrain her far more than she is now," Drago said, studying the lengthy chain attached to the iron spike in the centre of the room.

He snapped his fingers at the lizard, who was sitting to one side of the door, and spoke to Faraday.

"Faraday? Will you take hold of Katie, and stand just here?"

The lizard ambled over, and Drago positioned him just in front of Faraday and Katie.

They were grouped directly in front of Leagh.

"Take this," Drago held out the staff to Faraday, who took it hesitantly, "and taunt her with it. Tease her.

Keep her distracted."

"I cannot taunt her!" Faraday said.

"You must," Drago said gently. "I need to be able to wrap that chain about the spike, dragging her into the centre of the room, and to do that," he paused, "with any degree of safety, I will need you, with Katie and the lizard, to distract her. Can you do that? The lizard will keep you safe."

"I am not worried about my safety," Faraday said quietly, her eyes on Leagh.

"I know that," Drago said. "Come, taunt her with the staff, and stay but one pace before her. She will see nothing else."

Taking a deep breath and steeling her nerves, Faraday pushed Katie halfway behind her skirts, then leaned forward over the lizard and struck the Leagh-creature a glancing blow across the cheek.

The creature screamed, and s.n.a.t.c.hed wildly at the staff, which Faraday only barely managed to pull away in time.

539 .

The lizard shrieked as well, its crest rising up and down rapidly, and the creature went completely berserk, tearing at its chains, and flinging itself full forward, as if trying to stretch the metal links.

Drago moved quietly and smoothly about the side of the room until he was directly behind the creature, then he moved forward, step by careful step, until he was by the spike.

The creature backed up a pace, preparing itself for another lunge at the three tormentors before it, and Drago seized the chain and wrapped it twice about the spike. The creature lunged forward, and found itself brought up a pace earlier than it had expected.

It made no difference to the ferocity or single-mindedness of its attack, for the lizard and Faraday and the girl had also crept closer a pace, and the staff once more struck a glancing blow on the creature, this time across its back, drawing blood from one of its open sores.

Again and again the creature lunged, and each time the chain slackened slightly as it moved and Drago would wrap the links yet further about the spike.

Soon the creature's b.u.t.tocks and heels were a bare pace away from Drago and the spike, and Drago motioned Faraday to further her efforts at distracting the beast. Again Faraday struck a glancing blow to the creature, and again, and then once more.

But on the third stroke the creature managed to seize the staff in its claws, and Faraday cried out as she felt herself being pulled forward.

Suddenly there was a flash of light. The creature screamed, and Faraday felt its grip on the staff lessen. She hauled it back, and seized Katie, pulling her out of harm's way as well.

The lizard, retracting its talons, also shuffled back, hissing and growling at the creature, who kept its eyes on him, although it had been frightened away from further attempts to reach the horrible light-wielding lizard.

540 .

Drago used the moment to secure the chain with the thong from the neck of the sack, then also retreated to a safe distance and rejoined Faraday.

"Did she . . .?"

Faraday shook her head. "She did not touch me."

"Good. Faraday, will you wait by the wall for the moment?"

"Yes." Faraday hesitated. "Drago . .."

"Yes?"

Faraday stared at him, wanting to say everything, but unable to say anything.

"Nothing," she said, and took the girl's hand and walked over to stand by the wall.

Drago faced the creature, almost completely restrained by the now short chain. He placed his hand on the lizard's head, and it sat down beside him, alternately looking up at Drago and over to the creature.

"Faraday," Drago said very quietly without looking at her, "what time of day is it?"

Her eyes flickered towards the window. They had come across the Lake during Sheol's mid-afternoon time, and had then spent at least two hours walking up through the palace and talking with Zared, Theod and Herme. "It lacks but an hour to dusk."

"Good," Drago said. "We are free of the miasma, and the Demons will not know what now we do."

He bent slightly, and the lizard raised its head to him. "Watch carefully," Drago told him.

Then he straightened, and sketched a symbol in the air. It was not accomplished with his usual speed and fluidity, but it was fast nevertheless, and Faraday was sure that if Drago wanted the lizard to learn it, he must surely repeat it several times.

But apparently not.

The lizard watched with its great black eyes, absorbing the symbol into their depths, and then it raised a languid foreclaw into the air and redrew the symbol.

541.

With light.

Faraday gasped, and the child laughed delightedly.

The creature howled, and cowered.

Lines of light hung in the air before the lizard. It had drawn a symbol variously composed of circles and three-dimensional pyramids, the lines of both circles and pyramids interconnecting in two score places.

The symbol of light was large, perhaps the height of a man and the same dimension in width and depth.

"It is an enchantment!" Faraday said.

"Yes," Drago replied, not taking his eyes from the symbol. "An enchantment made visible.

"And," he placed his staff on the floor, "an enchantment with walls."

Without apparent fear, or even overdue caution, Drago reached out with both hands and seized the enchantment. It quivered lightly as it felt his grasp, but floated gently towards him as he pulled his arms back.

"Faraday?" Drago said. "Will you take hold of its other side?"