Behind Drago came Faraday, wrapped in a bright scarlet cloak that she had hunted all afternoon for in the wardrobes of the palace, and with two blankets under her arm; Leagh, equally wrapped in a thick and warm black cloak and also 599.

with a blanket; Zared, his worried eyes rarely leaving his wife; and finally, Theod clad in light chain mail under his cloak and with his sword already drawn in his hand.

He'd heard of the eels that had attacked Drago's boat on the way over from Spiredore. The G.o.ds alone knew what else the Demons might launch at them. Theod did not want anything stopping him from reaching Gwendylyr this night.

He concentrated all his thoughts on her, and pushed the memory of their two sons to the dim recesses of his mind. They were gone, sacrificed to Drago's unexplained plans, and Theod would not allow himself to dwell on them any more.

"Well?" an anxious voice asked from far back in the dark pa.s.sageway. "The boat is still here, Herme," Drago replied, and he stepped carefully down, wishing that if he'd retained only one thing from his Icarii heritage it could have been their exquisite grace and balance.

The feathered lizard leapt in, causing the boat to rock violently, and Drago planted his staff firmly down and leaned on it, silently cursing the lizard with every gutter and kitchen oath he'd ever known.

Once the boat had settled, he laid the staff in the belly of the boat, lifted Katie in and saw her safely seated, helped Faraday and then Leagh into the boat, and seated himself, leaving Zared and Theod to manage as best they could.

Herme appeared in the dark hole of the doorway. "Be careful," he said. "And return quickly."

"Keep safe," Drago said, then briefly smiled, nodded, and leaned his weight into the oars, sliding the boat silently out onto the waters of Grail Lake.

Faraday drew the cloak yet tighter about her and shivered. Animals of all shapes, sizes and breed lined the sh.o.r.eline about the city's walls. Men and women, as naked and vile as Leagh had been, crept back and forth, s.n.a.t.c.hing at themselves or at whoever came close. All the demented 600 .

were relatively silent, whether because of the night or some unknown plan, Faraday did not know, but they shuffled and moved in undulating waves, constantly pushing against the walls.

Pray we get back in time, Drago thought. He'd felt the increase in the power of the Demons, and knew they'd been successful at Fernbrake Lake.

How long would it take them to get to Grail Lake? Over a week, but less than two.

Not long. Not long.

Drago pulled harder on the oars.

The gigantic eels humped their bodies out of the water as the boat moved across the Lake, but they did not attack. Perhaps they could see the feathered lizard sitting sentinel in the bow of the boat, or perhaps their attention was focused on something within the Lake, for they rarely lifted their heads to watch the boat's progress.

"There is something different about the Lake," Faraday said, and Leagh nodded.

"I feel it, too. There is a ... a thickness . . . here which I do not understand."

Faraday trailed a hand through the water. "A thickness ..." she repeated, and then wiped her hand on her cloak with an expression of distaste.

Drago watched both women, sitting directly opposite him, with careful eyes. Leagh, while cautious about the danger surrounding them and their mission this night, was nevertheless serene and calm. She had come through death and found nothing but peace.

Faraday, on the other hand, was as jumpy as a cat. Drago remembered how sure she'd seemed when first he'd come back through the Star Gate. Gradually that confidence had dissipated.

It was him, Drago knew that. They'd fallen unwanted into love, and he thought that neither of them would find much happiness in it. Faraday did not want love, it had 601.

betrayed her too much already. And he? For weeks Drago had thought all he wanted was Faraday and her love, but after their conversation on the parapets, he now knew that even if she did come to him, would it be to him that she came, or the resemblance in movement and expression to his father?

Would she ever get over her love for Axis? She said she had, but Drago did not believe her. It continued to cripple her life, and Axis, utterly unintentionally, had returned to cripple Drago's as well. How pleased Axis would be, Drago thought, if only he knew.

Drago watched Faraday's eyes skim over the water, and remembered the pa.s.sion in those eyes as she'd spoken of Axis and the nights they'd spent in love.

Would she ever look thus when she spoke of him?

He grimaced, and dropped his face, and bent back to the oars.

They reached the far sh.o.r.e without incident, and the moment the boat sc.r.a.ped against the gravel bottom of the Lake, all knew what was different about it.

The level of the Lake had dropped considerably, possibly by about the height of a man. Now they had several paces of dry lake bed to walk across to reach what had once been the sh.o.r.eline and the now- waterless pier by Spiredore.

"But," Faraday said, turning about on the exposed lake bed in consternation, "how can this be? When we arrived here several days ago the water level was as it always had been."

"The Lake is drying out," Drago said. "The TimeKeepers have seized what they need from Fernbrake, and now all that remains for them is what lies here." Zared looked intently at Drago. "Will the city remain safe? The gate we left by is hardly fortified. If the swarms of animals outside are able to reach it..."

"It will not dry out completely for a while yet," Drago said, and turned for Spiredore. "And we shall return within the day."

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Spiredore, ever faithful to those who served the craft, took them safely to the Western Ranges. A series of steep and narrow stairs deposited them before a narrow corridor that led into an indiscernible blackness.

"Where are we?" Theod asked. His voice was strained, whether from nervousness inherent in everyone's first experience of Spiredore, or what he thought he might find at the end of the journey, no-one knew.

"I imagine we will find out at the end of this pa.s.sageway," Drago said.

They walked down the corridor in a tight group, their steps slow, their hands groping along the walls so that they might not be surprised by a sudden drop in elevation, or a turn.

Even the feathered lizard, normally so exuberant, slunk directly behind Drago, his talons now and then flaring and lighting the gloom.

Drago paused as his hand slid from the smoothness of dry plaster to the dampness of cave rock. He blinked, and then squinted into the almost impenetrable darkness.

There was a faint, rough oval of light ahead.

A cave mouth.

"We have arrived, I think," Drago said, "in the cave in which you and yours were so cruelly trapped, Theod. Be careful now."

There was a sc.r.a.pe of steel as Zared and Theod drew their swords, but Drago motioned the lizard forward.

He would be their best protection.

"It's cold," Leagh murmured, and, like Faraday, hugged her cloak tight about her.

Drago motioned them to remain still as the lizard snuffled about the cave - gradually becoming less featureless as everyone's eyes adjusted to the night gloom - and then, as the lizard's body relaxed, led them towards the mouth of the cave.

"The twenty thousand were scattered throughout the ranges," Theod said. "How will you -"

603.

r "They will all be relatively close," Drago said. "This cave was the lodestone, the trap, and they would all have been caught here."

"But wouldn't they have started to move elsewhere?" Zared said. "To Carlon, perhaps?"

"Not enough time," Drago said. "They would have waited until the entire twenty thousand had been turned, and that could only just have been accomplished. Theod . . . how long is it since you left the cave?"

Theod calculated swiftly. "Six or seven days, or thereabouts."

Drago nodded. "A week? Then all groups must have come through, but only just."

"But they still must be scattered -" Theod began.

"Then we must 'unscatter' them," Drago said. "For what I am about to do, I need them all close."

Theod turned away, raising his hands in frustration, but Drago ignored him. He squatted down before Katie, and took her shoulders in his hands, staring into her face.

"Katie?" he asked softly. "Will you do it?"

She nodded silently, her face sober.

"I will protect you," Drago said, and the girl smiled and flung her arms about his neck, planting a kiss on his cheek.

Taken aback, Drago disentangled the girl's arms.

"We will need a large open s.p.a.ce," he said. "Theod, was there anywhere near here that can fit a crowd?"

"There is a gra.s.sy flat at the foot of this hill," Theod's voice was becoming harder by the moment. "But it will not fit twenty thousand."

"No," Drago said, keeping his own voice even, "but enough for a crowd of some thousands at least? Yes?

Good. And there are gullies leading towards this gra.s.sy flat?"

"Yes! G.o.ds d.a.m.n you, Drago, what are you going to do?"

Drago stepped up to Theod and took his shoulders as he had just done Katie's.

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"Theod," he said, and gave the man's shoulders a little shake. "Just believe."

Drago wore a gentle smile on his face that lit his eyes with warmth, and far more than the words it was that which relaxed Theod.

He nodded slightly. "I am worried for Gwendylyr," he said. "All this time, running about the hills . .. and in what state?"

"Theod." Now Zared spoke up. "Whatever else we have seen, it has not been corpses lying about. The Demons seize their minds and their souls, but they leave their bodies ... intact."

Zared had been about to say "alive", but alive did not quite describe the state of those held in the Demons'

thrall, did it?

"We will find her, Theod," Drago finished, and Theod gave another nod.

"Good." Drago walked over to Katie and held out his hand. She took it, her face once again sober, and together they walked towards the entrance.

The feathered lizard ambled after them, but when the others made also to follow, Drago asked them to stay.

"You can see well enough from the mouth of the cave, and for the moment I would like you to remain there."

Drago and the girl walked carefully down the slope of the hill, occasionally stumbling over a rock hidden in a tussock of gra.s.s or night shadow. When they reached the bottom, Drago spent a few minutes studying the terrain.

The gra.s.sy flat spread in a rough oval shape perhaps a hundred paces east and west and some sixty paces wide. At the far western end a ravine stretched back from the flat into unseen darkness, and four or five steep-sided and narrow ravines snaked into the flat from the east and west.

"Perfect!" Drago murmured, then he squatted down beside Katie. He was nervous, for this would be not only dangerous for all concerned - and especially Katie if he *605.

didn't get the protective enchantment right - but would tax his own skill considerably.

Katie studied him, then reached out and took his hand. "You have come a long way from your pastry magics,"

she said.

"You know about that?"

"I know everything. You know that."

Drago sighed. Katie might only look like a tiny girl, but she was as old as the land itself. "Yes. I know that. But I thought some small details might have escaped your attention."

"Do this," Katie said, "for whoever still roams raving when Qeteb is fully resurrected will be beyond all of our help."

Now Drago looked truly startled. "I did not know that! G.o.ds! I should have done more to -"

Katie covered his hand in both of hers. "You wasted too many years in self-recrimination, Drago. For now, you can only do your best."

He .nodded, then stood up, hefting the staff in his left hand. He glanced up the hill. Everyone was standing at the top of the slope looking down: both women waited in stillness, the men shifted impatiently.

Drago looked back to Katie, who had now sat herself cross-legged on the gra.s.s. He thought of the enchantment he would need, and almost in the same moment Drago felt the movement of the staff under his left hand, and with his right sketched the enchantment in the air.

He opened his mouth to ask the lizard to make it visible, but the lizard also acted almost without conscious thought. He lifted his right foreclaw and re-sketched the symbol in light.

Above, Leagh took Faraday's arm in a tight hand. "Do you know," she whispered, "that symbol almost means something to me."

Faraday frowned . . . what could she ... ah! She too could somehow feel the symbol reaching out for her, communicating with her in some undefinable way.

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"Protection," both women muttered at the same time.

"It is an enchantment of protection," Faraday added, then shook her head slightly. What was going on? It felt as if that enchantment was reaching out fingers into her mind, doing something, or appealing to something, but she couldn't - "It's the Acharite magic in us!" Leagh said, still keeping her voice low. "We can understand it because we have both seen the field of flowers!"

Faraday's frown deepened, and she placed a hand over Leagh's where it rested on her arm. Was Leagh right?

When Drago had included her in the vision, had he somehow forged the final link to her forgotten blood magic?

She looked back to Drago.