Isfrael bent down, picked up the bowl, then straightened. He closed his eyes, tilted his head back
slightly, and prepared to enter the groves.
“Do it now!” he whispered. “Use your power to propel me now\”
And the Demons did. They sniggered and they capered, they dribbled and they scampered, and they
concentrated their entire power on the man and the bowl before them.
After all, they had promised.
Isfrael screamed, and then emerald light consumed him. He found himself caught up in a whirlpool of
the light, and he almost panicked, until he realised that he was being propelled towards the Sacred
Groves with such power that he was being forced through the barriers the Mother had erected.
It hurt. Dreadfully.
But he could feel himself being forced through.
Isfrael clung even tighter to the bowl, concentrating as hard as he could on the image of the Groves
… and suddenly he could feel the firmness of a forest floor beneath his feet, and he could smell the
pungent odour of the trees, and then the emerald light resolved into the form of a thousand trees.
He was in the Sacred Groves. Finally.
Isfrael stood triumphantly. He had done it! He was safe! He turned slightly, and he saw a
silver-backed Horned One walking towards him. The Horned One’s stag head was trembling, and his
liquid dark eyes were filled with anger.
Anger … and panic.
“What have you done!” the silver-pelt hissed. “What have you done?”
And he knocked the bowl from Isfrael’s hands. “What is this abomination you introduce into the
Groves?”
Qeteb stood in the centre of the apple grove, Faraday’s bowl in his hands.
“I do hope he liked the imitation I sent with him,” he said, and all the Demons howled with laughter.
Chapter 20
Qeteb’s Mansion of Dreams
What DragonStar found in Sanctuary appalled him. L e a g h , l y i n g b r u i s e d a n d t e a r f u l o n h e r
b e d , w i t h Zenith at her side, Zared at her other, and StarDrifter, Axis, Azhure, Goldman
and Gwendylyr all hovering about, whispering uselessly.
Faraday stood to one side by a window, calm but clearly upset. Katie clung to her skirts,
looking resigned.
“What happened?” DragonStar said, striding into the chamber. He’d known the instant that
he’d stepped back into Sanctuary that something was wrong. The air smelt vaguely tainted, as if
corrupted with the tang of a rotten apple that someone had thrown to one side and then
forgotten.
Leagh half raised herself, ignoring Zenith’s and Zared’s protests. “Isfrael forced me to give him
the doorway that you gave to each of us,” she said. “And he stepped through it into Spiredore.”
DragonStar sat down by Leagh’s side as Zenith stood to give him room. She stepped back and
stood with StarDrifter.
“He hurt you,” DragonStar said.
Leagh attempted to smile, but it did not work very well. “I will be well enough,” she said. “A few
bruises, both to body and soul.”
DragonStar glanced at Faraday, exchanging unspoken concerns with her, then he
gently rested a hand on Leagh’s abdomen.
“Faraday said the child was well,” Leagh said.
“Aye,” DragonStar said, and smiled for Leagh. “The child is well.” Physically, yes, but
spiritually frightened and lost and
feeling so insecure that DragonStar wondered if it might try to fight its way free of the womb. If
born now it would never survive.
“I saved the doorway,” Leagh said, and her voice cracked with tears. “I did not allow him to take
—”
“Hush,” DragonStar said, and lifted his hand to caress Leagh’s cheek. “Hush. There is
no guilt or blame in what happened. None that you should bear. Faraday,” he lifted his
eyes, “where do you think Isfrael went? What do you think was his purpose? Helpful… or foul?”
Faraday took a deep breath, and her shoulders trembled. Katie clung a little closer. “I
cannot think but that it was foul.”
DragonStar waited, his gaze steady.
“He hates me,” Faraday continued, her voice a little steadier, “for many reasons, but most
recently and perhaps most powerfully for disinheriting him, as he understands it, from his position as
Mage-King. I think that he may have had some plan to regain that power and position.”
“How?”
Faraday shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “I don’t know. We have all discussed this, and none of
us know.”
“Where could he have gone from Spiredore?”
Axis answered, stepping forward and giving Leagh a reassuring smile before he looked at
his son. “We all thought the Sacred Groves, but Faraday has told us that the Mother closed off the paths
to the Groves before Qeteb was finally resurrected.”
“And Spiredore would not have been strong enough to breach Her barriers,” Azhure put in.
She linked an arm through Axis’, and they shared a small smile.
Always the love for themselves, DragonStar thought, and not so much for others. But the thought
caused him no resentment, and he wondered if he and Faraday would ever have the time and the peace
to indulge in the same luxury of love. How much time had they shared over the past days since
he’d arrived in Sanctuary? A few hours snatched here and there, and no more.
“Is there anywhere he could have gone where he could have avoided the Demons?” DragonStar
asked. His frustration was clearly evident in his voice.
Silence.
“We cannot think of anywhere,” Faraday said eventually. Her voice was breaking.
He went to the Demons! The same thought exploded through all their minds.
“Gods!” DragonStar whispered, and rubbed his forehead. “Why? Why?”
“Our son,” Axis said, and looked at Faraday, “our son has betrayed us.”
DragonStar had to struggle to repress bitter laughter. You always have to have a son to betray
you, don’t you, Axis? But he managed to banish the thought almost as soon as it surfaced.
Damn it! He had to think! Why would Isfrael have gone to the Demons?
“And how did he think he was going to survive?” he muttered.
Again, silence, and again it was Faraday who eventually broke it. “He would have gone to bargain
with them,” she said, “but with what, and for what, I do not know.”
DragonStar lifted his eyes to hers. “We are going to have to find out,” he said.
This was difficult, and extremely dangerous, but DragonStar had no choice. He had to know what Isfrael
was about to do.
Or what he had already done. Stars alone knew if they were going to be able to stop Isfrael, or if the
situation had gone too far to remedy the damage.
They were in a small room: DragonStar, Faraday, Gwendylyr and Goldman, and Axis and Azhure.
Axis and Azhure could not help with power, but DragonStar somehow wanted them there, not only for
the knowledge and experience they shared, but also because their presence comforted him.
And DragonStar was gladdened beyond measure by that sense of comfort.
They all sat in a small circle of chairs, close-touching, save for Faraday who knelt within the circle
before DragonStar, her hands on his lap.
“Faraday,” DragonStar said, “of all of us present, you are the one with the closest bond to Isfrael.”
“And that not very close at all,” she said, sadly.
DragonStar smiled for her, letting love and tenderness wash over his face. “You held him within your
body for many months, and you bear a mother’s love for him. You have a bond, and you also have
power.”
She nodded. DragonStar had explained what they must do. Follow Isfrael through the door with
their minds and their power. Follow the memory of where he went, and what he did.
See.
The entire procedure was horrendously risky. They were all exposing themselves to attack by the
Demons, for their mind power would provide a direct link back to their bodies which remained in this
room.
Faraday looked at DragonStar, and, in turn, DragonStar looked at Axis.
Axis gave a slight nod, his face stiff with tension and fear. If the Demons follow our minds back
into Sanctuary, DragonStar had told him, and seize control of our bodies, then kill us. It will be your
— and Sanctuary’s — only hope.
Axis had spent many long years longing for the chance to kill DragonStar. Now? No, he did not
think he could do it. Not even with a Demon leering at him with DragonStar’s eyes.
And Faraday! How could he kill Faraday?
Axis looked at Azhure, and her eyes were steady. Axis took a deep breath. “We are ready,” he
said.
DragonStar checked Gwendylyr and Goldman. They sat to either side of him, their hands on his
shoulders.
They nodded, their faces as tense as Axis’.
DragonStar closed his eyes, and Faraday, Gwendylyr and Goldman followed suit. Axis and Azhure
were the only ones who stayed alert, and their eyes they kept watchful.