while the Demons helped us as far as getting us back into Tencendor, they haven’t done
much else. Well, not much else apart from completely destroy the land.”
“You must have known they were going to do that,” DragonStar said.
StarLaughter shrugged dismissively. “That’s as may be.”
She walked slowly in a circle about DragonStar, moving ever closer with each step. She shifted the
material of her scarlet and gold robe slightly, pulling it closer against the curves of her body. She did not
take her eyes from his face.
“Now it appears that the Demons have wandered off on their own crusade,” Star Laughter
continued, “and forgotten entirely their promises to us. StarGrace and I admit some impatience.”
She pouted, then tilted her face to one side and smiled at DragonStar. “We are tired of the
Demons,” she said, “and would rather concentrate on our own purpose. WolfStar.”
DragonStar stared at her, then looked down to StarGrace. “And you? And the other Hawkchilds?”
“We are being used to hunt you,” StarGrace said, and smiled. Unlike StarLaughter’s, her expression
was utterly feral and malicious. “But we would rather hunt WolfStar!”
“Thus, we,” StarLaughter said, moving away a pace or two and airily waving a hand, “are prepared
to do a deal. Help us find WolfStar and we will help you against the Demons. We all have a chance at
succeeding if we work together.”
“How?” DragonStar said. “How will you help?”
StarGrace laughed, low and husky, and answered for them both. “By not telling the Demons where
you and yours are, DragonStar SunSoar. Qeteb will use the Hawkchilds in the effort to hunt you down.
We will soar and we will swoop, but, oh dear me, we will never find!”
“Do we have a deal?” StarLaughter said. “Do we? You give us WolfStar, and we aid you against
the Demons.”
DragonStar stared at her, wondering what it was that she wasn’t telling him. These were
explanations that he could accept … on the surface. But there was something else going on here that
he could not yet discern, and that made him unsure.
He turned to look at his five witches. Well? he asked them.
DareWing, who had previously heard StarLaughter and StarGrace’s deal, nodded. Can we afford
to refuse? We need every piece of aid offered us.
Gwendylyr and Faraday again exchanged glances. / don’t like her, Gwendylyr said in DragonStar’s
mind, but does that mean we can’t trust her? DragonStar, you know these two. You decide.
DragonStar’s mouth twitched in a very small grin — who could ever know StarLaughter and
StarGrace? Their inner minds and emotions were the end product of three thousand years of
twisted hate, and their inner writhings could not be tracked by any observer who had not travelled the
same three-thousand-year road with them.
Faraday? he asked.
She shrugged. Your decision.
Thank you very much, he replied, but without any rancour. Goldman?
He grinned, including StarLaughter and StarGrace in his smile. Surprisingly, StarGrace
returned it, although StarLaughter looked surprised. I’m with DareWing, he said. We have little choice.
Besides, they are an adventure, and I for one relish the chance to explore them further.
Just don’t let them bed you, DragonStar said, grinning himself. It’s murder.
Now Faraday did look at him sharply, the question all over her face, while Gwendylyr’s mouth
dropped open.
DragonStar ignored them, squatting down before Leagh. Well?
She smiled, a very gentle and sweet expression. I think they are true … or, at least, true enough
for us. If you think WolfStar’s sacrifice worth the bargain, then agree. Trust them as much as you
dare, DragonStar.
DragonStar blinked, surprised more by Leagh’s inner calm and happiness than by what she’d said —
what had happened to her since she’d fallen screaming to the floor earlier? — then nodded, and rose
again.
“I think we have a bargain,” DragonStar said to the two birdwomen.
“Do you know where WolfStar is?” both asked in unison, both equally eagerly, and DragonStar
narrowed his eyes.
StarLaughter and StarGrace had, at that moment, revealed completely different purposes: to him, if
not to each other.
“Yes,” he said. “WolfStar is in Sanctuary.”
They ate from the remains of whatever dried food had been stored in the lower levels of Star
Finger, and then DragonStar told his witches to lay down and rest.
“In the morning,” he said, “we will begin.”
Faraday curled up next to Leagh, pulling her cloak tight about them both, and
DragonStar smiled cynically. He and Faraday were, it seemed, back to the coolness of their initial
pilgrimage north to Gorkenfort and back to Carlon.
Goldman had cleared a space for him close to the fire that DareWing had built, but DragonStar
shook his head.
“There is something else I need to do first,” he said, and turned away.
He looked around. StarGrace had left an hour earlier saying that she needed to return to her sky
patrol before Qeteb and the other Demons reappeared, but StarLaughter was curled up in a thick
woollen cloak against a far wall.
DragonStar walked over, and gently shook her shoulder.
StarLaughter opened one eye and peered irritably at him. “Yes?”
“We need to talk,” DragonStar said. “Now.”
“Then talk,” she murmured, closing her eye.
“Alone!” DragonStar said, and shook her harder.
Now StarLaughter opened both her eyes, and she grinned lasciviously. “So! I thought you would
never ask!”
“Don’t play games with me\” DragonStar snapped, and grasped her arm tightly, hauling her
upwards.
“You’re hurting!” StarLaughter said, and tried to wrench herself free.
But DragonStar was too strong. He pulled until she was on her feet, then gave her a none-too-gentle
shove towards the door. “Outside.”
“Not all the way outside, I do hope,” StarLaughter muttered, but DragonStar did not speak,
contenting himself with an impatient shove in the small of her back.
As they left the room, Faraday opened her eyes and stared at the empty door.
“Whatever my companions think,” DragonStar said as he pulled StarLaughter to a halt in a deserted part
of the corridor several twists and turns away from the chamber, “I admit harbouring some doubts about
the sincerity of your turnabout. Frankly, I find it astonishing.”
StarLaughter’s eyes darted about the corridor. It was deserted. The Strike Force were either at
ground level to watch the sky, or were patrolling what was left of the complex, either to find if there was
anything left that could prove serviceable to DragonStar or to search for any traps and surprises that
StarLaughter and StarGrace may have planted.
She sighed theatrically. “You have discovered my secret.”
“Oh, for the Stars’ sakes, woman! Stop performing these dramatic roles! What is it you really
want here? You were lying back in that chamber, although StarGrace was not. What is going on?”
StarLaughter stared down the corridor, her eyes unfocused, silent for the time being.
DragonStar was content enough to let her think, although he still wondered if she was assuming a
facade she believed would aid her cause.
“The Demons tricked me,” StarLaughter said eventually, quietly, still staring into infinity down the
corridor, “and then they tired of me. They said they were going to restore my son to me, but all they did
was make use of his —” her voice broke a little, “— dead flesh to create a haven for Qeteb’s warmth
and breath and movement and soul. Having tricked me, they then tired of me.”
DragonStar hesitated, then placed a hand on her shoulder.
StarLaughter did not react. “I escaped, but only barely.”
“And?” DragonStar prompted as StarLaughter hesitated.
“And I began to think,” she said, “about myself and Wolf Star.”
StarLaughter shifted slightly, bringing herself closer to DragonStar’s body.
“When we were husband and wife I loved him desperately, completely, with my entire being and
purpose,” she said after a moment’s silence.
“And yet you plotted against him.”
She half-smiled, lost in her deluded memories. “We were so mutually ambitious, DragonStar. We
could not help ourselves. We became cold and hard and calculating, and somewhere along the way the
love was lost. I planned his murder; he accomplished mine instead. WolfStar was ever quick on his feet.”
“And now?” DragonStar said very softly. “And now?”
“And now I want him back,” StarLaughter said, “as he must want me.”
DragonStar drew back from her in complete shock. “You what? He wants what?”
“I want him back!” StarLaughter turned to DragonStar, her face alive with passion and purpose. “As
he must want me! Who else can WolfStar ever love? Who else can /? We have made our mistakes, true,
but —”
DragonStar laughed hollowly. “You’re mad, StarLaughter. Mad! WolfStar will never —”
“Yes! Yes! He must!”
“Wait… have you told Star Grace this?”
“No. She would not understand. All she wants is his death.”
“And the other Hawkchilds? They want the same?”
StarLaughter nodded.
“So let me see if I understand this completely,” DragonStar said. “You have decided that, against all