“Leave her alone.”
WolfStar brushed past StarDrifter and poured himself a glass of wine from the jug on the table.
“Would you like some wine, StarDrifter?”
“Leave Zenith alone!”
“Zenith is revolted by the idea of your bloodless hands touching her, and she is certainly
unable to placidly contemplate the act of love with you, fool! Let Zenith make up her own mind about
who she wants, and how she wants them.”
“She loves me!”
Wolf Star’s mouth curled. “But she cannot stand your touch. A poor kind of love, wouldn’t you
say?”
StarDrifter stared, knowing he was coming off the worst in this exchange, but needing to not only let
off some of his raging emotions, but also to somehow make this fiend realise that he should leave Zenith
alone.
“You have raped and abused her,” he said, making his voice as calm and as even as he could. “You
have willingly conspired with another for the death of her spirit, her soul. Isn’t there even a scrap of guilt
in you?”
“No.”
StarDrifter closed his eyes, refusing to believe he’d lost Zenith.
“Have you slept with her?”
Wolf Star grinned. “Oh yes, but that was many months ago. Don’t you remember? It was under the
warmth of the moon —”
“I mean recently! Since you’ve been in Sanctuary!”
“No. I have held her hand.” WolfStar shifted slightly, standing more erect, letting the light of
the lamp play over his body. “But I think it is time to correct that. I am feeling so much better.”
StarDrifter stared at him, then turned and stalked out of the room.
The door crashed shut behind him.
WolfStar’s grin broadened, and he drained his glass of wine.
Chapter 35
Dispersal
“We have almost no time,” DragonStar said to his five witches grouped about him. They
were alone in the basement chamber of Star Finger, save for the pack of Alaunt, the lizard
among them, huddled in an indistinguishable pile of pale fur against a far wall. StarLaughter was
wandering some of the still-intact apartment complexes on a higher level — no doubt searching for the
right shade of colour to drive WolfStar mad with lust, DragonStar thought dryly — and the Strike Force
were sheltering amid the tumbled rocks on the surface. They would all have to move. Soon. And very,
very fast.
“And so —” Faraday began.
“And so you must listen to me, and listen well,” DragonStar said, matching Faraday’s stare.
She dropped her eyes.
“All of you must meet one of the Demons,” DragonStar said. “This you know. But which ones?
DareWing and Goldman, your task will be the easiest, for you will eventually work as a team rather than
individually. You will meet Barzula and Mot; which of you meets which one, I care not.”
“Why together, and where?” DareWing said.
DragonStar hesitated briefly before replying, again wondering how much he should tell his five.
“I thought it was happenchance that I created five of you,” DragonStar said, “but now I realise
it to be the Star Dance’s design. There are five Demons, not counting Qeteb whom I must meet, and
there are five of you.
“As there were five Sentinels.”
The others looked among themselves, their faces reflecting varying degrees of shock. None of
them had realised the connection.
“In this game I do not believe in coincidence,” DragonStar said, watching them carefully, “and I will
not ignore the signs posted along our torturous route. DareWing and Goldman, despite your different
temperaments, you work well together, and you will make a team —”
“Ogden and Veremund,” Faraday said softly. “Cauldron Lake.”
“Yes —” DragonStar began, but was interrupted by Goldman.
“Are you trying to say that DareWing and I are Ogden and Veremund?”
“No. The Sentinels still exist, but are far distant, drifting among the stars. What you are is simply
another aspect of the Enemy’s plan that the Sentinels once represented.”
“And I… I represent Yr,” Faraday said, her eyes far distant.
DragonStar smiled at her, and she did not look away, or frown. “Yes. At Grail Lake.”
Now she shuddered, and averted her eyes. “The Maze.”
“I am sorry, ” DragonStar said. “But at least I will meet up with you there.”
“You will meet Qeteb in the Maze?”
DragonStar nodded. “The final hunt must be conducted within the Maze.”
“And which Demon must I meet?” Faraday asked.
“Sheol. Despair.”
Faraday’s eyes widened. She, who always despaired of her own future, must confront despair?
DragonStar held her eyes, and eventually Faraday nodded. “Very well, I will meet Sheol at Grail
Lake.” Mother, how would she manage this task!
And at the Maze, she would also be close to Qeteb, for Qeteb would surely gravitate there in order
to meet DragonStar.
Close to Qeteb. Close enough to be snatched.
Faraday shuddered again, and lowered her face into her hands.
DragonStar pitied her, but could not comfort her now. Time was too short, too precious.
“AndI?”Leaghasked.
“You,” DragonStar smiled, a beautiful, loving gesture, “carry
life within you. You are life, and so your place will be Fernbrake Lake, the Mother of all Life. You
represent Jack, for you share the same strength and determination. At Fernbrake you will meet the
Rox-Niah.”
“Why?” Leagh’s face showed no fear, no denial, only acceptance and courage.
“I cannot put my knowledge into words,” DragonStar said. “I can only say that this is where, and this
is the Demon, that you must meet.”
She nodded.
“Gwendylyr,” DragonStar said, and took her hand.
“There is not much left for me, is there?” she said, and her face was as determined as Leagh’s.
DragonStar thanked every star in existence for the strength and trust of these five.
He glanced at Faraday. Of them all, she was both the weakest and the strongest link.
“I represent Zeherah, and I will meet Raspu, Demon of Pestilence, at the Lake of Life,” Gwendylyr
said.
“Yes.”
DragonStar looked down at his hands, hesitating before he told them of what was at stake, resting
on their success. That he bad to tell them, DragonStar had no doubt, but he also had no doubt of the
frightful pressure the knowledge would place on every one of them.
“DragonStar?” Faraday, concerned and frightened, because knowing him as well as she did she
knew he was concealing something.
DragonStar raised his face. “There is more,” he said quietly. “Whether or not you are successful will
directly affect whether or not I can defeat Qeteb.”
As his witches watched, their eyes riveted on DragonStar’s face, he explained the “legal niceties” of
their confrontations.
“Thus,” he finished, “if three or more of you fail —”
“Then you must inevitably fail,” Goldman said, “for the balance will have tipped irretrievably
in Qeteb’s favour.”
DragonStar nodded, watching the pale faces before him, more concerned about how the knowledge
would affect them than whether or not they could succeed.
“Then,” Goldman said, “we will do our best for you.”
“DragonStar,” Leagh said. “How do we confront these Demons? They are so powerful…
and we …”
DragonStar managed a smile for her, but included all five in his response. “Qeteb is so confident of
his overall victory he has ‘magnanimously’ given us the choice of weapons and place —”
“I know nothing of weapons!” Leagh cried, sounding suddenly panicky, and DragonStar
spoke quickly to reassure her.
“These confrontations will have no need of lances or pikes, Leagh. We will, I think, employ a little
trickery, along with a touch of love, and we are going to employ some information that StarLaughter gave
me in order to choose our ‘weapons’.”
“What do you mean?” Goldman said.
“Listen,” DragonStar said, and he spoke low and intensely for a very long time.
Both the frigid night air and time itself had closed in about Spiredore. Demons ringed it, whispering and
shrieking of death, but Spiredore was made of stronger stuff than Sigholt had been, and it caused the
Demons even greater angst.
Here again Roxiah stood with its head thrown back and arms and legs spread wide, bringing to bear
all the power of the Enemy that it could upon the obstinate tower.
But Spiredore was holding out: grimly, painfully, and using every last bit of strength and resistance it
had.
Spiredore had one more task to do, and it prayed and begged that it could do it soon.
DragonStar looked up as he finished, his face ashen. “We have almost no time!”
“What is happening,” Dare Wing said.
“The Demons are laying siege to Spiredore, trying to destroy it… and you need to use its power to
transport yourselves to —”
“Gods!” Dare Wing and Goldman rose as one, the women not far behind them.
“DragonStar,” Faraday said, taking his arm. “Leagh … I am so concerned for her … she is not far
away from birth, and —”
He stopped her words with a finger to her lip. “Leagh is a strong and determined women — and
weren’t you, when you planted out Minstrelsea while carrying Isfrael? Faraday, I can watch over her.”