on the issue of displaying Leagh like a freak.‖
Drago bent down, retrieved his staff from the floor, stroking one of the cats as he did so.
He stood up, adjusting the sack at his belt. ―Zared, is it your opinion that Leagh‘s mind is
completely possessed by the Demons?‖
―Yes.‖
―So,‖ Drago said slowly, and he glanced at Faraday as he spoke. ―Would you say that
Leagh, as her own person, character, entity and soul, is completely dead?‖
―Oh!‖ Faraday whispered, utterly shocked as she realised what Drago was going to
attempt. ―By all the heavens, Drago. Can you do it? ‖
―Can you imagine, Faraday,‖ Drago said, ignoring the others‘ angry confusion, ―what
resources Tencendor would have at its side if we could?‖
He held Faraday‘s gaze, and then he smiled, sweetly and tenderly, utterly transforming
his face.
― What are you going to do? ‖ Zared yelled, stepping forward and seizing Drago by the
upper arm.
―I am going to bring Leagh back,‖ Drago said. ―With all the heritage of her Acharite
blood.‖
―You can bring her back?‖ Zared whispered hoarsely. He paid no attention to the second
part of Drago‘s statement.
―Indeed he can,‖ Katie said, rising from her spot on the floor. ―If I aid him.‖
Drago looked at her, puzzled, but he did not say anything.
Zared looked wildly at Herme and Theod, neither of them knowing what to think or say,
and then his grip on Drago‘s arm tightened yet further, and he pulled him towards the door.
―Come!‖
Theod and Herme began to move as well, but Drago shook his head. ―Only Zared,
Faraday, Katie and myself,‖ he said.
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 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 doorknob 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 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
gods‘ sakes, do you want her to realise that you have seen her like this?‖
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.
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 had 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.
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