The rider leaned down from the horse, leaned down his entire weight, and twisted the
blade.
― No! ‖ Axis screamed, reaching around Caelum to grasp the blade in his bare hands.
― No! ‖
―Yes,‖ whispered StarLaughter.
Yes! whispered the voice of the rider through their minds, and he twisted the blade again,
and now Axis screamed, but still he held on to the blade, even though he could feel it slicing his
fingers away, trying, trying, trying to wrench it out of his son‘s chest.
―A foretaste of the hunt,‖ StarLaughter said conversationally, and then she, the children,
and the black rider disappeared.
The instant she felt the restraining arms vanish, Azhure fell down on top of her husband
and son. The blade was still embedded in Caelum‘s chest, and Axis still had his hands wrapped
about it.
Stricken, Azhure looked into Caelum‘s face.
―Drago!‖ he said, through a mouthful of clotting blood, and died.
Azhure blinked, and her son lay dead before her.
She blinked again, and her husband writhed screaming as he clutched his ruined hands to
his chest.
She blinked once more, and she found herself kneeling on the hard black surface of the
tunnel, staring at her husband and Caelum lying before her.
Perfectly whole.
The sword, the blood, the horror, all had disappeared.
StarLaughter took a deep breath, and opened her eyes back to awareness of the horse
beneath her and the cold winds of the Skarabost Plains whipping past her.
She turned her head slightly to look at the Demons.
They were all watching her with expressions half-ecstasy, half-wild amusement.
―He is weak,‖ StarLaughter said, ―and filled with hopelessness. If the StarSon can let a
vision impale him, then think what will happen when the real thing hunts him through the
Maze!‖
There was silence as the Demons and StarLaughter smiled at the thought.
It would be a good hunt.
―Those were the three,‖ said Mot, ―who, if there had been any power remaining, could
have wielded it.‖
Barzula smirked. ―The Mage-King of the Avar was useless.‖
― Everyone is useless!‖ cried Rox.
―Tencendor is ours,‖ Raspu said.
―Forever and ever and through all time,‖ Sheol said, and looked reverently at the child in
her lap.
They had, for the moment, forgotten about the two worrying magicians to the west.
27
Drago’s Ancient Relics
―Did you not live in southern Skarabost, Faraday?‖ Drago asked one night, idly stroking
the lizard as it cuddled against his thigh.
They were crouched in their cramped tent on the shores of the Nordra as it sliced through
the Western Ranges and the Rhaetian Hills. Drago had spent the best part of the day looking for
a boat, but had found none. In the morning they would continue their northward journey to
Gorkenfort on foot, crossing the Nordra when they found a ford or a boat. Faraday had remained
silent when Drago had mentioned Gorkenfort; he knew all too well of her need to go directly
north to Star Finger, and she knew it would be of no use to tell him yet again.
They sat shoulder by shoulder, with space not even for a fire. The terror raged outside,
and while they knew it could not touch them, the confinement of the tent was still preferable to
sitting outside by a fire with the Demons nibbling at their minds… why? why? why? During the
day they continued to travel through the Demonic Hours, ignoring the cold fingers of the grey
miasma as best they could, but at night they rested, both physically and spiritually, within the
warm comfort of the tent‘s interior.
Faraday took a long time to answer, and Drago was surprised that she finally did.
―Yes,‖ she said. ―On an estate called Ilfracombe. But it is far to the east of where we will
travel.‖
Her voice had a decided edge to it, but Drago ignored it. He also dreamed of the girl, but
he found his need to get to Gorkenfort greater, and he hoped that the answers he would find there
would also help solve the riddle of the girl.
―Do you still have family there?‖
―Why these questions?‖ she said, and raised her face. ―Will whether or not any of my
family survive or be damned, save or damn Tencendor in its turn?‖
Drago was horrified to see the brightness of tears in her eyes. ―Faraday…we will get to
the girl soon enough.‖
She was silent a long time, wiping the tears away with the back of a hand. It was not only
the fretting for the girl that made her irritable, but her growing feeling for this man now so close
to her.
Faraday didn‘t like that…she didn‘t like it at all.
―It is not just the girl,‖ she whispered. ―There is another wound which will not close.‖
This, at least, she would tell him.
Drago was silent, willing to let her tell him at her own pace.
―Before we left the Silent Woman Woods I said goodbye to Isfrael,‖ she said, her voice
stronger.
Drago remembered how curt Faraday had been when she‘d mentioned her talk with
Isfrael as they‘d left the Silent Woman Woods.
―I know,‖ he said gently.
Tears threatened again. ―I loved that child so much!‖ Faraday said, and she spread her
hands across her belly, as if she could still feel him growing inside of her. ―And I loved Axis so
much. I did so much for both of them. And yet both of them have preferred to cut me from their lives.
―Isfrael said…‖ Her voice broke. ―Isfrael said that he wished that just once I‘d been there
to rock him to sleep as a child.‖
Furious with both Axis and Isfrael for hurting Faraday so much, for continuing to hurt
her, Drago wrapped his arms about Faraday and hugged her close.
―Shhh, Faraday,‖ he whispered into her hair, gently rocking her. ―Shush now.‖
Very slowly and very hesitantly, as if she regretted every movement, he felt Faraday slide
her arms about him.
―I shouldn‘t have abandoned him,‖ she whispered. ―I shouldn‘t have abandoned him.‖
―Shush now, Faraday,‖ he said again. ―Shush.‖
They sat in silence, and gradually Drago rocked Faraday to sleep as if she were a child.
Drago dreamed.
But this night it was not the girl who intruded into his subconscious.
He dreamed he stood outside a great abandoned fortress of ice-covered black stone.
Winds and snow buffeted the fortress, and he had to fight to maintain his feet. The great gates
hung open on rusted hinges, and Drago struggled inside.
The courtyard was bare of anything but snow and ice drifts. Drago looked about,
shielding his eyes as best he could from the gusts of ice-needled wind.
Twenty paces away was the door into the Keep, and Drago slipped and slithered his way
across the courtyard, hoping the door was not bolted.
It opened with a painful squeal as he leaned against it, and Drago stumbled inside,
grateful to be out of the wind. But it was no warmer inside. Ice crept down stone walls and
cascaded in a frozen waterfall down the stairs.
They were impassable.
Drago walked slowly into the great hall, then stopped. Here a fire roared in the fireplace.
A table was set before it, and on that table lay a dead seal, its blank eyes staring in Drago‘s
direction.
There was a rustle of movement in a shadowed space at the rear of the hall, and Drago
swung his gaze in that direction.
A woman emerged from the shadows. She was tall and willowy, dressed in a pale grey
robe that clung to her form. Iron-grey hair, streaked with silver, cascaded down her back. On the
ring finger of her left hand she wore a circle of stars.
She had very deep blue eyes, and a red mouth, curved in a welcoming smile.
―North,‖ she whispered, and yet the whisper reached Drago easily. ―Come north to
Gorkenfort, Drago. Listen not to Faraday‘s pleadings. I have more need of you than the weeping girl.‖
Her smile widened momentarily, and then she moved gracefully to stand behind the table,
her back to the fire.
She continued to stare at Drago, and then suddenly, horrifically, she snarled, revealing
sharp fangs, and she bent to sink them into the spine of the seal.
Bones crackled, and blood spattered about the table.
She lifted her head. Her mouth and chin were red.
―Come north,‖ she said. ―I need to talk to you.‖
His mother. His ancestral mother…
Drago nodded, understanding even though he could put no words to his understanding,
and turned and left the dream.
Terror buffeted the tiny tent, and when dawn broke, hunger tried to poke its skeletal
fingers through the openings.
But the two inside did not notice, nor fear.
They slept.
Drago let Faraday sleep until it was full daylight.
―It‘s late!‖ she cried, springing into instant awareness. She pushed her hair back from her
face and hastily twisted it into a long plait down her back.