Blood ran in rivulets down his body and stained the snow.
An IceWorm, come to eat you!
And Belaguez could see the frightful horse-head of the worm plunging for his body,
could see it vomiting its Skraelings until he was covered in the writhing wraiths.
Danger! Danger!
Something surged within the old horse, some vague memory of strength, and a sudden
spurt of his old intelligence and cunning. He gave a huge buck and then, instead of landing on
stiff, splayed legs, allowed himself to collapse, rolling over in the snow.
Urbeth lost her grip, and she was thrown several paces.
In one smooth movement, strange in such an ancient horse, Belaguez gained his feet and,
instead of running, attacked. His head snaked down towards Urbeth, still lying on the ground,
and she seized his nose in her jaws.
Blood sprayed about them, and Belaguez shook his head, trying to dislodge her.
He was angry now, very angry, and fear seemed a thing of the past.
Urbeth suddenly let go, and although Belaguez slipped, he re-found his balance almost
instantly. He reared, bringing his stiff forelegs down on Urbeth.
She rolled out of the way barely in time, and scrambled to her feet. She reached out a
huge paw and raked it down Belaguez‘s exposed shoulder, and the horse screamed in fury.
Again he turned and attacked, and now the bear was laughing, and doing enough only to
tease the stallion and to keep just out of his reach.
Belaguez! Belaguez! Do you want to run, Belaguez?
The stallion stopped and stared at the bear, his ears flickering uncertainly. He was
streaked with blood, but under that blood his flesh seemed firmer, his neck more muscled, his
belly tauter than it had been previously.
Do you want to fight, Belaguez?
The stallion reared and screamed, his fore-hooves plunging through the air. Urbeth
reached out with a lazy paw and again swiped it through the air, but this time it did not come
near the horse. Instead, a spray of tiny stars fanned out from her paw and caught themselves in
the stallion‘s plunging mane and tail.
He halted, surprised, then lowered his head and shook it, snorting.
―Run, Belaguez,‖ Urbeth whispered, and the magnificent white and silver stallion
pranced about uncertainly, not knowing what to make of the stars that blazed out from his
forehead and neck and streamed from his haunches.
Suddenly he reared and screamed again. The dream was gone, forgotten, and Belaguez
was alive and young and angry, and he needed something to vent that anger on.
Run, Belaguez! South! South! South!
And Belaguez plunged one more time, shaking his head at Urbeth, and then he was
through the Keep‘s gate and skidding through the deserted streets of Gorkentown.
He exploded through the town‘s gates into the snow-covered wastes beyond, a shifting
apparition of white and silver.
South! South! South!
South! Nothing stood in his way. A league south of Gorkenfort a Demon-controlled bull
plunged at him, but Belaguez sailed into a mighty leap that carried him well over the bull and
five paces the other side. His nostrils flared red and he screamed again, but he did not stop to
challenge the bull. He ran south, ever south, sometimes so indistinct against the snow he seemed
only a streaming, glittering whirlwind.
The terror of the night could not touch him, and the hunger of the dawn shaken off
without thought.
Risen from death, and filled with the magic of the land his bones had lain on for twenty
years, Belaguez ran south, an angry foam of stars.
42
The Lake of Life
They sat their black beasts and stared into the waters of the Lake of Life. The trip through
the blue mists surrounding Sigholt had not been difficult; the mists had hindered, but not overly,
and the Demons had laughed at the inefficiencies of the bridge‘s magic.
―She is such an inconsequential thing,‖ Sheol had observed as they had ridden to the
shores of the Lake, ―but irritating. And after we finish here, then I think we
might…remove…her.‖
And yet even as she boasted of the bridge‘s destruction, Sheol, as all the Demons, felt the
first stir of danger emanating from the Keep. Something was wrong there. Something dangerous.
Something…something to be wary of.
Did the Enemy somehow—impossibly—wait in its shadows?
―This Lake is still water,‖ StarLaughter said, not realising the concerns shared by the
Demons. Her child was clasped, as ever, protectively to her breast. ―How do we enter the Repository?‖
―With ease,‖ Barzula said. ―The waters will not hinder us. And after we have collected
what we need from here, we will have to go down no more.‖
―What do you mean?‖ StarLaughter asked.
―You will see,‖ Rox replied, irritatingly obtuse. He looked at the child in StarLaughter‘s
arms, and his gaze softened slightly.
―Your boy,‖ he said, placing a very slight—and somewhat sarcastic—emphasis on the
your, ―will be too large to carry once breath has infused his body. You will have to relinquish him to his mount.‖
StarLaughter glanced at the spare black mount, and her face suffused with a deep
unreadable emotion.
―Soon,‖ she whispered. ―Soon! After so many years.‖
The Demons turned back to a contemplation of the Lake‘s surroundings. Directly across
from them was a substantial town.
Deserted. A few doors swung in the wind, and a shutter slammed shut so violently the
Demons heard the sound from across the Lake.
―They have fled,‖ Raspu observed.
The others shrugged. ―It will do them little good,‖ Sheol replied. ―We shall feed from
them eventually.‖
From the town their eyes drifted over the similarly deserted barracks of the Lake Guard
and, as the barracks held no interest for them, continued around the curve of the Lake to the great
silvery stone Keep of Sigholt itself.
―Magic,‖ Sheol said in a soft voice. ―StarLaughter? Tell me what you know of this
place.‖
StarLaughter adjusted her child a little more comfortably. ―Sigholt is a place of great
magic, although few know where it originates, nor even how to use it. When I lived in this land
as wife to WolfStar, it was used part as a residence for the Talon and his family, and part as a
staging post on the long flight from the Minaret Peaks to our summer palace in Talon Spike. The
bridge guards Sigholt, and demands of all who enter if they are true, or not.‖
―True to what?‖ Rox asked.
StarLaughter shrugged. ―I do not know. And when I lived, and entered Sigholt, the bridge
always let me past.‖
Barzula stared at her, then burst into loud laughter. ―But you are hardly ‗true‘,
StarLaughter! Not to this land, nor to anything in this land!‖
StarLaughter kept her eyes on the Keep. ―I was then,‖ she said softly.
―The question must be,‖ Rox said, ignoring both Barzula‘s mirth and StarLaughter‘s
reply, ―is the Keep still magic? If so, why? Where does the magic emanate from? The Star Dance is dead, and surely this Keep has little connection to the great forests far to the east.‖
―And which we will shortly deal with, anyway,‖ Sheol said, almost automatically. ―But if
the Keep is still enchanted, then how?‖
She paused, then turned slightly so she could see all her companion Demons. ―It makes
me uncomfortable, for I would know why.‖ Her voice changed, became harder. ―As I would
know how Drago survived the Star Gate.‖
The TimeKeepers had come to repent of their tardiness in disposing of Drago. They‘d
been distracted by those magicians, still not found, and by the time they‘d thought to look for
Drago, he‘d disappeared.
There was silence as all contemplated Drago.
―When we find him,‖ StarLaughter eventually said, ―may I kill him?‖
―Why is it you claim all the joy in revenge and killing?‖ Barzula asked, a petulant lilt in
his voice. ―First you want WolfStar, now Drago.‖
She shrugged slightly. ―They both thought to use me.‖
―When we find Drago again,‖ Sheol said, ―he is mine! He thought to trick me of his death
once…he will not do it again.‖
StarLaughter thought about protesting her right to Drago, then let it drop. Sheol seemed
particularly strident over this issue, and besides, her revenge on WolfStar would be sweet enough
by itself.
―As you wish,‖ StarLaughter said, and Sheol smiled at her.
Always as I wish, you irritating birdwoman.
―Now,‖ Sheol said, and turned to Raspu, ―will you work your magic on this Lake?‖
Raspu bared his teeth, and hissed. He dropped the reins of his horse, and flexed his
fingers into claws.
Watching, StarLaughter was struck by how skeletal they seemed.
With jerky movements, almost as if he was consumed by a desire so great his muscles
had gone into involuntary spasm, Raspu threw a leg over his mount‘s wither, slid to the ground,
and tore the clothing from his body.
He stood, naked and trembling, staring at the water.
StarLaughter suppressed a grimace. Raspu‘s body was so emaciated his bones almost