Pilgrim by Sara Douglas

His chair crashed to the floor behind him.

Zared rose to his feet, his hand now finally drawing his dagger.

―What?‖ he asked hoarsely. ―Have the creatures gained entrance?‖

―Not yet,‖ a voice said, and Drago stepped through the door and—rather

carefully—around the lizard. ―But it seems to me that the miasma of despair has truly worked its

horror within this room.‖

He stopped and looked at the three men. ―Tell me, why so sad?‖

Drago and Faraday sat on two chairs before the fire, Katie at Faraday‘s feet, their various

creatures curled up about the room, and grieved silently as first Zared and then Theod spoke of

the disasters that had befallen them.

―Why do you weep?‖ Theod said to Drago as he finished his tale. ―Have you not returned

successfully from the dead?‖

Drago hesitated in his reply, Theod‘s words making him pause for thought. ―I grieve for

all this land, Theod, and for you and Zared and Herme.‖

Theod‘s mouth twisted, and he turned his face aside.

Faraday rose from her chair and walked over to a far wall, ostensibly to inspect a wall

hanging, in reality to sorrow for Leagh in semi-privacy. Leagh! She didn‘t deserve such a

dreadful fate. But then, who did? Did Drago truly know what he was doing, allowing Tencendor

to be so ruined, and its people to be so decimated?

Katie, still sitting by Faraday‘s chair, looked between Drago and Faraday, her beautiful

eyes swimming with grief herself. No-one grieved more for Tencendor and its peoples than did

Katie.

Drago sighed. ―Faraday and I bring good news. Sanctuary is open—‖

―—for those still able to enjoy it,‖ Theod put in.

―Surely that must be enough!‖ Faraday cried, turning back from the wall. ―Those left

must be saved. Theod, how many are left in the western ranges, do you think?‖

He shrugged, almost uncaring in his cynicism and grief. ―It has been over a week, more,

since I left. Zared thinks all must now be…gone. I agree with him.‖

He paused. ―I went north to rescue twenty thousand, and ended by leading all to their

deaths. Every one of them. Gone.‖

―Including the Strike Force,‖ Drago said, and looked into the fire.

Including the Strike Force. His eyes stared dreamily into the fire. The Strike Force, lost to

the forces of madness.

―Where is this Sanctuary?‖ Zared asked, uncertain of Drago‘s reaction to this disastrous

news. ―And how do we reach it?‖ He eyed the girl curiously, but was not inclined to ask about

her. One small girl amid the tragedy that currently engulfed them was a problem that could be

left to later, more leisurely times.

Faraday glanced at Drago, still deep in thought, and answered, ―Sanctuary lies under

Fernbrake Lake.‖

―That would be death for anyone trying to reach it from Carlon!‖ Theod cried, and turned

and slammed his fist into the mantelpiece. ―Have you not seen how hemmed in we are? How we

sit and wait for starvation to claim us.‖

―The trip to Sanctuary will take little more than two hours for most people,‖ Drago said,

and looked up.

Theod merely raised his eyebrows disbelievingly.

―Spiredore,‖ Drago said softly.

―You can work Spiredore?‖ Zared said. ―But I thought…Axis said—‖

Drago shrugged. ―He should have trusted in Spiredore more. At the least it would have

saved him, Azhure and Caelum a difficult journey to Star Finger.‖

―How is Caelum?‖ Herme asked. ―Have he and his parents found any solution to the

Demons?‖

―Caelum has the means to do what he must,‖ Drago said. ―And I do what I can to make

the path easier for him.‖

Zared glanced at Faraday, who had dropped her eyes into her lap at Drago‘s statement,

then looked back to Drago.

―When do we start the evacuation?‖ he asked.

―Leave it several days, if only because there are still tens of thousands of Icarii filing

down into Sanctuary, and the arrival of Carlon‘s bulk would only create more chaos.‖

―So we just sit here until—?‖ Theod began.

―No.‖ Drago rose from his chair and picked up his staff. ―There are several things to be

done. First…Leagh.‖

53

The Enchanted Song Book

For two days the combined wisdom of Star Finger pondered the riddle of the Enchanted

Song Book. It was read, fingered, examined, held up to the light and gently tapped for hidden

spaces, and although Axis and Azhure shook their heads, as did the other Star Gods, and the

scholars admitted themselves perplexed, Caelum seemed unperturbed.

After two days, as his parents and Adamon uselessly thumbed through the book in

Caelum‘s apartment, he retrieved the book from their fingers, opened it up, and explained.

―Drago showed me how—‖

― Drago? ‖ Axis asked.

Caelum hesitated a little before answering. ―He learned well in his journey through the

Star Gate.‖

Axis bit back a tart reply. Drago had learned only treacheries, more like—and what

twisted advice had he now passed on to Caelum?

Caelum opened the book, and pointed to the strange scribblings that meandered up and

down lines.

―Yes, yes,‖ Adamon said, leaning over Axis‘ shoulder. ―A script, to be sure, but we know

of none like it, and it is not like that about the Maze Gate—‖

―Drago told me that it is written in the language of the ancient Enemy,‖ Caelum said,

―but it does not represent words, it represents—‖

―Music!‖ Azhure cried. ―It is music.‖

Caelum grinned and nodded. ―Yes. Songs…and once we decipher the music, and learn

the Songs, we will know to what purpose that can be put.‖

Axis slowly raised his head from the open book before him, and smiled.

Dance.

It did not take them long to decipher the script into music. The tune was easy, for the odd

black-fletched circles ran up and down a series of horizontal lines, and to merely follow their

progress was to decipher the tune.

Tone was a little more difficult, until Azhure noted the strange symbols at the start of

every tune, and wondered if it was they that set the tone. From there it was merely a process of

finding the tone that suited each symbol, and to a race which had spent its existence surrounded

by music, that was but child‘s play.

And once they‘d deciphered each Song and committed them to memory—again, a trifling

chore to those addicted to music—there was the problem of discovering the steps that suited each

Song.

Again, not a difficult task to those who were more Icarii than human, although all were

careful not to complete an entire dance lest they call some unknown and dreadful destruction

down upon themselves.

Within but a few days, Caelum not only had the book, he had the Dances the book

contained. Once again, hope drifted about the corridors of Star Finger.

―We must test this,‖ Caelum said one morning, as the dawn miasma cleared to reveal a

glorious clear day atop Star Finger.

―I agree,‖ Axis said, and walked some way about the platform that encircled the huge

central shaft which fed light and air into the mountain.

They were alone on the peak. Caelum and his father had made it a habit to stroll the

heights each morning to watch the miasma disappear. It always vanished from the high places

first, and as they emerged, they could see the grey, bleak haze sliding down the mountain and

rippling over the plains, back towards its source.

―They must be close to Fernbrake Lake now,‖ Axis murmured, watching the miasma

contract to a point far in the south.

―Yes. Father, I must meet them at Grail Lake.‖

Axis nodded, opened his mouth to say something, and then involuntarily ducked as

something dark swooped down from the out of the sun.

Caelum suppressed a cry, remembering not only Gorgrael‘s plunge from the sky, but also

the Gryphon that had attacked him and Azhure atop Spiredore.

It was a lone Hawkchild, and it contented itself with one swoop, not daring to attack on

its own.

―No doubt reporting our movements to its masters,‖ Caelum said, biting down nausea.

―What better time to test out the dances,‖ Axis said. Stars! How he wished this was his

battle to execute. ―Think only of the Hawkchild, direct all your concentration to it, direct the

dance to it…and see what happens.‖

Caelum squinted into the sun. The Hawkchild was circling high in the sky above him.

He lowered his eyes to his father, and gave a curt nod.

Axis stepped well back, giving Caelum full use of the space availab le.

Caelum stood for a while, his head down, thinking and focusing his concentration. Which

one to attempt? Eventually he decided that any would be as good as the next, for he could not

know what any of them would do until he tried it.

And so he picked one of the shorter dances, one with savage staccato foot and leg

movements and angry, violent body rhythms. Savage anger was something Caelum felt like