Sinner by Sara Douglass. Book One of The Wayfarer Redemption

Each present was silent, appalled. If that happened, then all power based on the use of the Star Dance would cease. All Icarü magic and enchantment would wink out of existence.

The Star Gods would become mortal.

“What is it?” Pors fretted. “What is it?”

Adamon shook his head helplessly. “I cannot know, I have seen nothing like this before. Nothing! I do not even have a name for it!”

“Well, I do,” a voice put in from the wastes behind him, and the gods turned about, startled.

WolfStar SunSoar stood there, a black cloak wrapped about his body, despair on his face.

“They are the TimeKeeper Demons,” he said. “And they are coming for what was stolen from them.”

There was utter silence for the space of several breaths.

Then Adamon rose to his feet. “And how is it that you know of them, WolfStar SunSoar? Have your misdeeds beyond death yet to impact on Tencendor? Do your sins bring these TimeKeeper Demons to ravage «s?”

“No, Adamon. I know of the TimeKeepers, but, for once,” he managed a small grin, “I am not responsible. May I sit?”

Adamon hesitated, then nodded, sitting himself.

WolfStar sat as close to the fire as he could, wrapping his cloak tightly about him.

“The TimeKeeper Demons are trouble,” he said. “Trouble loose in the universe. Catastrophe if they break through the Star Gate.”

“You met them beyond the Star Gate?” Axis asked. “Are they coming for yo«?”

WolfStar shook his head. “No, and no, although I think that with them they bring the children I threw into the Star Gate. I became aware of the TimeKeeper Demons in my time beyond the Star Gate, but their exact nature, name and purpose I discovered only after I had returned.

“First of all I should explain who, or rather, what, the TimeKeeper Demons are. They are a harmonious group of six demons, each of whom roams – hunts -through a particular period of the day or night. They are known as the TimeKeepers because no-one keeps such assiduous track of the passing hours as do they. There is Mot, the Demon of Hunger. He hunts at dawn. Barzula, the Demon of Tempest, hunts at midmorning. Sheol, Demon of Despair, hunts at midafternoon. Dusk belongs to Raspu, the Demon of Pestilence. And the night belongs to Rox, the Demon of Terror. They hunt for souls, for sustenance, and they prefer to call themselves the Questors. They quest, but always hunger, tempest, despair, pestilence and terror ride in their wake.”

“You said there were six,” said Narcis.

“The sixth is the reason the other five TimeKeepers have been battling for tens of thousands of years to find their way through the Star Gate into Tencendor. In their own way the five I have described are terrible enough, but the sixth is the worst of all. He is their leader, their father, their saviour. They are nothing without him.”

WolfStar paused and stared into the fire, but no-one spoke to disturb him. Finally he lifted his head.

“His name is Qeteb, the Destruction that wastes at midday. He is the Midday Demon. The others will nibble at your soul, but Qeteb will steal it and rape it for eternity.”

“Qeteb is here?” Adamon said. “He is somewhere in Tencendor? That’s why they are coming?”

“In a manner of speaking, Adamon. But let me tell the story. The TimeKeeper Demons, Qeteb among them, once ravaged free on a world far, far from here. There was a race on that world who were determined to break their power – and this they did. One day they trapped Qeteb -I can only imagine the courage and fortitude it took to do this – and they dismembered him. I talk not of a bodily dismemberment, but a dismemberment of his life, so to speak. They separated warmth, breath, movement and soul from his flesh, and they fled with them. They fled through the universe, using craft that had been designed for interstellar travel -”

“They used craft^ Xanon interrupted. “How… cumbersome.”

WolfStar shrugged. “They had a different kind of power to what we know, Xanon. Well, they fled through the universe on a journey that itself took many tens of thousands of our years. It ended here, on Tencendor. They crashed through the barriers that separated Tencendor from the universe -”

“Creating the Star Gate!” Adamon cried. “Yes, creating the Star Gate. Their four craft, for they used a different craft for each of Qeteb’s life parts, crashed into Tencendor, blasting out the craters that filled with the waters of the Sacred Lakes.”

“So the Lakes take their power from the remnants of the craft of these ancient ones?” Azhure said.

“Yes, although the craft are very much intact. The creatures within them died, but buried beneath the Lakes are what the craft have become in order to protect Qeteb’s life parts.”

“So how is it,” Zest asked, “that these Demons approach now? Is it just that their journey has taken many tens of thousands of years, and is only now reaching its culmination… or is it…”

“Something else,” WolfStar said. “You have seen the path of darkness they have left behind them in the past day. You have deduced how they block out the Star Dance as they draw closer – we have all felt a diminution in our abilities over the past weeks. They are now moving faster than they ever have before. I believe there is a very good reason for that speed… and for all of us to fear their imminent arrival.”

“What reason?” Axis hissed. His hand groped momentarily at his side, as if he still had a sword there.

“I think Drago is leading them to the Star Gate,” WolfStar said directly.

For the second time that night there was utter silence.

“What?” Axis whispered.

“Drago?” Azhure said, as ashen-faced as Axis.

“That filth, curse the day he was conceived, has murdered Orr and leapt through the Star Gate.”

Murdered Orr?

“But I don’t understand,” said Axis. “Drago has no powers. The Star Gate would have killed him. And even if he did survive and find his way to these Demons, how is it that Drago has the power to catapult them through the stars like that?”

WolfStar looked Axis in the eye. “Because his father did not have the foresight to hide the Rainbow Sceptre where it could never be found! In a room in Sigholt, by the Stars! You might as well have hung it on a pole outside the front gate!”

There was instant uproar about the fire. Axis leapt to his feet, yelling at WolfStar. Azhure jumped up with him, hanging on to his arm, trying to calm him, yet sending a myriad of questions towards WolfStar at the same time. Silton and Narcis were also on their feet, shouting not only at WolfStar, but at the entire heavens in general.

“Be quiet!” Adamon thundered, and silence fell upon the company.

“Be silent,” he repeated. “Now, I am going to ask WolfStar a series of questions, and I want no-one interrupting.” He shot Axis a furious glare and he subsided, Azhure at his side.

“Good. Silton? Narcis? Your places, if you please. WolfStar,” Adamon turned to the Enchanter, who had remained calm in the face of all the anger directed his way, “how is it that the Rainbow Sceptre can help the Demons move so fast?”

“Because it is in large part composed of the power of the craft of the ancient ones. I assume the Demons are using that power to catapult themselves forward.” “How do you know that Drago has the Sceptre?” WolfStar explained about the message Orr had sent from the Star Gate chamber. He recalled SpikeFeather’s vision for them, and the Star Gods watched in horror as Drago fought Orr, then killed him with the Sceptre.

“The Sceptre has gone from Sigholt, Axis,” WolfStar said. “Of course, if the enchantments that were supposed to hide it had been worked better -”

“Enough, WolfStar!” Adamon snapped. “But we did not know that Drago stepped through the Star Gate -”

“Faraday was there,” Axis put in, his voice quiet. “Did you not see her watching from the pillars?”

“Yes,” WolfStar said. “Faraday was there. She is now on the Island of Mist and Memory, inhabiting her human form once again.”

Axis and Azhure both jumped. With StarDrifter? “And you saw her?” Adamon asked. “Yes. She…” WolfStar hesitated, “she said that Drago fled through one of the passageways after murdering Orr. She said he must still be in Tencendor. But I do not believe her. I think she is lying to protect Drago.”

“Why would she do that?” Azhure asked. “She has no reason to like or admire him.”

“I do not know why, Azhure. But Faraday was lying, I am sure of it, and I think the certain proof lies in the trail of darkness we can see spreading through the stars. The Demons are on their way. Suddenly. With such power and vigour as they have never shown previously. I can only assume that, yes, Drago has passed over the Rainbow Sceptre to them.”