The dawn was still and cold, and Faraday stood at the lip of the southern cliff of the mount, seeming not to notice the thousand-foot drop beneath her. She shivered, more in delight than discomfort, and wrapped her arms about herself. She loved standing here, looking out into the great southern ocean, watching the waves roll in, feeling the salty wind push back her hair.
It smelt of freedom. If she wished she could step off the cliff and die, or she could turn and walk back to the priestesses’ dormitory for breakfast.
Which?
She laughed, revelling in the fact that she had a choice, and felt rather than heard StarDrifter land on the grass behind her.
She half turned her head and grinned. “Come to save me, StarDrifter?”
He returned her smile briefly, took the step between them and wrapped his arms about her.
“You’re cold.”
“I’m alive.”
His arms tightened, and Faraday relaxed back into them. Faraday shared a deep companionship with StarDrifter. A friend, she thought, for all life and through all future lives.
“Zenith is closer,” she murmured, and his arms tightened.
“Where?”
“Drifting the shadow-seas between Nor and this island.”
“When?” His voice was tight, anxious.
“I hope to find her on the shadow-pier of Pirates’ Town tonight.”
“And then it will be only days until she reaches the Mount?”
“Only days, StarDrifter. You will have your granddaughter back soon.”
“Axis and Azhure should be caring for her, helping her to find her way home.”
Faraday was silent for a long moment, then she shrugged in his arms. “We love her, StarDrifter, and we help her.”
They stood a while in silence, then Faraday became aware that StarDrifter was distracted, and very, very worried.
“What is it?” she asked.
StarDrifter stood back. “Faraday, at dawn one of the priestesses hurried into my chamber. She had disturbing news.”
“What?”
He took a great breath. “There is something wrong with the Temple of the Stars.”
StarDrifter led her up the small rise towards the Temple of the Stars, and Faraday realised as soon as she saw it that something was indeed badly wrong. The Temple was constructed entirely of a great beacon of cobalt light that speared into the sky. Within the light, stars danced and swayed.
But today a dark stain also danced and swayed within the light. It had cut a great swathe through the beacon, consuming ribbons of stars and, in two instances, entire galaxies.
“What is it?” StarDrifter whispered. “What? I can feel it reflected in my own soul, and it mutes the sound of the Star Dance. Faraday, I have not thought to worry you, but over past weeks I have felt something wrong with my own powers, and all the other Enchanters on the island have felt much the same. I had wondered if it was WolfStar, perhaps, playing his tricks, but now I realise it has been caused by this… this cancer that eats its way through the stars. See how the beacon flickers! What is it?”
Faraday chewed her lip. Had Drago somehow done this? No, she thought not… not with what Noah had told her about him. But Drago was surely, surely caught up in it.
“What is wrong,” StarDrifter cried, “to have caused this?”
“What is wrong, StarDrifter?” Axis’ angry voice said behind them. “Demons come to destroy the Star Dance and ravage this world, that is what is wrong. And Drago leads them.”
Faraday and StarDrifter turned around. Axis and Azhure stood a few paces away. Both their faces were hard, their eyes angry.
Axis shifted his gaze from his father to stare at Faraday. The last time he’d seen her in the flesh had been in Gorgrael’s chamber, watching him rip her to shreds in a futile attempt to stop Axis from destroying him.
And here she stood again, serene, lovelier than he remembered, and standing too familiarly close to his father. Axis had thought himself immune to jealousy, had thought himself over his love for Faraday, but now he found himself seething with some undefinable anger. Faraday… and his father!
“Faraday?” Azhure asked. “What are you doing back in human form?”
“I’m free,” Faraday said.
“How?”
“Azhure, what does it matter ‘how’?”
“Ah!” StarDrifter said impatiently. “Axis, explain this!” And his hand swept towards the blight in the beacon.
Speaking in short, terse sentences, Axis told Faraday and StarDrifter what the Star Gods had learned from WolfStar. Demons. TimeKeepers. Come for Qeteb. Their approach blocking out the Star Dance. A future bleaker than the worst black ice.
StarDrifter stood appalled, his mind racing to comprehend what Axis was telling him. A future without the Star Dance? Without enchantments?
Faraday, on the other hand, nodded quietly to herself. It explained a great deal to her about Drago.
Azhure saw her reaction, and her mouth thinned. “You saw Drago,” she said. “In the Star Gate chamber.”
Faraday sighed. “Yes.”
“Do you know what he has done?”
Faraday blinked at the anger in Azhure’s voice. “No. Tell us, what has Drago done?”
“He has murdered RiverStar -” Axis said.
“I have heard he was so accused,” Faraday said quietly.
“- and Orr and he is now well on the way to destroying all I have built, all we fought for -”
“And died for,” Faraday observed.
“Drago is intent on the utter destruction of Tencendor!” Axis shouted. “See that blight? It is Drago’s doing!”
“No,” Faraday said quietly. “I cannot believe that.” Axis battled with his fury. “How is it that you stand there, Faraday, with your face so serene, and condone all that he has done!”
Faraday raised an eyebrow. “I? Condone?” “You have protected him,” Azhure said, her tone flat. “You told WolfStar that he had fled back through one of the passageways that connects the Star Gate with the outer world. Yet we know he went through the Star Gate. Why did you lie to protect him?”
Faraday stood silent, thinking of how she could answer. So many people misunderstood Drago. His parents. Caelum. WolfStar. Faraday could not blame them, for as yet they did not understand what she did. Yet she had no right to reveal Noah’s confidences, to explain that Drago was not quite the enemy most thought.
She almost smiled. Sometimes it paid to lie down with the enemy.
“I thought,” she eventually answered, her voice very even, “that Drago deserved to be protected by someone, just as Zenith deserves to be protected and loved.”
Azhure blinked. “Zenith?”
Axis ignored the sudden change in topic. “Drago,” he hissed through clenched teeth, “currently leads a group of murderous Demons to the Star Gate so he can gain Tencendor for his own!”
“Only Caelum can face them,” Azhure added. “Yet he needs the Rainbow Sceptre – and Drago has handed it to the Demons!”
“Then you have a troublesome puzzle to solve,” Faraday said lightly. “But how can StarDrifter and I help? We have our own problems here.”
“Damn you!” Axis cried, and looked at his father. “StarDrifter? Every Enchanter’s powers are fading, as are ours! This is going to become your problem, whether you like it or not.”
“Faraday,” StarDrifter said softly. “Perhaps it would be best to tell Axis what you can.”
She shrugged, and looked at Axis. “What do you want to know, Axis?”
He suppressed a movement of irritation. “Tell us what else you know about Drago,” he said. “What did he say? What did he do? What is his purpose?”
“Drago has ever kept his purpose to himself, it seems,” Faraday replied. “He did not share his innermost secrets with me, Axis. In fact, he hardly said a word.”
Axis turned away, furious with Faraday that she had lied yet again, furious that she had allied herself with his cursed son. Was this just another revenge to pay him back for his betrayal of her? Was she prepared to watch Tencendor torn apart to gain her feminine satisfaction?
“Axis,” StarDrifter said, “what can we do? About the Demons, about the loss of power, about…” and he gestured towards the beacon.
“Ah.” Axis’ face lost all its anger. “StarDrifter, at the moment no-one truly knows. But know that the Star Gods will do our best. If you can help, then I will contact you.”
StarDrifter nodded, understanding Axis’ frustration -the frustration of every Star God and Enchanter in this land – and there was silence between the four for a while. Then the Enchanter lifted his head and looked back at his son and Azhure.
“Axis, Azhure,” he said. “There are other matters that we must discuss. Do you not want to ask after Zenith?”
“Zenith?” Azhure said, frowning at the change of topic. “I do not even know where she is.”
Faraday stared at her. Were Axis and Azhure so lost in their antipathy for Drago that they had ignored their youngest child’s problems?
“Zenith is here,” she said. “In a manner. Azhure… did you know that she carried within her the seed of Niah’s soul?”