balance will be restored.”
“How?” asked Goldman.
DragonStar lowered his eyes, remembering his long disquiet about Niah, but not knowing why he was so disquieted. “Niah,” he said. “Niah will become the fifth Demon.”
Everyone stilled, dismayed at the thought, and yet instinctively feeling the truth of it.
Niah would become the fifth Demon … and yet … yet all felt that peculiar, edgy dissatisfaction that DragonStar did.
There was something else about Niah. Something else they should all know and understand.
StarGrace entered Spiredore, and hungered. She had been a SunSoar Enchanter once, and heir to the throne, if StarLaughter’s child had not survived. And he hadn’t really, had he?
So, theoretically, she — StarGrace — should now be Talon. If only WolfStar hadn’t embarked on his murderous ambition.
WolfStar, WolfStar, WolfStar!
StarGrace ran the name in a litany of hate through her head. WolfStar! When would Qeteb throw them at WolfStar?
Ah! She calmed herself, remembering the instructions Qeteb gave her. There would be time enough for WolfStar.
StarGrace cocked her bird-like head to one side and regarded the interior of the tower. This was the first time she’d ever been inside. During her lifetime in this land only Icarii Enchanter-Talons had been allowed to know Spiredore’s secrets.
Above her the tower seemingly rose into infinity in a misfit collection of stairways and crazily-canted balconies. Nothing made sense — no stairways linked to balconies, and no balcony gave way to any room.
There was, apparently, nowhere to go.
Except that Qeteb had given her a destination, hadn’t he?
“Spiredore,” StarGrace said in chirp-like tones that she thought might please the tower, “take me to Tencendor’s lost peoples.”
And she folded her black wings neatly at her back, and set her clawed feet to the first steps of the stairway that led upwards from the floor of the tower.
“You said that you and I must return first, DragonStar?” DareWing asked.
“Yes,” DragonStar said. “For two reasons. One, I need to know if Spiredore is still useful.”
“Is it our only link with the Field of Flowers?” Leagh said. She was still trying to come to terms with her spurt of fear at the idea that she’d be needed to battle one of the Demons. Her? What of her child? In what danger would she place it?
“We can only approach the Field through the wasteland that was Tencendor,” DragonStar affirmed. “And unless I can find another route, or unless we want to climb the stairs through the Keep, Spiredore is our best way to reach the wasteland. But I don’t want to risk everyone in the finding out whether the Demons have penetrated Spiredore yet —”
“Would they manage to enter Sanctuary?” Faraday asked. Gods, if they managed that…!
“No. They might find out where Sanctuary is, but they will not be able to break through its protective enchantments.”
And yet … DragonStar’s mind was consumed with the impression he’d had when he’d originally seen Sanctuary; it had looked just like one of the worlds the Demons had dragged him through in their leaps through space towards Tencendor.
What if there was a flaw? What if the Demons could find their way in?
Stars! Where would the peoples go then?
DragonStar gave himself a mental shake to get rid of the negative thoughts. The Enemy had built this place, and they’d damn well meant it as a Sanctuary against the Demons. They knew what they were doing, didn’t they?
“Are you sure?” Faraday asked, and DragonStar sent her a reassuring smile.
“Of course. Now, I want to take DareWing with me,” DragonStar turned to the birdman and managed a considerably more genuine smile, “not only for the company, but because there is something I need to show him. Something he, as we, will need in our battle to reclaim the wasteland.”
“And that is…” DareWing said.
“Your army,” DragonStar said, and then laughed at the hungry expression that filled DareWing’s face.
Chapter 10 A Busy Day in Spiredore
T ake me to the lost peoples of Tencendor, StarGrace had asked, and Spiredore did. StarGrace walked up a series of stairways, across a myriad of balconies, and eventually Spiredore grew merciful on her aching legs and simmering temper, and led her to a short tunnel of blue mist.
At the end of the tunnel StarGrace could see the milling forms of a score of people, and she laughed.
“Maybe Qeteb will allow me my revenge on WolfStar for this service,” she cried, and stepped into the blue-misted tunnel to see just where this new StarSon had hidden the millions of souls the Demons so hungered for.
When she’d almost reached the end of the tunnel, StarGrace halted and stared, her eyes draining of all their triumph.
Then she snarled. This damned tower had thought to amuse itself at her expense!
Spiredore had indeed led her to the lost peoples of Tencendor … but not the hidden peoples. Beyond the end of the tunnel StarGrace could discern a cave, and in that cave huddled and whispered and scampered a score of crazed humans. They had torn off (or eaten) their clothes, and now were naked, clothed only in sores and abrasions. Their maddened eyes shifted constantly, and they scratched at themselves and at the others who shifted past them.
“Ssssss!” StarGrace almost fell over in her haste to get back inside Spiredore. Stars alone knew where that cave was, and she didn’t want to waste time flying back to Spiredore (and a waiting and impatient Qeteb) to start all over again.
She relaxed slightly as her feet clicked onto the boards of a stairway again, and she halted, and spoke with some aspersion.
“Spiredore, take me to the place where StarSon has hidden the peoples of Tencendor.”
And she set her feet to the stairs before her.
“My army?” DareWing said as he and DragonStar walked along the road towards the place where the silvery bridge had once spanned the chasm. DragonStar had left the Star Stallion, the Alaunt and the lizard in Sanctuary, saying he wanted only to risk what was necessary, but he carried the Wolven and its quiver of arrows over his back.
“Who do you think?” DragonStar said.
DareWing frowned, and then a thought so extraordinary occurred to him that he halted, and grabbed DragonStar’s shoulder. “But they’re dead!”
“So were
