his claws firmly tucked underneath his body. He wanted nothing more to do with enchantments from that Book.
The white and marmalade cat was curled up behind him, watching DragonStar carefully.
“I cannot use this Book,” DragonStar eventually whispered.
“Use it you must,” Katie said, “or all who have sacrificed themselves before you, and who will sacrifice themselves in the future for you, will have done so in vain.”
DragonStar straightened and stared at the girl. “The Book contains nothing but foulness.”
Katie stared at him.
“Dammit! What is its secret? How do I use it!” She continued to stare silently at him. “You have most to lose, damn you — so tell me its secret!”
“I cannot,” Katie said, her voice sad. “You must learn it for yourself.”
DragonStar fought an overwhelming urge to throw the Book across the room, then he forced himself to relax, slowly rotating his neck and shoulders, and finally offered Katie his hand. “I am sorry.”
She smiled and slipped her hand into his. “You should already have learned one lesson,” she said. “What was it?”
DragonStar almost grated his teeth, then chose to think it carefully through. “Envy consumed me,” he finally said, “and I could not control it.”
“And what broke the spell that Envy had thrown over you?”
“The cat,” Drago whispered. “Unconditional love.”
Katie nodded, and kissed his hand.
Faraday found them sitting on a pillowed bench seat in a window. The view beyond the glass panes was breathtaking: gardens and ponds stretched over several leagues to where the enclosing blue-cliff walls of Sanctuary rose.
“It’s so beautiful,” Faraday said as she sat on the other side of Katie.
DragonStar turned his head from the window and smiled at her over the girl’s head. It is cloying, he wanted to say, but he could not explain his emotions, so he merely nodded.
“What have you two been doing?” Faraday said, sensing the remaining tension.
DragonStar sighed, and indicated the Enchanted Song Book lying on the end of the seat. “I have been playing about with that.”
“And does it tell you what you need to know?”
“Yes,” said Katie, and DragonStar shot her a mildly irritated glance.
“It tells me many things,” DragonStar said, “and all of them uncomfortable.”
Faraday looked between DragonStar and Katie, her face growing more puzzled. She slid her arms about the girl and drew her back into her body, an instinctively protective gesture.
“Can you … we … fight against the Demons with what the Book tells you?” Faraday said.
DragonStar shifted even more uncomfortably. “The Book is filled with the Demons’ hatred and horror,” he said. “I know I should use it … mirror it back to destroy the Demons —”
Faraday felt Katie tremble in her arms, and she glanced down, worried.
“— but it feels so repulsive … so …”
“Whatever it takes to destroy the Demons will surely be taxing,” Faraday said.
DragonStar finally raised his face and looked her full in the eyes. “I am very much afraid,” he said, “that if I use that Book I will turn into a Demon myself. I do not think I will be able to stop myself.”
Chapter 15 The Secrets of the Book
DragonStar tucked the Book under one arm and considered the lizard carefully.
“You stay here for the moment,” he said. “I will be back for you.”
The lizard dropped its head, its emerald and scarlet crest deflating mournfully, and turned away.
Faraday’s mouth quirked. “It is just as well he does not speak.”
“He does not have to.”
“Will you take the hounds, and the horse?”
DragonStar hesitated.
“DragonStar, please, take them.”
He nodded.
“And be careful in Spiredore.”
“I will be more than careful. I will use only its power to transfer myself into the Field of Flowers. I will not enter the tower itself.”
Faraday stared at him, knowing his words were useless bravado. Even if they only used the power of Spiredore to transfer from one location to the next, DragonStar, as any of them, would be vulnerable in that instant they stepped through the doorway.
For in that instant, if they were unwary, or unlucky, or damned by Fate itself, Qeteb could snatch at them. They could only hope that he didn’t spend his entire time wandering the stairwells of Spiredore.
“Not he,” DragonStar said softly. “But he might have any one of his Demons patrolling. Faraday … I will be careful.”
She leaned forward and hugged him, longing for that time when their fight against the Demons was truly over and she and he could find the time to indulge, and relax into, their love. “I hope Caelum can help.”
“And if not he, then there is one other I can turn to,” DragonStar said, but he was gone before Faraday could ask who this “other” was.
She sighed, and sat back on the window bench with Katie. “I am so glad you are safe here,” she said, stroking the girl’s head. “I could not bear it if you were exposed to danger again.”
Katie smiled, and looked away.
DareWing felt a savage glee as he wheeled his Strike Force through the skies above the Field of Flowers.
They were superb.
Death had altered them, but only to give them a greater purpose, and a more lethal desire.
DareWing flew among them, almost lost in the swirl of jewel-bright wings and eyes and the haunting shadows and shapes of their silvery liquid bodies. The members of the Strike Force had lost none of their ability, or their tight discipline.
They wanted to hunt, to fight back, to strike.
And why not? thought DareWing. Stay here, DragonStar had said, until I need you, but DareWing was impatient with the waiting. When was DragonStar returning? In the wasteland there was corruption to be cleared, and DareWing and the Strike Force were doing
