Читать книгу Crusader - Sara Douglass - Страница 14

They stood before the seven-sided, white-walled tower and hated.

“It stinks of the Enemy,” Sheol said. “Badly.” Qeteb did not speak. He sat his black beast and regarded the tower thoughtfully.

Finally he turned his head slightly to where StarLaughter half-sat, half-crouched on the ground. “Tell me of its nature,” he said.

StarLaughter hissed.

Something frightful reached out from Qeteb and sunk deep talons into StarLaughter’s mind, and she screamed, writhing amid the dirt.

“Spiredore! Its name is Spiredore!”

“You are such a fount of information,” Qeteb said. “Mother dear.”

The other Demons giggled.

StarLaughter quieted, but her eyes never left Qeteb’s form.

She had been a fool to allow this Demon to steal her son! Could she yet save her boy? Was there something to be done that might mean —

“Your son died thousands of years ago,” Qeteb said. “Nothing can bring him back. Resign yourself to a worthless and unwanted motherhood, StarLaughter.”

Her eyes glinted.

Qeteb took no notice. “Tell me about this tower.”

StarLaughter thought about remaining silent, but her lust for revenge had imbued her with a strong sense of self-preservation. She knew Qeteb was now only looking for the merest hint of an excuse to kill her.

Qeteb shifted slightly, and StarLaughter spoke. “Only a very few Icarii have ever been able to use the tower. Its secret was closely guarded.”

Sheol muttered irritably, but Qeteb sat his mount silently, waiting.

“Nevertheless…” StarLaughter smiled, remembering how powerful she had once been, and how great her destiny was bound to be, “I have eyes with which to observe, and a mind with which to think —”

Mot sniggered.

“ — and I believe that the tower will take a person — maybe any who ask it — wherever they wish to go. Even its name points to its actions. It is a spire and it is a door.”

Qeteb sat, staring at the Icarii woman, knowing she spoke the truth. A useful piece of Enemy magic, then, he thought, and pondered its implications. Could he use it? Perhaps. Was it a trap? Possibly … possibly …

Could he risk the trap?

He turned his head and regarded the other Demons. He could send one of them …

No. Rox was gone — for the moment — and Qeteb did not want to risk the others. Qeteb’s eyes flickered over Niah, but she was an impossible choice. Niah had no soul with which to form the question, let alone a desire strong enough to make Spiredore act.

Who else?

Ah, of course! The Midday Demon lifted a mailed hand and beckoned.

A dark shape spiralled down from the sky and alighted before the Demons. It was StarGrace SunSoar.

“Great Father,” she said, and bowed before him.

“StarGrace,” Qeteb said. “I have a task for you.”

StarLaughter looked at StarGrace, looked at Qeteb, and wondered. Would the Hawkchilds join her in exacting a revenge upon Qeteb (he had stolen her son!), or would they remain blind to the Demon’s duplicity, and continue to obey him?

StarGrace did not even look at StarLaughter, and bowed her head as Qeteb spoke to her. Once he had finished, she moved quickly to do his bidding.

And still she did not look at StarLaughter.

StarLaughter’s mouth thinned. She was alone, then.

Faraday blinked, and they were standing under a crystal dome in the midst of a field of flowers.

She blinked again, and she was standing with her four companions in an apple orchard in Sanctuary. A movement caught her eyes. It was DareWing, fully healed, stretching his glossy wings in the sun.

He smiled at her, but Faraday noted that the expression in his eyes had changed. No doubt, she thought, the expression in all of their eyes had changed.

“My witches,” said a warm, humorous voice, and Faraday’s smile widened.

DragonStar rejoined the group from the shade of an apple tree. He regarded them all carefully, and gave each a small nod and a smile, but otherwise made no remark on their final evolution.

What will he do? thought Faraday, and then the next thought sprang almost immediately into her mind. What will he do with us?

“Faraday?” said a small voice, and Faraday turned quickly.

Katie ran out from behind the same tree DragonStar had been sheltering under, and Faraday held out her arms and embraced her.

“She will stay with us for the time being,” DragonStar said. “But when we venture back into the wasteland it would be safer if she stayed here in Sanctuary.”

Thank all stars and gods in existence he isn’t going to expose her to danger, Faraday thought, and planted a kiss on the girl’s shiny brown curls.

“When do we go back to the wasteland?” DareWing asked, his voice thick with an emotion that Faraday only belatedly realised was the need for revenge.

“We will all need to go back,” DragonStar said, “but you and I will return first, DareWing. No, wait, let me speak before you all bombard me with questions. Will you sit? This orchard is secluded enough for us to talk without interruption.”

They settled themselves in a circle, Katie resting with her head on Faraday’s lap.

As Faraday looked up from Katie, she caught Leagh looking at the girl with an odd expression on her face.

The instant Leagh realised Faraday had seen it she wiped her face clear of any interest in the girl. Katie had her own destiny, as did Leagh’s child, and she could do nothing to change either.

Faraday wanted to ask Leagh why she’d looked so at Katie, but before she could speak DragonStar began to talk.

“Tencendor can be reborn,” he said, “but it must first be cleared of all its corruption.”

“The Demons?” Gwendylyr said. There was a tendril of black hair hanging un-neat across her forehead, and Gwendylyr lifted a hand as if to pat it back into place, but her hand hesitated, then dropped. Gwendylyr left the strand to its own devices.

“Yes,” DragonStar said, “but also of all the crazed animals and … and …”

And the maniacal people crawling about, he almost said, but could not. But even with the thought unspoken, DragonStar could see the knowledge in everyone’s eyes anyway.

“Which first?” Goldman said.

DragonStar hesitated, and ran the tip of his tongue over his lips. “Ideally, the Demons first,” he eventually said, “but we, you five as well as I, need to be stronger before we can attempt their destruction.”

Katie lifted her head at the latter words and stared briefly at DragonStar, then she dropped her face back into Faraday’s lap. Her shoulders shuddered slightly.

No-one noticed her reaction, save Faraday, who assumed Katie had shivered with the gentle breeze blowing through the orchard. She pulled a section of her skirt around Katie, far more concerned at DragonStar’s words.

Faraday and the other four had shared concerned glances. “Talk to us,” Faraday said. “What do you mean?”

DragonStar took a deep breath. “I am StarSon, and Qeteb will be my battle,” he said. “But the other Demons —”

“Ah,” Goldman said, understanding, “as you will be responsible for Qeteb’s destruction, so will each of us be responsible for one of the other Demons.”

“Yes. It is preordained. Five of them, five of you.”

“But, how can each of us contend with one of the Demons!” Leagh said. Her face was almost panicked, and she’d placed both her hands protectively over her belly. “I can’t —”

“Right here and now,” DragonStar said, his tone and eyes gentle as he regarded Leagh, “you can’t. No, I agree. We need experience and perhaps even some more knowledge before we can dare the Demons. But eventually each of us will have our task to do, and for each of us that task will be a particular Demon.”

“But there are only four Demons left,” Gwendylyr said, “not counting Qeteb. Sigholt’s bridge destroyed Rox —”

“Evil cannot be destroyed,” Katie whispered into Faraday’s lap, “it can only be transformed.”

No-one heard her.

“ — so surely that means only four of us need to confront a Demon. Leagh must wait it out in Sanctuary. We can’t risk her.”

DragonStar looked Gwendylyr steadily in the eyes, and then shifted his gaze to Leagh. “We will all be needed in the wasteland,” he said. “Leagh as much as anyone else. Her pregnancy cannot excuse her. And as for Rox, well … all I know is what I feel. The 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.