StarLaughter was not finding it easy to lie to StarGrace, but she needed to do it. The last thing she could tell the Hawkchilds was that she and WolfStar were destined to reunite in love! StarLaughter had no intention of handing WolfStar over to the Hawkchilds for a nasty death, but for the moment she could do with their sharp eyes, and so for the moment they would prove useful.
StarLaughter was forgetting even her desire to rescue her son in her new-found love for WolfStar. Ah! They had been such magnificent lovers once, and would be again!
StarGrace narrowed her eyes at the emotions roiling across StarLaughter’s face, and StarLaughter only just managed to remember her need to convince the Hawkchilds of her need for a revenge on WolfStar.
She tried to look as guileless as possible … no easy task.
“You want time and space to find WolfStar?” StarGrace said. “He is in the Maze, surely.”
“No!” StarLaughter said, her voice horribly shrill. “I looked! I did! He’s gone.”
She leaned forward, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “The Demons let him escape. When they had him in their very parlour! Do you see what I mean? Why didn’t they give him to us then? Obviously we can’t trust the Demons to hunt WolfStar down for us. I must do it.”
StarGrace thought, her face unreadable.
“Have I not lusted for revenge with you for the past countless thousands of years? For the Stars’ sakes, StarGrace, I want him dead as much as you do!”
“And so you want me to lie to the Demons.”
“Yes. What do we owe them? Nothing. They used us and drained us. Now we are on our own. You and me and the other children. On our own.”
“I do not like to have to lie to Qeteb.”
StarLaughter could hear the uncertainty in StarGrace’s voice.
“My dear,” she said gently, and gathered the girl into her arms, “will you protect me? I need the space and the peace in which to find him so that we may all revenge ourselves on him. Will you grant me that?”
“And when you do find him?” StarGrace pulled back, but reluctantly, and StarLaughter knew it. “I and my companions would not like to be cheated of our revenge as well.”
“When I find him, I shall call. StarGrace, will you tell Qeteb you could not find me?”
StarGrace was silent a long moment, then she gave a quick jerk of her head in assent. “Find him, and, finding him, do not fail us.”
StarLaughter nodded. “I will not fail you, StarGrace, nor any of the others whom WolfStar murdered.”
Then she smiled, and leaned forward and kissed StarGrace on the cheek.
The Hawkchild pulled back in astonishment. A hug was one thing, but a kiss?
“Do you not remember what it was like to be loved, StarGrace?”
“I remember that love did not save me from a vile death.”
And then StarGrace was gone, and StarLaughter had the time and space she needed. She sat down again, folding the material of her robe carefully to display her form to best advantage, and thought. The Hawkchilds would now work to her purpose, providing her, not only with a degree of protection from Qeteb (damn him for all time!) but also with hundreds of eyes to seek out WolfStar.
StarLaughter frowned slightly, chewing her lip. Who else could help bring her and WolfStar back together again? Ah! DragonStar! WolfStar would doubtless worm his way into DragonStar’s camp sooner or later, and StarLaughter would need to gain DragonStar’s trust in order to get WolfStar back.
So… how to enlist DragonStar’s trust and aid? StarLaughter thoughtfully cupped one of her breasts in her hand. Her body had tempted DragonStar once and no doubt could again … no! She needed to keep herself pure for WolfStar. She must use guile rather than seduction.
Ah! StarLaughter giggled. She had the perfect idea! Not only would it appeal to DragonStar’s desire to wrest Tencendor back from the Demons, and gain her WolfStar, it might also cause the Demons enough trouble that she and WolfStar would be able to rescue their son as well.
She sighed, happy, contented, and as dreamy as a thirteen-year-old girl in love for the first time.
DragonStar sat in a great circular stone hall. It was flagged and walled with cream-coloured stone shot through with gold. Rose and sapphire glass windows rose to dizzying heights, their columns supporting a hammerbeam ceiling of golden wood. DragonStar had wanted somewhere quiet to sit, and Sanctuary had, as was its wont, provided him with this.
As with most things within and of Sanctuary, the peaceful beauty of the hall left DragonStar feeling uncomfortable. This perturbed him, not only because he was disturbed at the appearance of Sanctuary — it reminded him too much of the worlds the Demons had dragged him through — but because of the deep river of disquiet that ran through the peoples sheltering in Sanctuary. Stars! If they were bored and fractious here, then how would they cope with the eternal peacefulness of the Infinite Field of Flowers? Ah! DragonStar forcibly turned his mind away from his worries. No doubt his disquiet was caused by seeing Qeteb not only in Spiredore but at the gates of Sanctuary itself. And by the unsettling sight of Niah.
“What is it about you, Niah,” DragonStar whispered. “What?”
He sighed, and looked down. He sat cross-legged on the floor, the Enchanted Song Book in his lap. The blue-feathered lizard was curled up at his back, and DragonStar leaned back against him comfortably.
Every so often the lizard snored, and whenever he did, a shaft of light glinted from one of his claws.
DragonStar paid no attention. More than anything else, he wanted to get out and do things, but he knew — as he’d told his witches—that he needed experience as well as a thorough knowledge of the Enchanted Song Book before he could do anything against the Demons.
He opened the leather cover and slowly thumbed through the pages. The Book contained Songs, music and dance that symbolised the enchantments needed to defeat the Demons. They would mirror the Demons’ own malevolences back to them and destroy them.
“And wipe them from the face of this land and of the universe for ever and ever,” DragonStar whispered.
He thought about what Axis had told him. Caelum had tried one of these dances atop Star Finger, but had been consumed almost entirely by the hatred and malevolence the song contained.
DragonStar’s fingers traced over a line of music: he could feel the emotion this particular song contained — envy. He ran his tongue over his top lip, stared at the form and melody of the song, then swiftly converted it to numbers and then symbols in his mind.
He felt sick with apprehension. Should he try it? See what happened … Could he control the Song more than Caelum?
At his back the lizard stirred and sat up.
“Well, my beauty,” DragonStar said. “What do you think I should do?”
The lizard yawned, then flexed one of his foreclaws.
“So,” DragonStar said, “we try it.”
What other choice did he have?
He rose to his feet and put the Book down. As the lizard had just done, DragonStar flexed a hand, then rose and traced the symbol in the air before him.
The lizard traced it with light. And Envy filled the Hall.
A wizened old man stood before DragonStar and the lizard. He was twisted and humpbacked, his limbs stumpy, his hands contorted with arthritis.
He