Before them, Urbeth roared, and then swelled into gigantic proportions.
Further back in the column, seven figures slipped furtively away, ducking into the cover of trees, and then into buildings.
In the terror and haste of the moment, no-one noticed their departure.
The enchantments protecting Sanctuary collapsed completely. The chasm, which had moated Sanctuary in, heaved and fell to pieces, destroying itself in a massive earthquake.
When it had subsided, there was a huge pile of rubble where the chasm had once been, burying the blue-fletched arrow that DragonStar had left there.
The six black masses finally moved, flowing obscenely across rock and crevice like thick, corrupted smoke.
Axis ducked his head, and Azhure twisted about and buried her face in his shoulder. Above them there was a massive roaring, and Axis dimly realised it was Sanctuary's atmosphere escaping through the great rent in the sky.
The pressure in Axis' ears was agony, and his breath screamed through his chest and throat.
Sal bucked slightly and then stumbled, and Axis had to exert every skill he had as a horseman to keep her steady on her feet.
He choked, and felt both Azhure and Sal do the same.
There was no air!
All about him the once-orderly column erupted into chaos as beasts and people alike clawed for breath.
There were no screams, for no-one had any air left with which to scream.
Something white flowed and billowed before him, and in the dim recesses of his mind Axis knew that Urbeth was doing something ahead.
He hoped it would mean they actually managed to breathe before —
Ice-cold air slapped him in the face and shot down into his lungs. Axis jerked in pain and surprise, and he had to tighten his grip about Azhure as she similarly jerked.
Snow obliterated the men and carts closest to him, and cold such as Axis could not remember having previously encountered gripped his entire being in a merciless fist.
"Goodness," he heard Urbeth say somewhere in front of him.
Once across the chasm the Demons shape-shifted into half-humanoid, half-raven forms. Their heads and bodies were mostly humanoid, but their shoulders and arms flowed into great black wings, and tattered fans of feathers sprouted from the bases of their spines.
Qeteb's body was cast entirely in metal rather than flesh.
He lifted into the rapidly thinning air and soared upwards. "Sanctuary!" he screamed, and then all the Demons were in the air and winging their way towards the mouth of the valley leading to Sanctuary.
Below them, the flowers and shrubs wilted and died as the Demons' shadow enveloped them.
The frozen air abated somewhat, and Axis finally managed to raise his eyes and look about him.
Sal was struggling through knee-deep snow, as was every other beast and person.
Azhure shuddered in Axis' arms, and she tightened her cloak about her.
"Urbeth has done it," she said. "She got us out of Sanctuary."
Axis glanced at the sky above him. It was dull and leaden with snow clouds, but it was intact.
He grinned, and kissed the top of Azhure's head. "We've jumped from the frying pan into the frozen wastes," he said, and Azhurelaughed.
"Where's Urbeth?" she said as her laughter died away.
Axis looked ahead. Sal was within three or four carts' length of the front of the column, but all that currently headed it was Zared riding a white draughthorse which was making surprisingly good speed through the snow.
He may not have chosen for the parade ground, Axis thought, but he has chosen well.
He twisted about on Sal's back, looking behind him.
There was nothing but league after league of frozen tundra, and league after league of the refugee line from Sanctuary.
No Urbeth, and neither of her daughters.
Axis turned back, frowning slightly, then urged Sal forward to join up with Zared.
They ran through one of the palace complexes, and then finally stumbled into an orchard that lay on the road to Sanctuary's entrance.
"No air!" Xanon gasped, almost falling as she lurched onto the road.
Adamon, the other five close behind him, took his wife's elbow. "No matter," he said. "We'll be dead soon enough, anyway."
Xanon lifted her beautiful eyes and looked at Adamon with more love than she'd ever felt for him before. Ever since the Demons had broken through the Star Gate, sapping and destroying all their power, the Star Gods had felt worse than useless. They had alleviated and they had advised, but they had managed to do nothing to help.
And they were supposed to be Gods, curse it!
