StarLaughter's entire body went rigid, and her eyes hard.
Qeteb either did not notice or did not care. "This bowl has a secret," he said. "A very big and probably very important secret."
His hand tightened about the bowl, and a tiny crack ran halfway along the rim.
"I do not like objects that are secretive!" Qeteb said, and his hand tightened fractionally more.
The crack widened.
"Ah!" Qeteb loosened his grip. He hefted the bowl lightly, and then in a smooth action threw the bowl spinning into the darkness of the domed ceiling.
It disappeared.
"The one thing I like about secrets," Qeteb observed, his visored face once more looking at StarLaughter, "is that they keep indefinitely. The bowl is mine, and eventually its secret will be mine."
StarLaughter held the Demon's stare, difficult as that was with no observable eyes to be found behind the latticed metalwork of the visor. "Your brothers and sister," she said evenly,
"promised me power in return for all my aid."
To one side Sheol sniggered.
"Your aid," Qeteb said. "How amusing that you think you provided —"
"I provided you with life!" StarLaughter yelled, balling her fists at her side and taking a step closer to Qeteb.
Barzula and Mot glanced at each other, then back to StarLaughter, and then they smiled slowly.
You did not provide me with life!
The thought boomed about the mausoleum, and although no spoken word sounded, all heard Qeteb's words.
"You are my son!" StarLaughter screamed, unthinking anger giving her voice unusual strength. "I provided you with life, I bore you through adversity, I gave birth to you while I drifted among the stars. I loved and nurtured you through three thousand —"
"You provided the scrap of flesh which I chose to inhabit!" Qeteb stepped forward, and StarLaughter finally had the sense to retreat slightly. "My existence needs no 'mother'. You were merely the cow that delivered the meat for my needs. You are the one who should be grateful ...
and yet you have the stupidity to demand it of me\ I do not know," he continued, growling now, and stepping forward once more, "why you still live or why your mind is still your own."
StarLaughter paled, although her eyes remained bright with fury. "Because no-one else in this gloomy tower knows their way around this land and its secrets like I do!" she said. "You deserve another hundred thousand years trapped in some Enemy's gaol if now you destroy the one Tencendorian remaining at your side, and with a reasonably intact mind!"
"You would be better crawling mad at my feet!"
"You wouldn't darel" StarLaughter countered, squaring her shoulders in defiance.
Qeteb stared at her, then raised a fist and struck StarLaughter across her face so hard he flung her sprawling several paces away across the floor.
"Bitch-sow," he said, his voice tight with frustration. "One day I will dare, and I will leave just enough of your mind intact to know exactly what I will do to you."
StarLaughter raised herself on an elbow and stared at him. Her left cheek was livid, blood running freely down her chin and neck. "If there is one being in existence you should never alienate,"
she whispered, "it is your mother."
Qeteb took one heavy step towards her. He laughed, whispery and harsh. "When I inhabited this flesh, StarLaughter, I also gained its memories. Do you want to know what I can remember of your son, StarLaughter? Do you? I remember that he despised you —"
"No! My son adored —"
"— he regarded you with contempt, as he knew all the Icarii in Talon Spike felt nothing but contempt towards you —"
"No!"
"You silly, vacuous woman. You thought you were the most powerful Icarii in the land, didn't you? You thought that all power could be yours, didn't you? And yet you were nothing but an embarrassment to the Icarii nation, someone to be greeted with silent sneers at every entrance into a room, and with laughter at your departure. The Icarii loathed you, your husband was revolted by you, and your son could not wait to escape your body. He hated you, StarLaughter. He was sickened by you, and he escaped into death rather than spend an eternity amid the stars with you."
StarLaughter remained silent, rigid with shock. She stared at Qeteb.
Qeteb laughed again. "Queen of Heaven?" he said. "Never!" Then he spat a glob of phlegm through his metal visor into her face.
She gasped, recoiling.
"That was from your son, bitch, not from me."
And Qeteb turned and strode away.
StarLaughter lay on the cold, cold floor of the mausoleum.
Lies! Lies! He spoke lies! Her son had adored her, loved her.
From the moment he had come to awareness in her womb, her son had been the only one whohad understood her power, and who had understood that she was destined for greatness and wasjustified in choosing whatever path she had to in order to grasp her destiny.
Qeteb spoke lies!
