Katie looked at Azhure, looked at the descent before her, then looked back at Azhure. Normally so placid, so calm, so strong, Katie's eyes were terrified.

Azhure's hand tightened about that of the girl's, and she opened her mouth, trying to find something reassuring to say, when SpikeFeather leaned down and swept the girl into his arms.

"Put your face into my shoulder," he said, "and doze for this trip down to the waterways. I am Icarii, remember? My balance is like no other, and I fear no heights. You'll be safe with me."

Whether it was his words, his reassuring tone or his touch, Katie relaxed and, putting her arms about his neck, lay her head trustingly in the hollow of his shoulder.

The two ice women shared a glance, and a brief nod, then one turned and stepped into the stairwell.

"Come, SpikeFeather, Azhure," she said. "My sister will bring up the rear to protect us against whatever vile attack the seals have planned."

SpikeFeather laughed, and even Azhure managed a smile.

The birdman stepped onto the first step, the ice woman two or three below him and moving ever downward, then glanced over his shoulder at Azhure. "Take my wing," he said, extending one of them towards her, "and hang onto it. I can balance for all three of us."

"Thank you," Azhure said softly and, taking hold of SpikeFeather's wing — it was so warm!

— she summoned her courage and stepped down.

The climb down was worse than any nightmare Azhure had ever endured. Stars, but she thought she'd prefer to go through DragonStar and RiverStar's appalling birth all over again if it meant she could get to the bottom of these stairs the faster! To either side of the stairs the icebergs grated and ground, as if cursing and throwing insults at the other berg just an arm's span distant. Azhure wondered if it were possible that at any moment one or the other iceberg would lose its temper completely and lunge across the frigid distance between them to tear the throat out of the other.

No, she thought, that is just my fancy, and foolish at that.

And at that precise instant the iceberg on her right moved so suddenly and so precipitously that a frightful grating scream filled the stairwell, and Azhure cried out and halted, letting go of Spikefeather's wing, her hands flying to her ears.

"You are safe," said the ice woman behind her, laying both her hands on Azhure's shoulders. "Safe."

SpikeFeather had stopped, and was looking over his shoulder at Azhure; Katie, apparently, was asleep and unconcerned, her face tranquil as it lay on his shoulder.

The birdman's eyes were full of concern for Azhure, but Azhure thought that she could see just the slightest tinge of panic in their depths.

She took a very deep breath, held it as she fought for self-control, then let it out once she thought she had it.

Slowly Azhure lowered her hands away from her ears, and the ice woman's hands on her shoulders tightened briefly in encouragement.

"Soon," said the ice woman's sister from below SpikeFeather. "Very soon."

Pray to all the stars that it is the truth, Azhure thought, for I cannot stand much more of this.

They continued to descend for an hour, perhaps two — time had no meaning in this narrow ice tunnel — and then Azhure heard SpikeFeather exclaim as he jumped down three or four steps.

"We're here!" he cried, and Azhure had to blink the tears out of her eyes.

She stepped onto an ice floor that was, unbelievably, smooth but not slippery. Above her the roof of the ice tunnel had soared into a beautiful opaque dome of pink ice, while before her the floor extended towards a waterway that wound through the ice cave from one wall to the other.

A brass tripod with a bell stood to one side.

SpikeFeather had a huge grin stretching from one ear to the other, and Azhure couldn't help the feeling that he felt as if he'd come home after too long away. She leaned forward and took Katie from him — the girl murmured sleepily as SpikeFeather transferred her into Azhure's arms, but otherwise did not stir — and the birdman turned to the two ice women standing before him.

"Thank you," he said, simply enough, but with such emotion that Azhure was stunned to see tears well in both the sisters' eyes.

"We long to see this Underworld of yours," said one of the sisters, "for we are weary of the hills and dales and turmoils of the Overworld."

"Don't you miss Faraday?" Azhure said, curious about what these women felt for the woman. After all, they'd spent a long time travelling as Faraday's devoted companions.

"Faraday was kind to us," said one of the sisters, "and she had a purpose which we were happy to aid her with. But..."

"But there are very few people we would wish to spend a forever with," the other finished. "Very few."

And, as one, both sisters switched their eyes from Azhure to SpikeFeather.

The birdman blushed to the roots of his hair, but managed a small and utterly exquisite bow to the two women.

They stared at him, and then their faces relaxed from their usual austerity into such utter beauty that Azhure gasped.

"The bell," one of the women finally and very gently prompted, and SpikeFeather grinned at his own distracted air.

"The bell," he agreed, and walking over to the tripod, struck it once.

It pealed three times, and within heartbeats a punt had floated out of the far tunnel where the waterway ran into the ice cave and glided to a halt by the group.

"I welcome you to my world," SpikeFeather said, and helped the three women into the barge.

Azhure sat down in the prow, settling Katie comfortably on her lap, and smiled as the two ice women sat — close! — on either side of SpikeFeather in the bow.

"Take us," SpikeFeather asked the waterways, "to a safe place close to the Maze, for that is the StarSon's purpose."

As the punt glided forward, each sister lifted a graceful hand and placed it on one of SpikeFeather's knees.

Azhure looked the birdman in the eye, arched an eyebrow, and grinned.

The barge glided through caverns that were empty, and caverns that were filled with the skeletons of cities and forests. In one cavern, Azhure stared about her in amazement at the city that crammed the spaces to either side of the waterway. Tenement buildings fourteen or fifteen levels high, halls that soared even higher, streets crammed with workshops and market stalls: all deserted, all covered with dust and neglect, all empty and haunting.

"What are they?" Azhure finally said. "Who lived here? What happened to them?"

To that SpikeFeather had no answer, but Katie stirred on Azhure's lap and sat up, rubbing her eyes as she looked about her.

"They are dead," she said, "and have always been. No-one has ever lived here."

"But —" Azhure began.

"They are nothing but memories," Katie said. "Memories of the world the Enemy once lived on.

Carried here by the ships, and built as memorials to the world that has been lost. Memories."

And the punt glided on.

Chapter 51