Azhure gazed at it, sickened, yet not understanding why. She was not to know that the statue's fragments almost exactly mirrored Zenith's remains as Axis had seen them.

Eventually, she dragged her eyes away, nauseated by these grey stone relics of a world long gone.

Katie sat with Azhure's hand in hers. "You will see her again," she said. "Surely. In the Field of Flowers."

Azhure nodded, but her face was as sad as those of the statues that lay to either side of them. "I suppose I will, but, oh Stars! I have spent too much of my life grieving!"

"Death is but a doorway," Katie said.

"I have come to loathe doorways," Azhure said and took her hand from Katie's, "for one can never be sure of the truth that is said to lie on the other side."

To that, Katie said nothing, and the punt glided on.

"You know," Qeteb said as he and DragonStar rode their beasts eastwards towards the Maze, "I have decided on a small game to help pass the time until I can hunt you through the Maze, dear companion."

"And that is?" The Alaunt streamed out behind the Star Stallion, periodically deviating to nip at the fetlocks of Qeteb's strange black beast.

The beast took no notice of them.

"Well," Qeteb said, shifting himself more comfortably in his saddle. "I remember a small game that Gorgrael played."

DragonStar looked at him sharply.

"And I thought you might enjoy it," Qeteb continued. His visor was thrown back, and his perfect, handsome face grinned into the wasteland. "I remember that Gorgrael debated back and forth, back and forth, Azhure, or Faraday? Azhure or Faraday? Which? Do you remember that, DragonStar?"

DragonStar stared at the Demon, but said nothing.

"Ah, you were but a babe in arms, then," Qeteb said. "Well. Gorgrael knew that one of them would prove the distraction that would destroy Axis' concentration when your golden father finally met the warped and unlovable Gorgrael, but the poor chap wasn't sure which one. He had time and resources to go for only one. Finally, as legend well knows, he decided on Faraday, which was the wrong choice because your father loved Azhure more and could afford to ignore Faraday being torn to bloody pieces before his eyes."

"What is the point of all this, Qeteb?"

"Well, I am glad you asked me that, my good friend, because I am faced with much the same dilemma. I am certain that there is one woman around who could destroy your concentration when we finally meet face to face in the Maze, but I am dithering over which it might be. Faraday, or ..."

"Or?"

"Or ... Katie."

DragonStar turned aside. "I do not love Katie."

"You do not lust for her in the same way that you lust for Faraday, but, oh yes, you do love her. And, far more importantly, you need her. For what, I am not at all certain, but I can feel your need for her bubbling through your veins.

"And so the game is, what will destroy your concentration more? Watching Faraday, whom you love and for whom you lust, torn to shreds before your eyes ... or Katie, whom you need for whatever noble and magnificent purpose you have been created?"

Again DragonStar made no reply.

"The game, my dear and wonderful cousin," Qeteb whispered, kneeing his beast so close to Belaguez that the stallion snorted with disgust, "is that I don't have to choose, do I? I have the resources to take both. How will you feel, Drago-dearest, when I toss both their broken bodies at your feet?"

DragonStar pulled Belaguez to a head-tossing halt. "I don't believe you. There is no way you can take —"

"Ha! I have you!" Now Qeteb had turned his beast about to face DragonStar. "Faraday you knew I could take with Sheol — were you counting on it? — but you thought Katie safe. It's Katie, isn't it?

Katie! Katie whom you hid from me — but don't think I can't find her!"

Qeteb kicked his beast into a series of tight circles, laughing maniacally. "Katie! Katie! Katie!

Katie!"

And then Qeteb pulled his beast to a violent halt, and he growled. "I'll take both, you bastard. Both!

One I'll slaughter for the sheer joy of it, and one I'll shred to win!"

Katie! Katie! Katie! Katie! The evil whisper echoed about the waterway and everyone sat up straight, eyes darting about.

"Qeteb," said Katie, and burst into tears.

Azhure gathered the girl into her arms, tightening them protectively about her, and looked to SpikeFeather. "What can we do?"

SpikeFeather, and both the ice women, were looking carefully about, checking the dark cavities between the buildings that littered the cavern they currently drifted through.

"Not much, probably," he said. "But I don't think there is any need to worry. Qeteb is now so closely tied to DragonStar and their combat above ground that he can't —"

A cold howl drifted through the cavern.

"Dogs!" Azhure said.

"No," one of the ice sisters replied. "Hounds."

"Hounds?" said SpikeFeather. "But that's impossible. There are no hounds in the —"

"Demons," said one of the sisters.

"Mot and Barzula," said the other.

The baying grew closer, and suddenly Azhure gave a soft cry and pointed.

A pale hound crouched atop the shoulders of a massive statue of a man sitting on a rock with his despairing face in his hands.

As they watched, the hound lifted its head and howled.

It was answered by the other hound some fifty or sixty paces further down the waterway, waiting at the very edge of the canal.

As the punt glided closer, the hound bared its teeth, growled, and crouched as if to spring.

Azhure pushed Katie into the bottom of the punt, sheltering the girl with her body.

Katie! Katie! Katie! Katie!

Qeteb's voice thundered through the waterways, and Azhure wriggled herself as tightly and as protectively about Katie as she could.