"Faraday," DragonStar said, "did I not once say to you that Tencendor does not need your sacrifice again? Tencendor does not need you to die for it. I do not need you to die for Tencendor."

Qeteb roared with laughter, and flung Faraday into DragonStar's arms. "Fool!"

DragonStar seized Faraday, and dragged her, weeping and struggling, back a few paces. "Behold, beloved," he whispered into her ear, "how Tencendor will sacrifice itself for you."

"No," she murmured, worn out with her hopelessness and her despair. "No. Let me die.

There is nothing left. Not now ... not now."

"There is life and love left," DragonStar said softly, "and no need for your death. All that Tencendor requires of you is that you witness. It does not want your death! Instead, it offers up itself for you."

He caught her face in his hand, and turned it back to Qeteb and Katie.

Qeteb was still roaring with laughter. Lost in his victory, he had not heard a word that DragonStar had said to Faraday. He still held Katie by her hair in his left hand, and with his right he produced a wickedly gleaming kitchen knife.

Faraday fought as hard as she could against DragonStar. What was he doing? Qeteb was going to kill Katie! No! No! She screamed, shrill and despairing.

Qeteb dragged Katie in front of him, and jerked her head back.

The girl was calm, and she stared at Faraday with eyes of such love that Faraday could not bear it.

"No," she whispered, but she had lost the desire to struggle now. DragonStar was too strong for her, and Qeteb too evil. Between them, they were going to kill Katie.

"For you, Faraday," Katie whispered, and she closed her eyes and tilted her head back even further as the blade flashed through the air.

Blood splattered everywhere.

Azhure sat despondently on the gravel of the GateKeeper's island, one hand resting on her aching, but now neatly bandaged, calf. SpikeFeather sat close by, his head resting in his hands. He had a headache, but little else in the way of injuries. The ice sisters sat on either side of him, running their cool hands over his brow, murmuring to him, holding him close.

Azhure thought she could have done with some of their comfort, but the ice sisters had no thought of comforting anyone but SpikeFeather, and Azhure thought she would get little compassion from the GateKeeper.

The woman sat at her table before the pulsating glow of the doorway into the Afterlife. Before her were two bowls, but the GateKeeper's thin, pale hands sat in idleness before them.

She transferred no balls from one bowl to the other.

The GateKeeper raised her eyes and saw Azhure's stare.

"No souls pass this way now," the GateKeeper said softly. "All bypass the Gate and step directly into the Field of Flowers."

"Is that what lies beyond the Gate?" Azhure said.

The GateKeeper smiled, a secretive expression on her face. "I have never told what lies beyond the Gate," she said, "and will not do so —"

She broke off, and stared at a distant point over Azhure's shoulder. "Another customer?" she said.

"Why? How?"

Azhure twisted about.

Far away a glowing outline glided along the black River of Death towards the island of the Gate.

The GateKeeper took a harsh intake of breath, and, as the figure glided closer and mounted the loose grey gravel of the island, Azhure gave a soft cry herself.

It was Katie.

Katie was dead?

"As ever she will be," murmured the GateKeeper, and then the shade of Katie was standing before the woman's table, her eyes great and sorrowful, her hands folded neatly before her.

The GateKeeper lifted a metal ball from one bowl and held the hand over the other bowl. "Are you going through, Katie?"

"Aye," Katie said, then her expression cleared and she smiled. "Rejoice, GateKeeper, for your task is done. Time is ended, and the Gate must close."

The GateKeeper smiled also, an expression of such sweetness that Azhure, watching, felt her eyes fil with tears.

"Then go through, my child, and rejoice yourself that your task is done."

"Katie?" Azhure said. "Katie —"

Katie turned her head very slightly so she could see Azhure. "When you see Faraday," she said, "will you tell her that I love her? That I love her enough to die for her this time?"

And then she was gone.

The instant she glided through the doorway the GateKeeper seized her two bowls and flung them into the air.

"Done!" she screeched. "Done!"

Metal balls rained down, and Azhure, as SpikeFeather and the two ice women covered their heads with their arms.

"Take my hands!" the GateKeeper cried, and literally lunged over her table towards the foursome.

"Take my hands!"

And she grabbed Azhure with one hand, and SpikeFeather with the other as the sisters gripped the GateKeeper's forearms.

The Gate exploded.

Azhure screwed her eyes shut and screamed, but even as she did so she heard the GateKeeper cry out herself. "The Gate is dead! Time is extinct!" And then there was nothing but a black void.

Chapter 67

Bring Me My Bow of Burning Gold...

Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong, and Qeteb knew it the instant the blood splattered out from Katie's throat.

He had gutted the wrong girl. DragonStar had chosen correctly.

But how could this be so when his captains had won, three to two?