They had won, hadn't they?

Or was there something he'd misinterpreted?

Tencendor took one last, dying breath, and the devastation of death consumed the land as the last of Katie's blood flowed from her tiny, frail body.

The sky cracked.

The earth shattered.

The air exploded.

Qeteb threw Katie's drained corpse to one side. "Then it's just you and me," he said, calm now in the face of disaster, "as it ever was."

"As it ever was," DragonStar agreed.

Qeteb, blank-faced, stepped away, vanishing into the shadowy land beyond the encircling columns of the mausoleum. The silent, dark forms of Mot, Barzula and Sheol vanished directly after him.

DragonStar took Faraday — now deep in shock — and led

her unresisting to one side, sitting her down against one of the columns. "Wait," he said. "All will be well."

Axis, as everyone in the column, panicked as Creation withered about them.

Firestorms raced across the plains, and mountains trembled and collapsed in upon themselves.

The darkness and coldness of a complete vacuum descended upon the land.

Wait, a voice echoed through the minds of all within the convoy, and they knew it for the voice of Leagh's Child, all will be well.

And even though darkness consumed them, and the feel of the land beneath their feet vanished, all continued to survive.

All that remained of the land that had once been Tencendor was the black pulsing thing that was the Maze: an island of madness in a sea of destruction.

DragonStar straightened, and whistled.

The baying of the Alaunt filled the air, and their creamy, eager bodies wound about his legs.

A shadow darkened the doorway of the mausoleum.

"At your service, sir," said Raspu, dressed for the destruction of Creation in his stiffly starched butler's uniform, "as always."

DragonStar nodded. "Good." He held out his hand. "Deliver me my bow."

And Raspu inclined his head, and stepped forward. In his hands he held the Wolven, and its quiver of blue-fletched arrows.

DragonStar took the bow, and slung the quiver over his shoulder and back.

He held out the bow, and looked at the lizard.

The lizard grinned and, lifting a claw, sent a shaft of light glimmering along the entire bow.

It burst into fire, although the flames did not consume the wood, nor harm DragonStar.

DragonStar nodded at the lizard, then slung the burning bow over his shoulder.

Then he lifted his voice, and sent it singing through the Maze.

"Run, Qeteb," he said, "for the clouds are about to unfold, and the Hunt about to begin."

Chapter 68

Twisted City

Qeteb fled through the Maze, Sheol, Mot and Barzula at his heels. DragonStar did not instantly follow. He straightened the quiver of arrows, and adjusted the Wolven so it lay, comfortable, across his back. He lifted and resettled his jewelled belt and purse.

He walked over to Katie's corpse — the floor of the mausoleum was slick with her blood

— and he squatted down beside it.

"We thank you and honour you, Katie," he said, and, wiping the fingers of his right hand through her blood, marked his forehead and breast with it as Raum had once marked Faraday.

"Who was she?" Faraday whispered.

DragonStar looked over at her, still sitting by the column. "She was Tencendor's lifeblood," he said.

"The land's soul."

"Why did she need to die?"

"So the land can move through death, and live again," DragonStar said, "and so the land could repay you for all you have done and sacrificed for it."

He rose and walked over to Faraday, bending down to give her a brief but passionate kiss. "You and I," he whispered, "are given the task of re-creating the land free of the discord and evil which once stalked it... which once stalked all of Creation.

"But for the moment —" he straightened "— I have a small task to accomplish, the Hunt to complete."

And, smiling gently, he left her.

Raspu walked over, balancing very carefully on one hand a tray with a silver pot, and a cream porcelain milk jug, sugar bowl, and cup and saucer. "Would ma'am like some tea?" he asked.

Faraday blinked, and then decided not to try to make sense of any of it. "That would be very nice,"

she said. "Thank you."

The Butler poured her cup of tea, painstakingly added sugar and milk in their proper proportions, and held the cup out to Faraday.

"Ma'am."

She accepted it without a word, but her eyes widened in surprise as she tasted the tea. "It is very good."