They waited.

Chapter 70

The Witness

The Corolean fishing fleet was sailing west from the Barrow Islands, heading for its home port on the northern coastline of Coroleas, when the cataclysm occurred.

One moment the sea had been calm, if sullen, under an overcast sky, the next it was rolling so madly the crews of the five vessels all thought they were moments away from death.

And the next moment, it was calm again.

One of the seamen, a man called El'habain, was clinging to the railing about the prow of the leading vessel where he'd been standing watching for seals. He was soaked through, and frightened as he had never before been in his arrogant life.

He raised his head, shaking it from side to side to clear the salty water from his eyes and ears, and looked for someone to curse and blame for his fright and his soaking.

In the end El'habain said nothing. He merely stared into the distance, towards where the Tencendorian cliffs lined Widewall Bay.

They were crumbling. Great rocks toppled into the ocean and, as El'habain stared, the length of the cliffs as far as he could see fell beneath the ocean waves.

There was nothing left but the rolling waves.

Tencendor had gone.

Chapter 71

The Waiting

There was a blackness, and an unknowingness, during which all creation ceased to exist. There was simply nothing.

Save, as far as Axis was concerned, the harsh and fearful sound of his breathing.

"Is anyone else there?" he said, and a being shifted under him, and he realised that Pretty Brown Sal also existed.

"Yes," whispered a voice across the void, and Axis recognised it as Zared's, and then a hundred other whispers reached him, and Axis realised that somehow the convoy still stretched out behind him.

"Axis?"

A faint voice, unsure.

"Azhure!" Gods! He'd thought to have lost her forever.

There was an unseen movement at his side, and Axis felt a hand groping along Sal's shoulder.

"Azhure! Here!" He reached down a hand and grabbed hers, and at his touch and warmth Azhure burst into sobs.

He hauled her up into the saddle and hugged her tight. "SpikeFeather? Katie?" he eventually said.

"Katie has gone," said a voice somewhere to one side, and Axis recognised it as SpikeFeather's.

"But Urbeth's daughters are still with us —"

And somehow Axis had the distinct impression, although he could not see a thing, that the two women stood to either side of SpikeFeather, each holding one of his hands.

"— as is ..."

"As is ... I," said a chilling voice, and Axis jumped, knowing the voice instantly.

The GateKeeper laughed, a grating, dry sound. "We meet again, Axis."

"Why aren't you at your Gate?" Axis said.

There was a silence, and when the GateKeeper answered, her voice was puzzled and unsure.

"I sat at my table," the GateKeeper said, "when, just then, just now, a moment ago it seems to me, the soul of a beautiful girl child drifted up. Before she went through the Gate, she turned to me and she said, 'Rejoice, GateKeeper, for your task is done. Time is ended, and the Gate must close.'

"And then she stepped through the Gate. And then ... then it imploded, and I had seized the birdman and your wife and Urbeth's two girls and brought them here."

"Then I thank you for that —" Axis began.

"Oh, I did not think of you when I returned your wife and companions," the GateKeeper said. "It was merely convenient that I brought them with me."

"Then why did you come here?" said Axis.

"Because of Her," said the GateKeeper. "The Child."

And Axis nodded, and understood. Not Katie at all, but Leagh's Child.

They waited.

"Has ma'am finished?" said Raspu, returning from wherever he had been, and Faraday put her cup back into its saucer and extended it into the dark. The mausoleum had completely vanished, and now there was only a nothingness.

"Yes. Thank you." Faraday was not perturbed by the dark and the nothingness, nor by the fact that she currently shared the void with a former Demon.

All would be well as it eventuated.

They waited.

DragonStar rode his Star Stallion through the void, his pale hounds fanning out behind him in a comet's tail.

There was something he should do, but for the moment he did not care. There was only the wild ride, the freedom, and the void.

Nothing else mattered.

The stallion snorted, and shook his head. Sicarius bayed, and the Alaunt clamoured. DragonStar sighed. "Faraday," he said.

She heard him before she saw him. The faint fall of a horse's hooves, the snuffling of a pack of hounds.

Slowly Faraday rose to her feet, accepting Raspu's hand on her elbow.