Then, suddenly, there was a presence, and the faintest of luminescence, and there was DragonStar, sitting his stallion, his hounds milling about him.

"Come," he said. "We have a Garden to plant."

Raspu watched as DragonStar helped Faraday mount behind him, and then, as they rode away and the darkness closed in again, he waited.

The Star Stallion stopped, and DragonStar turned slightly.

"Faraday? Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" she said. What had he meant, plant the Garden?

She felt, rather than saw, him smile. "You have something of mine," DragonStar said. "Something you have kept for a very long time. Will you now give it back to me?"

Faraday frowned, and then jumped slightly in surprise as she remembered what it was. "Oh!"

When DragonStar had worked the enchantment to ensnare the twenty thousand crazed people in the Western Ranges, he had shot the enchantment into the sky with an arrow.

After the arrow had done its work, it had fallen to the ground at Faraday's feet, and, eventually, she'd wound it into the rainbow band that the Mother had given her.

Together with the sapling.

Her hands trembling, Faraday leaned back very slightly from DragonStar's warmth, and unwound the band.

She took the arrow, the sapling still safely coiled about it, into her hands.

And then Faraday gasped, for the arrow had been strangely supple all this time it rested so close about her waist. Now, in the space of one heartbeat, it solidified into strength again.

The sapling still wound its way about its length.

"Faraday?"

She took the arrow, and passed it to DragonStar.

He held it briefly, then lifted the Wolven from his shoulder and fitted the arrow to it.

He paused, and Faraday could tell he was crying, then in one fluid movement, DragonStar lifted the bow and shot the arrow high into the darkness.

Chapter 72

The Tree

The arrow rose into the darkness, and the hopelessness, and the void. It rose until it could rise no more, and then it fell. It fell, and fell, and fell until it reached impossible speeds. And then, when it could fall no more, it struck a resistance, and its head buried itself within the resistance.

Somewhere far, far away, the Star Stallion screamed, and reared and plunged, and stars fell in their millions from his mane and tail.

A great wind consumed the blackness, and it swept the stars high and higher.

There was an explosion of light and sound from the point where the arrow struck.

It washed out in great rippling waves, engulfing all those who waited within the darkness.

It caught the stars, and twisted them high, and higher, feeding their fire, so that they grew a million-fold in intensity, and then the wind swept them higher still.

Then the arrow sighed, and let itself be consumed, for its work was done.

Something grew.

Axis and Azhure both cried out and clung to each other as the waves of light and sound engulfed them.

Pain and joy in equal amounts devoured them.

Peace, said Leagh's Child.

The pain eased, and the intensity of the light dulled back to a soft and gentle radiance.

But the joy remained.

Azhure, among all others, was the first to open her eyes and look.

She shuddered, wracked by emotion as the import of what she saw sank in.

A Tree. Gigantic, all-encompassing. Its leaves every shade of green, its trumpet flowers a brilliant gold edged with scarlet.

It stood in the void, shedding a soft, gentle light.

Then, as Azhure put trembling hands to her face, and everyone else opened their eyes, the Tree's leaves trembled, and ...

... and a garden rippled out from its base, consuming the blackness and the void, and all trembled as earth and grasses and flowers formed under their feet as the Garden flowed outwards.

For those who had known the Field of Flowers, the Garden was like, and yet unlike. It was filled with flowers and their scents, but the Garden was more formed than the Infinite Field of Flowers had been. There were paths and glades, and shadowed, dappled spots of coolness where trees congregated.

It was like Sanctuary, save it did not share Sanctuary's sense of impermanence.

This Garden was the reality from which everything else had been insubstantial reflections.

Above, in a deep blue sky, millions of stars blazed.

Azhure cried out softly again, and pointed.

DragonStar and Faraday were walking through great, gorgeous drifts of flowers, the Star Stallion sauntering behind them, his head nodding and dipping with happiness.

Behind the stallion bounded the Alaunt, and behind them, carefully adjusting his vest lest it had become creased during Creation, walked Raspu.

Chapter 73

The Garden

"Aha!" cried the GateKeeper. "I know what this is!"