—"
"We care for nothing but our revenge," StarGrace said, her voice cold, and she shifted her eyes to StarDrifter. "Nothing, beyond WolfStar's blood. And everything —"
She shifted forward, and her form became all Hawkchild, leaving nothing of the beautiful girl.
"— that stands between us and our revenge must needs be swept away."
She lunged forward, and StarDrifter screamed as her beak tore into the fleshy part of the arm he'd raised in self-defence.
WolfStar, now certain of his own death, still managed a laugh. "You pretty-feathered, useless fool," he said. "Why are you here? You should have known you would not be able to help —"
And StarGrace's head flashed, and WolfStar screamed and fell to the ground, rolling into a protective huddle around his torn bely.
Desperate, thinking only that if she could get free then she'd somehow be able to save StarDrifter, Zenith finally managed to tear her hands clear of their rope bindings.
In a movement so fast that StarLaughter had no hope of escape, Zenith's hands whipped up and buried themselves in StarLaughter's matted hair.
"Ugh!" Zenith grunted, and thudded StarLaughter's forehead down on the small rocks that littered the ground.
And again and again, until blood splattered over both of them.
And then Zenith found her head seized from behind in a grip so cruel she screamed.
"See?" a small child's voice whispered in her ear. "See what revenge we shall exact from you for your impertinence? StarLaughter is our friend, our mother, our only friend ..."
Zenith stared at where the Hawkchild jerked her face, and then she screamed so hard she convulsed.
StarGrace had taken hold of StarDrifter's golden curls with one hand, and with the other tore off one of his wings, throwing it high into the air, provoking a feeding frenzy among the Hawkchilds closest to where it landed.
Axis rode Sal desperately hard, sliding her forward through rocky chasms and down screes so dangerous that any mount save Sal would have foundered and killed them both at the first challenge.
Axis needed to reach Zenith.
He had failed her previously, but he would not do so now.
All he could think of was the image of Azhure coming to him atop Sigholt's roof one summer's afternoon, and taking his hands, and saying gently, "We are to have another child."
They'd both thought that DragonStar and RiverStar had caused Azhure so much internal damage in their horrendous birth that another child was out of the question.
Thus, that afternoon, and the months that had followed as Azhure's belly swelled, had been so special...
The girl born to them had been so treasured ...
Then why had he let her go? Why had he abandoned her?
Couldn't he have made more of an effort to protect her?
Axis screamed, and urged Sal to yet further extremes.
Behind him raged Urbeth, and behind her dipped and swayed a thousand ethereal trees.
They would save the girl. They would ... they would ...
StarGrace reached down, and as StarDrifter screamed and twisted beneath her hand, she took a firm grip on his other wing, and with all the power she had, she tore that out too.
StarDrifter stilled, a strange, surprised look on his face. His eyes went blank, his body limp.
StarGrace dropped him, and stepped carefully about the massive pool of blood that pumped from his back.
"Is that the woman who tempted Wolf Star into betrayal?" she asked StarLaughter, who had managed to regain her feet.
She indicated Zenith, still held tightly by the Hawkchild behind her.
StarLaughter's face was covered in blood and small bits of gravel. "Yes! She is a trollop!"
StarGrace nodded at the Hawkchild, and his beaked head dipped.
When it rose again, it held something disgusting in its beak.
Held by his claws, Zenith made a single gurgle, trembled, and was still.
The Hawkchild's beak dipped again, and this time it savaged ferociously before it lifted its head once more.
What it held was even more frightful than previously.
WolfStar took one look, and cried out in horror.
"Now you," StarGrace said.
