"I have come to accept," DragonStar replied, and he walked past his father towards Leagh,Ur and Urbeth.
Leagh gave a great groan, and twisted to one side as the child slithered from her body.
"The Baby! The Baby!" Ur cried, and she did what Axis had been afraid all along she would do.
She dropped the pot, and it shattered on the floor.
Several things happened at once. Zared rose to stare at the tiny, wriggling baby that had just slithered into the world. Leagh struggled to sit up so that she, too, could look. Urbeth leapt to her feet, and roared and shook as if possessed. And as one, all the Lake Guard present took a great breath, and shouted, their fists thrust triumphantly into the air.
And while all this was going on, something indescribable filled the birthing chamber.
Leagh gave a great groan and would have sunk to the ground were it not for the support of thetwo women who held her.
"The Baby! The Baby!" Ur cried.
DragonStar strode forward and sank to his knees before Leagh, an expression of utterwonder on his face.
He held out his hands to catch the Baby.
Axis could not describe what then filled the tent in words, only in emotion.
Wonder, gladness, joy, beauty.
Hope, salvation, pity.
Warm wind on cold cheek, and soft touch on despairing heart.
Being. A Being beyond comprehension.
It was the combination of what had been in Leagh's womb, and what had been in the pot.
Ur lifted the child in her hands. It was a Girl, chubby, wide-eyed and joyful.
"The Mother?" Axis said, trying to make sense of it all.
DragonStar caught the child as She slithered from Her mother.
"The Mother?" said Axis.
DragonStar took a moment to respond, and when he did, his voice was filled with gladness.
"The Mother transformed and drawing breath as one with the Infinite Field of Flowers," hesaid, "so not the Mother at all."
He looked up, and lifted the Girl into Leagh's arms.
"My Child," said Leagh, and took her Daughter in her arms.
DragonStar rose to his feet amidst the flowers and stared into Axis' eyes. "Not theMother at all" he repeated. "God."
Chapter 60
The General's Instructions
Qeteb turned slowly about, one arm extended as he indicated the wasteland that stretched for leagues about them. Balls of dust and ice rolled slowly across the plains of Skarabost, while great fingers of mould and putrilage crept over the southern parts of the continent.
Qeteb was all black armour: visored, inscrutable, indestructible.
Before him Mot and Barzula stood attentive and quiet.
They respected the consuming anger that filled Qeteb.
"All this lies at risk," Qeteb said, his voice a hiss behind his visor. "All this beauty. Our home. How hard have we fought to attain this? How many millennia? How many worlds? And now all is at risk!"
Mot and Barzula flinched, but otherwise did not move.
Qeteb strode to within a pace of the two other Demons. "You go together to meet DareWing and Goldman. You rise or fall together. I do not need to explain what this means."
Having said that, Qeteb made a lie of his words. "Raspu and Roxiah have fallen: one turned, one dead. If you fail then I am weakened to a point where I may flounder myself."
"We will not fail," Mot said.
"Make sure that you do not," Qeteb whispered, then reached forward and grasped each Demon's chin in his mailed hands. "Do not fail!"
He let them go, and the Demons turned and faded into the wasteland.
Qeteb stood a moment, watching the space where they had vanished, then he turned about.
Sheol was standing behind him, a robe in shifting shades of decomposing and putrid matter, wrapping itself about her malformed body.
