The Butler opened the gate and prepared to welcome the visitors through.
But the three shook their heads, one saying: "Thank you, good sir, but we would wait awhile.
One of our number has yet a task unfinished, and must return."
"Then perhaps we can talk," said the Butler, "to pass the time. I have," he bent down andlifted something from the flowers about his legs, "a jug of creamy ale I rescued from the cook."
"Oh, well done!" cried Goldman.
Chapter 62
Katie, Katie, Katie..
They drifted through unknown waterways, closer and closer to the Maze. The buildings and structures to either side of the waterways grew ever more strange, and ever more depressing: great, grey statues of fierce-chinned men, staring into the distance, shields and spears in hand. Other statues as tall as buildings, crouched in contemplation, or with their faces buried in hands, as if all thought inevitably led to suicide.
Still more lay stretched out along the ground, cracked and crumbled, their stony faces reflecting some long distant horror, and with twisted crosses tattooed deep into their biceps and chests.
In one cavern Azhure's gaze was caught by the remnants of a great statue of a woman — only her head, neck, and one shoulder and arm, were in one piece, while other bits of her toppled across what had once been a huge parade ground. The statue's head was majestic, crowned by a stone diadem, her eyes wide and staring. Her outflung stone arm held a great torch, long extinguished.
Azhure gazed at it, sickened, yet not understanding why. She was not to know that the statue's fragments almost exactly mirrored Zenith's remains as Axis had seen them.
Eventually, she dragged her eyes away, nauseated by these grey stone relics of a world long gone.
Katie sat with Azhure's hand in hers. "You will see her again," she said. "Surely. In the Field of Flowers."
Azhure nodded, but her face was as sad as those of the statues that lay to either side of them. "I suppose I will, but, oh Stars! I have spent too much of my life grieving!"
"Death is but a doorway," Katie said.
"I have come to loathe doorways," Azhure said and took her hand from Katie's, "for one can never be sure of the truth that is said to lie on the other side."
To that, Katie said nothing, and the punt glided on.
"You know," Qeteb said as he and DragonStar rode their beasts eastwards towards the Maze, "I have decided on a small game to help pass the time until I can hunt you through the Maze, dear companion."
"And that is?" The Alaunt streamed out behind the Star Stallion, periodically deviating to nip at the fetlocks of Qeteb's strange black beast.
The beast took no notice of them.
"Well," Qeteb said, shifting himself more comfortably in his saddle. "I remember a small game that Gorgrael played."
DragonStar looked at him sharply.
"And I thought you might enjoy it," Qeteb continued. His visor was thrown back, and his perfect, handsome face grinned into the wasteland. "I remember that Gorgrael debated back and forth, back and forth, Azhure, or Faraday? Azhure or Faraday? Which? Do you remember that, DragonStar?"
DragonStar stared at the Demon, but said nothing.
"Ah, you were but a babe in arms, then," Qeteb said. "Well. Gorgrael knew that one of them would prove the distraction that would destroy Axis' concentration when your golden father finally met the warped and unlovable Gorgrael, but the poor chap wasn't sure which one. He had time and resources to go for only one. Finally, as legend well knows, he decided on Faraday, which was the wrong choice because your father loved Azhure more and could afford to ignore Faraday being torn to bloody pieces before his eyes."
"What is the point of all this, Qeteb?"
"Well, I am glad you asked me that, my good friend, because I am faced with much the same dilemma. I am certain that there is one woman around who could destroy your concentration when we finally meet face to face in the Maze, but I am dithering over which it might be. Faraday, or ..."
"Or?"
"Or ... Katie."
DragonStar turned aside. "I do not love Katie."
"You do not lust for her in the same way that you lust for Faraday, but, oh yes, you do love her. And, far more importantly, you need her. For what, I am not at all certain, but I can feel your need for her bubbling through your veins.
"And so the game is, what will destroy your concentration more? Watching Faraday, whom you love and for whom you lust, torn to shreds before your eyes ... or Katie, whom you need for whatever noble and magnificent purpose you have been created?"
Again DragonStar made no reply.
"The game, my dear and wonderful cousin," Qeteb whispered, kneeing his beast so close to Belaguez that the stallion snorted with disgust, "is that I don't have to choose, do I? I have the resources to take both. How will you feel, Drago-dearest, when I toss both their broken bodies at your feet?"
DragonStar pulled Belaguez to a head-tossing halt. "I don't believe you. There is no way you can take —"
"Ha! I have you!" Now Qeteb had turned his beast about to face DragonStar. "Faraday you knew I could take with Sheol — were you counting on it? — but you thought Katie safe. It's Katie, isn't it?
Katie! Katie whom you hid from me — but don't think I can't find her!"
Qeteb kicked his beast into a series of tight circles, laughing maniacally. "Katie! Katie! Katie!
Katie!"
And then Qeteb pulled his beast to a violent halt, and he growled. "I'll take both, you bastard. Both!
