"At your service, sir," said Raspu, dressed for the destruction of Creation in his stiffly starched butler's uniform, "as always."
DragonStar nodded. "Good." He held out his hand. "Deliver me my bow."
And Raspu inclined his head, and stepped forward. In his hands he held the Wolven, and its quiver of blue-fletched arrows.
DragonStar took the bow, and slung the quiver over his shoulder and back.
He held out the bow, and looked at the lizard.
The lizard grinned and, lifting a claw, sent a shaft of light glimmering along the entire bow.
It burst into fire, although the flames did not consume the wood, nor harm DragonStar.
DragonStar nodded at the lizard, then slung the burning bow over his shoulder.
Then he lifted his voice, and sent it singing through the Maze.
"Run, Qeteb," he said, "for the clouds are about to unfold, and the Hunt about to begin."
Chapter 68
Twisted City
Qeteb fled through the Maze, Sheol, Mot and Barzula at his heels. DragonStar did not instantly follow. He straightened the quiver of arrows, and adjusted the Wolven so it lay, comfortable, across his back. He lifted and resettled his jewelled belt and purse.
He walked over to Katie's corpse — the floor of the mausoleum was slick with her blood
— and he squatted down beside it.
"We thank you and honour you, Katie," he said, and, wiping the fingers of his right hand through her blood, marked his forehead and breast with it as Raum had once marked Faraday.
"Who was she?" Faraday whispered.
DragonStar looked over at her, still sitting by the column. "She was Tencendor's lifeblood," he said.
"The land's soul."
"Why did she need to die?"
"So the land can move through death, and live again," DragonStar said, "and so the land could repay you for all you have done and sacrificed for it."
He rose and walked over to Faraday, bending down to give her a brief but passionate kiss. "You and I," he whispered, "are given the task of re-creating the land free of the discord and evil which once stalked it... which once stalked all of Creation.
"But for the moment —" he straightened "— I have a small task to accomplish, the Hunt to complete."
And, smiling gently, he left her.
Raspu walked over, balancing very carefully on one hand a tray with a silver pot, and a cream porcelain milk jug, sugar bowl, and cup and saucer. "Would ma'am like some tea?" he asked.
Faraday blinked, and then decided not to try to make sense of any of it. "That would be very nice,"
she said. "Thank you."
The Butler poured her cup of tea, painstakingly added sugar and milk in their proper proportions, and held the cup out to Faraday.
"Ma'am."
She accepted it without a word, but her eyes widened in surprise as she tasted the tea. "It is very good."
"Thank you, ma'am." Raspu shifted slightly, as if embarrassed. "Ma'am, I regret that I shall have to leave you for a moment or two. Sir has asked me to take care of one or two small tasks for him."
"Of course," Faraday said, and Raspu gave her a small bow, and tucked under his arm a large account book he'd apparently obtained from thin air. Then, without further ado, he disappeared.
Strangely, Faraday did not feel lonely or vulnerable at all. The tea was very good indeed.
DragonStar strode through the door into the Maze, and the Star Stallion lifted his head and screamed as the Alaunt milled about and bayed.
DragonStar leapt on Belaguez's back, and drew the lily sword.
The Alaunt broke into clamour.
"Hunt!" DragonStar said.
And so it began.
DragonStar was his mother's son. As Azhure had once hunted Artor, so now DragonStar hunted Qeteb and his remaining companions. But this was the real hunt, the Hunt that the Star Dance had been engineering for hundreds of thousands of years.
This was the moment, and this was the StarSon.
