And by the unsettling sight of Niah.

"What is it about you, Niah," DragonStar whispered. "What?"

He sighed, and looked down. He sat cross-legged on the floor, the Enchanted Song Book in his lap.

The blue-feathered lizard was curled up at his back, and DragonStar leaned back against him comfortably.

Every so often the lizard snored, and whenever he did, a shaft of light glinted from one of his claws.

DragonStar paid no attention. More than anything else, he wanted to get out and do things, but he knew — as he'd told his

witches — that he needed experience as well as a thorough knowledge of the Enchanted Song Book before he could do anything against the Demons.

He opened the leather cover and slowly thumbed through the pages. The Book contained Songs, music and dance that symbolised the enchantments needed to defeat the Demons. They would mirror the Demons' own malevolences back to them and destroy them.

"And wipe them from the face of this land and of the universe for ever and ever,"

DragonStar whispered.

He thought about what Axis had told him. Caelum had tried one of these dances atop Star Finger, but had been consumed almost entirely by the hatred and malevolence the song contained.

DragonStar's fingers traced over a line of music: he could feel the emotion this particular song contained — envy. He ran his tongue over his top lip, stared at the form and melody of the song, then swiftly converted it to numbers and then symbols in his mind.

He felt sick with apprehension. Should he try it? See what happened ... Could he control the Song more than Caelum?

At his back the lizard stirred and sat up.

"Well, my beauty," DragonStar said. "What do you think I should do?"

The lizard yawned, then flexed one of his foreclaws.

"So," DragonStar said, "we try it."

What other choice did he have?

He rose to his feet and put the Book down. As the lizard had just done, DragonStar flexed a hand, then rose and traced the symbol in the air before him.

The lizard traced it with light.

And Envy filled the Hall.

A wizened old man stood before DragonStar and the lizard. He was twisted and humpbacked, his limbs stumpy, his hands contorted with arthritis.

He was naked, and his skin was sallow and slick with the sheen of sweat.

Lumps and moles covered his face; his eyes were like narrow slits that saw everything, noting them all down to be examined in the privacy of disenchanted silence.

He smiled, revealing crooked, yellowing teeth, and horrid thoughts consumed DragonStar's mind.

Caelum had enjoyed it all. He'd had forty years of love, forty years of respect, forty years oflording it over the peoples of Tencendor. So he'd died horribly — so what? Now he dwelt in the field of flowers, no doubt enjoying the adulation of everyone else who lived there.

And what was Drago, poor Drago to do. Why! destroy the Demons of course, whileCaelum continued to enjoy himself. He'd had only a few minutes of pain, while Drago hadforty years behind him, and more ahead.

DragonStar felt such consuming envy ripple through him that he literally growled. He felt his own back hunch over, and his hands twist into claws. Caelum was nothing but a spoilt bastard who'd had everything handed to him on a golden platter, while he, he, had to do all the hard work.

The misshapen figure of Envy capered about before him, clapping its hands, and howling with merriment. "Why don't you visit the Field of Flowers and destroy him forever," he whispered. "You can do it, you know. You have the power."

The lizard growled, and backed away a few paces.

DragonStar whipped about, raising his hand as if to strike the creature — what had that lizard ever done but enjoy a free ride? He'd spent aeons as an unfettered spirit in the Sacred Grove, and then the Minstrelsea forest, and had then simply attached himself to DragonStar's cause with no hard work involved at all — and then halted the instant before his hand flashed down in a cruel blow.

What was happening?

DragonStar struggled to control the envy, and the other emotions envy bred — hate and cruelty and a cloying, horrid self-justification — but he couldn't... he couldn't...

The old man capered about him in circles, clapping his hands. "Enjoy it!" he cried. "Give in to it!

Why bother with such inconveniences as regard for others? Enjoy it! It's the easiest way!"

And DragonStar could feel how easy it would be. All he'd have to do was give in and let the envy consume him, and all would be well, all would be well, and he could finally relax and bathe in the emotions that he'd nurtured for so many years as a resentful man locked inside the hate of Sigholt and the SunSoar family.

A small hand slipped into one of his, and DragonStar jerked. It was Katie, her eyes frightened, her mouth trembling.

DragonStar saw that she was terrified.

Envy howled with rage.

"The cats!" Katie whispered. "The cats!"

The cats? DragonStar stared at her. Why was she helping him ...or was she helping him at all? Why, Faraday cherished this little girl in a way that she did not cherish him, DragonStar could see that now. Faraday gave this weak little girl all the love and attention that she never gave him.

DragonStar growled again, and jerked his hand from Katie's.

Envy laughed.

And something small and furry wound its way about DragonStar's legs.

He jerked his eyes down. It was a white and marmalade cat, and its body shook with the strength of its purrs.

DragonStar lifted his hand to strike the thing —

— and remembered. He remembered that the cats had given him nothing but unconditional love when he'd been rejected by everyone and everything else in Sigholt. He remembered that they'd left their food to comfort him; they'd been content in his company, and they had revelled in his friendship.

They had asked for nothing in return.

They had not envied him his strength, or his speech, or even his name.

They had just loved him.