Blood welled, and Isfrael let Qeteb's hand go.

He had not noticed the intensity of its cold, or the intensity of the coldness that now coiled deep inside his mind.

A trace, that the Demons could use later, at their leisure.

Isfrael stood over the bowl murmuring prayers and invocations to the Mother, then he let a single drop of blood fall into the bowl of water.

Blood swarmed over the entire surface of the emerald water.

Isfrael bent down, picked up the bowl, then straightened. He closed his eyes, tilted his head back slightly, and prepared to enter the groves.

"Do it now!" he whispered. "Use your power to propel me now\"

And the Demons did. They sniggered and they capered, they dribbled and they scampered, and they concentrated their entire power on the man and the bowl before them.

After all, they had promised.

Isfrael screamed, and then emerald light consumed him. He found himself caught up in a whirlpool of the light, and he almost panicked, until he realised that he was being propelled towards the Sacred Groves with such power that he was being forced through the barriers the Mother had erected.

It hurt. Dreadfully.

But he could feel himself being forced through.

Isfrael clung even tighter to the bowl, concentrating as hard as he could on the image of the Groves

... and suddenly he could feel the firmness of a forest floor beneath his feet, and he could smell the pungent odour of the trees, and then the emerald light resolved into the form of a thousand trees.

He was in the Sacred Groves. Finally.

Isfrael stood triumphantly. He had done it! He was safe! He turned slightly, and he saw a silver-backed Horned One walking towards him. The Horned One's stag head was trembling, and his liquid dark eyes were filled with anger.

Anger ... and panic.

"What have you done!" the silver-pelt hissed. "What have you done?"

And he knocked the bowl from Isfrael's hands. "What is this abomination you introduce into the Groves?"

Qeteb stood in the centre of the apple grove, Faraday's bowl in his hands.

"I do hope he liked the imitation I sent with him," he said, and all the Demons howled with laughter.

Chapter 20

Qeteb's Mansion of Dreams

What DragonStar found in Sanctuary appalled him. L e a g h , l y i n g b r u i s e d a n d t e a r f u l o n h e r b e d , w i t h Zenith at her side, Zared at her other, and StarDrifter, Axis, Azhure, Goldman and Gwendylyr all hovering about, whispering uselessly.

Faraday stood to one side by a window, calm but clearly upset. Katie clung to her skirts, looking resigned.

"What happened?" DragonStar said, striding into the chamber. He'd known the instant that he'd stepped back into Sanctuary that something was wrong. The air smelt vaguely tainted, as if corrupted with the tang of a rotten apple that someone had thrown to one side and then forgotten.

Leagh half raised herself, ignoring Zenith's and Zared's protests. "Isfrael forced me to give him the doorway that you gave to each of us," she said. "And he stepped through it into Spiredore."

DragonStar sat down by Leagh's side as Zenith stood to give him room. She stepped back and stood with StarDrifter.

"He hurt you," DragonStar said.

Leagh attempted to smile, but it did not work very well. "I will be well enough," she said. "A few bruises, both to body and soul."

DragonStar glanced at Faraday, exchanging unspoken concerns with her, then he gently rested a hand on Leagh's abdomen.

"Faraday said the child was well," Leagh said.

"Aye," DragonStar said, and smiled for Leagh. "The child is well." Physically, yes, but spiritually frightened and lost and

feeling so insecure that DragonStar wondered if it might try to fight its way free of the womb. If born now it would never survive.

"I saved the doorway," Leagh said, and her voice cracked with tears. "I did not allow him to take

—"

"Hush," DragonStar said, and lifted his hand to caress Leagh's cheek. "Hush. There is no guilt or blame in what happened. None that you should bear. Faraday," he lifted his eyes, "where do you think Isfrael went? What do you think was his purpose? Helpful... or foul?"

Faraday took a deep breath, and her shoulders trembled. Katie clung a little closer. "I cannot think but that it was foul."

DragonStar waited, his gaze steady.

"He hates me," Faraday continued, her voice a little steadier, "for many reasons, but most recently and perhaps most powerfully for disinheriting him, as he understands it, from his position as Mage-King. I think that he may have had some plan to regain that power and position."

"How?"

Faraday shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "I don't know. We have all discussed this, and none of us know."

"Where could he have gone from Spiredore?"

Axis answered, stepping forward and giving Leagh a reassuring smile before he looked at his son. "We all thought the Sacred Groves, but Faraday has told us that the Mother closed off the paths to the Groves before Qeteb was finally resurrected."

"And Spiredore would not have been strong enough to breach Her barriers," Azhure put in.

She linked an arm through Axis', and they shared a small smile.

Always the love for themselves, DragonStar thought, and not so much for others. But the thought caused him no resentment, and he wondered if he and Faraday would ever have the time and the peace to indulge in the same luxury of love. How much time had they shared over the past days since he'd arrived in Sanctuary? A few hours snatched here and there, and no more.

"Is there anywhere he could have gone where he could have avoided the Demons?" DragonStar asked. His frustration was clearly evident in his voice.

Silence.

"We cannot think of anywhere," Faraday said eventually. Her voice was breaking.