The door of light? For a moment Leagh could not comprehend what he meant, and then she remembered.
The doorway of light that DragonStar had given each of his witches, save for DareWing who was too sick. She'd compressed it down into a cube, and put it where? Where? All Leagh wanted to do was give it to him, get him away from her, get him away from her baby.
"In the pocket of my robe, you vile bastard," she hissed, and instantly the pressure was gone from her throat and belly, and she rolled away from him and slid onto the floor.
She could hear Isfrael scrabbling about on the other side of the bed ... then nothing.
"Is this it?" Leagh heard him say, and she hauled herself onto her knees.
He held the cube of light in his hand.
"Yes. It unfolds."
Isfrael fiddled with it, then found one of the lines of light and unfolded the door to the size of a small box.
He grinned, feral, malevolent. Then, in an abrupt movement, unfolded the doorway to its full size and stepped through.
Using every bit of strength left in her, Leagh struggled to her feet, threw herself across the bed, and grabbed hold of the door. Her breath wheezing in panic, desperate to do this before Isfrael did. Gods!
Leagh could see him on the other side of the door, turning back and roaring as he saw her, moving back towards her, reaching, reaching! — she pulled the doorway down, and refolded it back into its cube with hands trembling so badly they were barely useable.
Then, rather than placing the folded door back in a pocket, or even in a drawer of the nearby chest, Leagh thrust it under the mattress, and then sat down hard, both hands clutching the edge of the bed with white-knuckled fear.
She opened her mouth, heaved in as much air as her lungs could take, and screamed: "Zared!
Zared! Zared!"
The bitch had closed the door!
Isfrael fought to contain his fury. The doorway could have been an inestimable object of barter.
Then, finally containing his rage, he turned around to survey the interior of Spiredore.
And a wondrous thought occurred to him. Spiredore would take him to the Sacred Groves! He wouldn't have to deal with the Demons at all!
Isfrael stood thinking. If Spiredore took him there, then that would mean that he couldn't return to get the Avar. They'd die in Sanctuary when the Demons finally managed to break through its defences (as they surely would once they realised the treasure they had in Niah).
But maybe, once he was in the Sacred Groves, either the Horned Ones, or the Mother, could help him evacuate the Avar.
And maybe the Avar deserved to burn amid the Demons' fury for the fact that they'd deserted him for Faraday.
"I will do what I can," Isfrael announced to Spiredore, "but I will not do enough to endanger either myself or the Sacred Groves."
Having settled the matter in his own mind, Isfrael prepared to enter the Sacred Groves. He had been brought up with the rest of the SunSoar brood, and well knew Spiredore's secret.
"Take me to the Sacred Groves," he said, and set off up the nearest stairwell.
What Spiredore led Isfrael to was not quite what he'd expected. A blue-misted tunnel, surely, but it ended only in a drift of cold stars, not in the Sacred Groves.
"The Bitch!" he spat, and sent a string of cold, vile curses into an uncaring universe.
The Mother had closed off the approaches to the Sacred Groves — nothing else could have stopped Spiredore!
"The stupid, thoughtless Bitch!"
And Isfrael stormed back down the blue mist tunnel until he was back in Spiredore. He would have to trade with the Demons, after all.
No matter. He could best them any day.
"Take me to Qeteb," he said, and stepped upwards.
Chapter 18
The Joy of the Hunt
"Dare Wing," DragonStar said when he returned to the foot of the Icescarp Alps, "I must get back to Sanctuary ..." He told Dare Wing about Spiredore's eventual death.
"When that happens then I do not know of an effective way to move so quickly between Sanctuary and this wasteland."
"And what will you do once you get to Sanctuary?"
DragonStar looked about the landscape for a few moments, avoiding the question. What would he do?
"I am torn, DareWing," he eventually said, "between simply bringing you and the Strike Force back into Sanctuary with me, or leaving you here."
DareWing shook his head. "The Strike Force cannot easily go into Sanctuary. They ... they ..."
"They are too far beyond death to be able to tolerate its —" DragonStar hesitated, "— to tolerate its confines."
