"It means," the Mother answered in a tiny voice, "that the Demons will be able to access the Groves.

They have the power and they have the vehicle."

"Then we will fight!" Ur said, and she half-raised a fist.

The Mother smiled, a small, desperate attempt. "What with, my dear? Everything about the Groves

— the soil, the water, the air, the very soul — has been corrupted by the Demons' influence over Tencendor. We have nothing left to fight with. Nothing."

"I have my pots," Ur said, and her fist raised a little higher.

Isfrael gave a harsh bray of laughter, and turned away. Fools! He had managed to secrete himself with fools!

He sank down under a tree, ignoring the constant patter of dead leaves that fell about him. So

... the Mother and Her impotent companions are sure the Demons will destroy the Groves?

Isfrael thought about it ... what else did he have that he could bargain for his life with?

Chapter 23

Niah Reborn

"Well?" said Axis, his voice hard.

"Isfrael has betrayed us," DragonStar said. "He has given Qeteb some secret that will enable him to —"

"That is not what I asked."

DragonStar looked up. His parents, Faraday, Gwendylyr and Goldman were all standing about his chair, their faces carefully unreadable.

Only Faraday allowed the barest of emotions to glimmer forth: her eyes were pools of horror ... a remembered horror.

"What did I say?" DragonStar said. "Why do you all look at me like that?"

"Who are you?" Goldman asked. "You look like DragonStar, and you sound like DragonStar, but who are you?"

DragonStar frowned. "What..."

"Qeteb spoke through your mouth," Faraday said softly. Her hands were clutched before her, twisting and writhing as if they, too, might be in the grip of some demonic possession.

"He said ... he said that he could take possession of your mind at will."

DragonStar closed his eyes and tipped his head back to rest against the back of the chair. Gods, what had he done? Let his confidence get the better of him! Let his arrogance lead them all into ruin!

And Qeteb could take possession of him at will?

"I cannot believe that," DragonStar said, opening his eyes and staring at the five gathered about him.

"He spoke to us," Faraday said. "DragonStar, it was not you."

DragonStar closed his eyes again. He remembered how Qeteb had reached claws into his mind as he'd sat at that table, but he'd not known that he'd ... he'd ...

DragonStar was suddenly filled with such a repugnance he leaned forward and retched. Stars in heaven, was this how a woman felt when she'd been raped?

Faraday swayed forward, then hesitated, and it was Azhure who put her arm around DragonStar's shoulders.

"What we are afraid of," Azhure said, "is that we, or any who speak to you or take your orders, may not be aware that Qeteb speaks through you."

"We will always look at you and wonder," Faraday said.

DragonStar wiped his mouth, jerking his eyes to meet hers. "You cannot trust me?"

"How can we trust you?" Goldman said. "Is this you now, or a cunning persona of Qeteb?"

DragonStar stared, then rose unsteadily to his feet. "You have no choice. You must trust me."

"How 'no choice'?" Axis said. His hand had finally drawn the sword, but he kept the blade flat against his leg.

"Because if you choose not to trust me, then Qeteb automatically wins. But if you choose to ignore what he says he can do, then you have an even chance of coming through. Either I am who I say I am, or I have lost my wits and voice and body to Qeteb. Even chance."

There was a silence.

"Besides," DragonStar continued, his voice hard, "no-one has any idea if Qeteb can indeed take possession of my mind and voice at will. When he did so just then he had me at his mercy in his lair. Can he repeat that trick when I am on my own territory and in possession of my own body?

"Dammit, you have no choice but to hope and to trust! If you decide to abandon me now then you will automatically sign your own, and this land's, death warrants!"

Axis and Azhure looked at each other, and Faraday dropped her eyes. Only Goldman and Gwendylyr continued to regard DragonStar with a steady gaze.

"He's right," Goldman suddenly said. "We have no choice but to trust DragonStar. If we do, then we may win and we may fail, but if we don't, then we guarantee our failure."

Gwendylyr nodded. "I agree."

She remembered how DragonStar had aided her when they'd all been trapped in Qeteb's illusion. Gwendylyr would not abandon him now.

Axis sighed, and sheathed his sword. He attempted a small smile. "I hate the odds, DragonStar. I loathe them. But you are right. None of us have a choice."

Azhure, her hand still on DragonStar's arm, nodded, and gave his arm a slight squeeze, but did not speak.

DragonStar looked at Faraday.

She stared at him, and gave a bright, utterly false smile.

She looked like a glass statue that would shatter at any moment.

"Of course I trust you, DragonStar," she said, and in that one, calamitous sentence, DragonStar knew he had lost her.

"Niah," DragonStar said. Only a moment had passed since Faraday had spoken, but in that moment a chasm had opened between them. "It has something to do with Niah."