"They've gone through the door," Azhure said very softly. "Stars help them now."
Axis' hand slipped down to the sword at his side, then lifted back to his lap again.
They were fleeing with Isfrael through Spiredore — Gods! DragonStar's mind said, this memory is so cold! First to the dead end of the blue-misted tunnel when Isfrael had thought to enter the Sacred Groves direct...
The Sacred Groves! thought Faraday. He wants to go to the Sacred Groves!
... and then into the circle of apple trees.
They saw with his eyes the circle of stumps, and then they saw with his eyes theNiah-woman, and felt his joy that she was there.
And then they saw the Demons.
"Hello," said Qeteb. "So glad you dropped in."
And all four felt fingers of iron close about their minds.
Axis and Azhure jumped, and Axis swore briefly, softly.
The bodies of DragonStar and the other three slumped completely, losing all muscle tone and all colour.
Axis would have thought them dead save that their chests continued to rise and fall; slowly, reluctantly, almost imperceptibly.
"What do we do?" Azhure said.
"Wait," said Axis.
His hand closed about the hilt of his sword.
They found themselves in a mansion of many rooms: they stood in a central atrium, with numerous doors and corridors darting off at odd angles.
DragonStar felt Gwendylyr panic, and he steadied her.
She looked at him with frightened eyes, although her panic had eased. "I can feel you," she said.
DragonStar nodded, trying to think out what had happened. But whatever had happened, it had gone badly. Qeteb had pulled them into a different existence or dimension. Were their bodies still back in the room with Axis and Azhure? He glanced at his own body, tapping his hands together gently.
They felt insubstantial, and when DragonStar looked at Faraday, he saw that there was no depth behind her eyes.
"I have created for you a semblance of your forms," a voice echoed about them, and all four looked about, instinctively bunching together.
"An apparition only," the voice continued, and Goldman jerked up a hand to point down one of the corridors.
At the far end was an old, hunchbacked man dressed entirely in black. He had long strands of silver hair brushed over a balding scalp, and his face was cadaverous.
"And yet," the man whispered, "were I to plunge this dagger —" he lifted a hand, and it held a gleaming, jagged edged knife in it, "— into any of your hearts, your true body would spurt blood and die."
Before any of them could react, the horrible, wizened old man scuttled with the speed of an attacking spider down the corridor, the dagger raised high above his head.
Both Gwendylyr and Faraday gasped in horror, and DragonStar thrust them behind him.
"Goldman," he began, "get the girls away from —"
The old man vanished, and they were left with the sound of their own harsh breathing and the sad comfort of their fear.
"How do we get out of here?" Goldman said eventually. He turned slightly to look DragonStar in the face, and DragonStar was surprised by how quickly Goldman had managed to compose himself.
"We find a way," DragonStar said.
"But don't you want to know what Isfrael was doing here?" the old man's voice said again. This time it came from high above them, and their heads jerked up.
There was a balcony running around the top third of the atrium, and the man was hanging by one hand from its railing, dangling into the space above their heads.
He still held the dagger threateningly in the other hand, and he swung to and fro, his legs bent, as if deciding which one to drop on first.
"Isfrael knows who will win," the man said, "and has acted accordingly. I find I quite like the fellow.
Especially after he gave me the secret to your eventual destruction."
He let go, and dropped.
He fell directly towards Gwendylyr.
DragonStar grabbed at her arm, but Gwendylyr held her ground, staring as if totally unperturbed by the curled black shape hurtling towards her.
It hissed, and vanished the instant before it hit her, and only when it had gone did Gwendylyr allow herself to flinch.
Faraday took her hand, and pulled her close, but she spoke to DragonStar. "Do you think he is telling us the truth?"
